Mental illness, or rather, what is called mental illness, is a serious matter. But what is it? To find the answer, or an answer, we can turn to the 1,000-page tome published by – who else? – the American Psychiatric Association. It’s called the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The last (fifth) edition was published in [...]
Gentle reader. Observe the picture above. It’s to be found in various stock collections of photos, including one with the curious name of Unsplash where it’s available to be downloaded free of charge. It shows the face of a young man with a rather grim expression who appears to be dripping with sweat. Has he just run [...]
The UK General Medical Council (GMC), the doctors’ regulatory body, used to have a pithy aphorism to indicate what it does: ‘Guiding doctors, protecting patients.’ This was subsequently changed to ‘Guiding doctors. Ensuring good medical practice.’ I am sure doctors are sometimes in need of guidance, and doubtless there are occasions when patients may need to be protected [...]
Kawaii is a Japanese word meaning cute, sweet, pretty, etc. It’s often applied to babies, children, young girls, and – pet animals. And therein lies a problem. I have lived in Japan for four decades and regard it as a privilege to have been granted the right of permanent residency. After immigrating to this wonderful country, I have [...]
Roll up, roll up, ladies and gentlemen and gender unspecified people! Do you have a gastric stomach, a cardiac heart, or a bone in your leg? Do you feel all anyhow, under the weather, suffer from brain fog, or galloping hypochondriasis? With your hectic lifestyle, are you no longer at the top of your game? Then, to paraphrase [...]
The British Muddical Journal is at it again. In the 20 July 2024 edition we find a headline, ‘Royal College launches physicians’ green toolkit’. I don’t know about you, but this conjures up in my mind an image of a metal box, coloured green, containing spanners, screwdrivers, etc. that I might use to do odd jobs around [...]
In an online publication called Strong Women from 2022, I came across the following headline: I had a full-body health MOT and finally got answers about some odd symptoms I’ve been experiencing. (MOT is an abbreviation for Ministry of Transport and refers to tests on motor vehicles introduced in Britain in 1960 to check the condition of the [...]
To learn what a fox has to do with this post, please read to the end. If someone asserts they are 'transgender', a question that might follow is, 'Are you thinking of transitioning?' What does it mean to be transgender, and if you think you are, how do you know? Well, you just know, or think you do, [...]
GenderGP is an organisation that encourages and provides abnormal hormonal treatment (‘affirmative care’) to so-called trans people. It’s hard to take it seriously, however, when we find this kind of writing on their website: …patients whose gender identity differs from the one they were assigned at birth. Neither gender identity, whatever that is, nor anything else, is ‘assigned’ [...]
I discuss Dr Hilary Cass’ Preliminary Report in an earlier blog. The Final Report of her Independent review of gender identity services for children and young people was released in April 2024. It runs to almost 300 pages including a glossary, references, and twelve appendices. Dr Cass comes over as a very kind and friendly person – good [...]