Becoming a young doctor : meeting Sophie Butler and Clare Holt

Becoming a doctor is a major life changing event for any medical student. Students grow into their new role over the first ‘foundation’ years. Here, a year after their graduation, a senior doctor talks with two junior doctors, who are his friends and colleagues, about their experiences over the first year of their career. The author Dr Mark Agius, a Psychiatrist in Bedford and Cambridge, England is working with a couple of FY2 Doctors, or rather, they have just become FY2 Doctors, a year ago they were still medical students. Their names are Sophie Butler and Clare Holt. He talks to them about what it felt like to stop being medical students and become Doctors and how it has felt over this last year.peer-reviewe

TRAUMATIC EVENTS, SEXUAL ABUSE AND MENTAL ILLNESS

That \u27Childhood Adversity\u27, which includes many traumatic events but in particular includes sexual abuse during childhood, can cause changes in the brain, such as the finding of a smaller hippocampus is well established by the observations of such persons as Thomas Frodl (2008, 2013). That traumatic events in adulthood can also cause both clinical symptoms such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, with equivalent shrinkage of the hippocampus (Smith 2005), is also well known. In this article we apply these neurological findings to the particular traumatic event of sexual abuse at any age, first to demonstrate that such abuse can in deed cause a number of mental illnesses, and hence to produce a model of how different forms of mental trauma may cause different mental illnesses. Next we describe human sexuality as a form of la nguage, whereby feelings ranging from love to indifference to exercise of power to hatred can be expressed. We suggest that the expression of these feelings can give rise to positive feelin gs or to the mental illnesses we have mentioned. We emphasize how free choice is central to the \u27messages\u27 that we give to our partners through our sexuality - and therefore that we are responsible for those messages and their consequences. We point out therefore that inappropriate choices by the couple may lead to the consequent neurological changes and mental health symptoms we have mentioned. We finally analyse the act of sexual intercourse into a number of component functions (or consequences) including the Generative Function - that of producing another human person, the Choice Function - that of choosing the other person, the Language Function - that of communicating that choice to the other person and the Empowering Function- that of empowering the other person. We propose a model of human sexuality in which these four functions are linked together, so that in normal circumstances they work together in complete harmony, however, numerous circumstances of modern life can cause these four functions to operate asyncronously, thus leading to the neurological changes which we have mentioned above. These neurological changes are associated with the changes in hippocampal size which we have described above. Thus in our model, we have linked th e Neurological changes of Trauma with factors relating to Choice, psychological concepts, and consequent symptomatology of illness. We do this in the context of a model of the Human Person in which mind and body are linked so that the human person can be understood as an \u27Embodied Spirit\u27, rather than the Cartesian Model. This concept goes back to the model of the Human Person of Aristotle, and was re-expressed in Medieval times by Aquinas and Augustine, and is congruent with Phenominology as expressed by Husserl and Stein. We have previously argued that such an \u27Embodied Spirit\u27 model of the Human Person is more congruent with modern neuroscience than a Cartesian Model (Agius 2017)

EARLY INTERVENTION IN PSYCHOSIS. CONCEPTS AND SERVICE DEVELOPMENT

This is a summary of a lecture given in Portoroz, Slovenia, in 2005. It is clearly totally derivative, and I acknowledge all authors on whom I drew to give the lecture. A literature review has been carried out to describe present knowledge of how psychosis develops, and to describe the concepts of early intervention in psychosis, the critical period, the duration of untreated psychosis, and the prodrome of psychotic illness. Hence, the principles of how an early intervention service intended to deal with first psychotic episodes of illness is described. The setting up of such a service in Luton, Bedfordshire is then described, and its first results are assessed

NEUROSCIENCE AND VISUAL ART; MOVING THROUGH EMPATHY TO THE INEFFABLE

In this article we wish to discuss recent work on neurobiology and visual arts, with impact on human pleasure, wellbeing and improved mental health. We wish to discuss briefly our model of the Human Person and apply it to Visual Art, and we wish to discuss our view of how empathy has been suggested as an important factor in how visual art can impact the human person, with its links with neuroscience and anthropology, and thus how Visual Art can put Human Beings in touch with their deepest feelings and even with the ineffable

THE MEDICAL CONSULTATION AND THE HUMAN PERSON

The consultation has been described as the most important part of Medicine. The Doctor-Patient Relationship is considered to depend on the trust of the patient in the doctor. This paper seeks to explore fundamental requirements of the consultation by exploring empathy, integrity, and the understanding of the human self, using concepts taken from Neuroscience, Group Analysis, Philosophy and Theology. It then introduces a plan for a study aimed at assessing the impact of a specific form of teaching consultation on the patient

EARLY INTERVENTION IN PSYCHOSIS. CONCEPTS AND SERVICE DEVELOPMENT

This is a summary of a lecture given in Portoroz, Slovenia, in 2005. It is clearly totally derivative, and I acknowledge all authors on whom I drew to give the lecture. A literature review has been carried out to describe present knowledge of how psychosis develops, and to describe the concepts of early intervention in psychosis, the critical period, the duration of untreated psychosis, and the prodrome of psychotic illness. Hence, the principles of how an early intervention service intended to deal with first psychotic episodes of illness is described. The setting up of such a service in Luton, Bedfordshire is then described, and its first results are assessed

COULD CARMELITE SPIRITUALITY PROMOTE GOOD MENTAL HEALTH? A brief Tribute to Saint Teresa of Avila in the 500th anniversary of her birth

Often it is overlooked that Christian Spirituality involves a personal relationship of a human being with God. It is of interest that both the Protestant Reformers and the exponents of the Catholic Counter Reformation agreed upon this. Two of the greatest exponents of the Counter-Reformation, both of whom were made Doctors of the Church because of their teaching on Prayer were Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint John of the Cross. This year is the 500th anniversary of the birth of Saint Teresa of Avila. Here, as a Catholic Psychiatrist, I argue that the teaching of both saints about the prayer life, properly understood, tends to improve self worth, and therefore must tend to help persons with mental health problems

NEUROSCIENCE AND VISUAL ART; MOVING THROUGH EMPATHY TO THE INEFFABLE

In this article we wish to discuss recent work on neurobiology and visual arts, with impact on human pleasure, wellbeing and improved mental health. We wish to discuss briefly our model of the Human Person and apply it to Visual Art, and we wish to discuss our view of how empathy has been suggested as an important factor in how visual art can impact the human person, with its links with neuroscience and anthropology, and thus how Visual Art can put Human Beings in touch with their deepest feelings and even with the ineffable