Pain

In a recent TED talk, an expert in the management of chronic pain in children explains neuropathic pain, a form of chronic pain in which the nervous system itself becomes faulty and creates the experience of intense pain, both the sensation of pain in the brain and the side-effects of injury in the affected (but not actually injured) part of the body.

Timbuctoo

Where is Timbuctoo, I wonder, that opulent city of legend, it’s shaded squares alight with the vivid yellow blossom of a thousand Jacaranda trees? In far away China, I suppose. But how shall I convince you? Perhaps I will take you on a journey of discovery.

Impossible

There’s a neurological model of colour perception that leads to surprising conclusions about colours, and interesting parallels with emotions.

Creepy

An animated TV documentary broadcast by the BBC illustrates some useful ideas in counselling and psychotherapy. It’s a bit creepy, too.

Reflection

A recent research study that asked CBT therapists to reflect on their own thoughts illustrates unwittingly how poor some CBT training has become.

The net

I noticed today that Depression Awareness Week is coming, according the website of the charity Depression Alliance. This year it’s going to be the week of 11th-18th April — oh — well, I suppose I’m in no position to complain that they don’t update their website very often.

Like many sources of information and self-help about mental illness, Depression Alliance have a fuzzy definition of what mental illness is, and that’s much more serious.

Harm

This month’s draft guideline from the health quango NICE on the long-term management of self harm provides a revealing perspective on the NHS’s inadequacies, which go beyond failures in the treatment of individual cases to NICE itself and the basis for its existence.