A friend on Facebook posted one of the most awful things I’ve read in ages: a report of a mother bear killing herself, then her cub – to avoid the torture and agony of bile-farming. I knew about bile-farming. I did not know that the bears try to suicide by hitting themselves in the abdomen...
First of all, I apologise in advance for vagueness in this post arising from concealing any identifying details. Second: time for “one of my rare, but fun rants” as Tim Minchin says. As is often the case, this one revolves around our irrational responses to parasuicidal behaviour. I got a phone call today from...
Here’s something that bugs me (surprise surprise). All too often I hear that someone can or cannot “guarantee their safety” – after they’ve been assessed say following deliberate self-harm, or presenting with depression or suicidal thoughts … or pretty much anything, actually. The notion that anyone can “guarantee their safety” is quite...
It’s not just me. Really, it’s not. An article in the October 2010 issue of Australasian Psychiatry By Christopher Ryan, Olav Nielssen, Michael Paton, and Matthew Large has put very nicely the case against risk assessment. The authors use an analogy with the insurance industry (where the practice of risk assessment originated) to illustrate...
In Which Heavy Metal is Evil, Because Suicide!!1!1
Oh we have ourselves another fool, smothering a plate of idiocy in moron sauce. This time it’s Dr Katrina McFerran, from the University of Melbourne (who, as Guitar World noted, is not Tipper Gore, though you’d be forgiven for thinking so) who is trumpeting the dangers of teh heavy metalz – with a beautifully...
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