The Psychologist December

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psychologist vol 26 no 12

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The psychology of scientific thought and behaviour Gregory J. Feist presents an overview of the emerging subdiscipline

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letters 846 news 854 careers 896 reviews 904

explaining the unexplained 868 women in leadership – a different story 874 interview with Uta Frith 880 looking back: Broadmoor Hospital 908

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Contact The British Psychological Society St Andrews House 48 Princess Road East Leicester LE1 7DR tel 0116 254 9568 fax 0116 227 1314 mail@bps.org.uk www.bps.org.uk www.twitter.com/bpsofficial

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The Psychologist and Digest Editorial Advisory Committee Chair (vacant), Phil Banyard, Nik Chmiel, Olivia Craig, Helen Galliard, Rowena Hill, Jeremy Horwood, Catherine Loveday, Peter Martin, Victoria Mason, Stephen McGlynn, Tony Wainwright, Peter Wright, and AEs

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letters 846 structure of the BPS; siblings and mental illness; altruism; austerity; denial of impending catastrophe; and more 854

news and digest Declaration of Helsinki; Maudsley Debate; self-harm clinical guidelines; educational psychology service provision; event repoerts; and more

The psychology of scientific thought and behaviour Gregory J. Feist presents an overview of the emerging subdiscipline

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Explaining the unexplained Richard J. Brown proposes a model of ‘medically unexplained’ symptoms

868

Women in leadership – a different story Maggi Evans asks whether stepping off the traditional career ladder can be a positive and proactive step

874

Interview: From art to autism Uta Frith takes Lance Workman on a journey through her collection of memories

880

society 884 President’s column; internet research ethics guidance; influencing NICE consultations; and more careers and appointments

december 2013

THE ISSUE What does the term ‘psychology of science’ mean to you? Gregory Feist’s article (p.864) introduces the psychological study of scientific thought and behaviour as a developing field of study. He takes a broad definition of science, from childhood inquisitiveness to formal scientific endeavour, and invites us to consider ways that the various subdisciplines of psychology can help us understand the scientific process and thereby perhaps improve the pursuit of science itself.

Also in this issue Maggi Evans (p.874) challenges us to think about the full range of career options available to women as positive choices. One woman who has clearly made some positive and successful career choices is Uta Frith, known for her pioneering work on autism.

Read our interview with her on p.880.

This December issue completes a year in which we introduced an extended reviews section, going beyond just books to embrace all kinds of cultural offerings. From feedback we have received, this has been popular with readers. We rely on your contributions, so please keep up the good work!

Peter Dillon-Hooper Acting Editor

reviews 904 the usual mix of books and other media reviews, including Future Bright: A Transforming Vision of Human Intelligence by Michael E. Martinez, Jan Diederen’s documentary Synchronicity: Meaningful Coincidences and BBC Four’s The Dark Matter of Love

896

Louise Blackmore reflects on the past 15 years of dealing with a unique geographical challenge; Matthew Fish talks about his experiences as a youth worker; and Isabelle Butcher reflects on the value of the third-year placement in her degree course

looking back 908 From Broadmoor Hospital’s 150th anniversary Tony Black looks back to how things were in its centenary year, 1963. one on one …with Michael J. Proulx

read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk

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LETTERS

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Making the most of what we know parts of it, generated exclusively structural answers. There is no greater indicator of a divided organisation than to see its structural components described as ‘divisions’. I loved Peter’s description of informal subgroups willing to share what they know, subscribing to the mission of ‘It is all psychology’.

In my work as a business applied psychologist, I work with psychologists and practitioners who ostensibly belong to sports, occupational, educational, clinical Divisions.

In practice we draw on a wide knowledge base from psychology and we would wish the BPS to facilitate horizontal access to knowledge, not protect Divisions that were a solution to a problem long passed.

Peter’s letter was inspirational but the heading could have been different. If Divisions are not a given, it could have read ‘Making the most of what we know’ or even, as he suggests, becoming greater than the sum of the parts. Let’s explore what an organisation based on ‘It is all psychology’ might look like.

TIM SANDERS

Peter Martin’s letter (‘Making the most of Divisions’, October 2013) struck a powerful chord. As a psychologist working with a range of national and international organisations, including the UN, I am helping them to become more agile and flexible.

In a fast-moving unpredictable world, leaders need to think about their organisations differently to enable information, ideas and resources to flow across their businesses more easily.

Organisations based on assumptions about the world and nature being predictable and controllable, where people and functions can be put into self-contained pockets, often called departments or divisions, are less able to cope with discontinuous change.

I am working with one international organisation at the moment where geopolitical crisis has freed the organisation from its shackles and, to its surprise, it can not only survive the relative breakdown of structure and hierarchy, but move quickly and effectively to deliver brilliant work.

The questions asked inside the organisation are much more ‘How does this issue help the mission in ——?’ Only a few weeks ago it would have been ‘How can we hold on to our control of this?’

I wonder what questions are asked inside the BPS? My limited experience of talking to people in the BPS about freeing up the organisation to embrace psychology, rather than bound

Steve Turner Winchester

We write in reply to Peter Martin’s letter ‘Making the most of Divisions’ (October 2013), and his questioning of the assumptions and structures of the Society’s Divisions. We have also recently had the opportunity to think about the assumptions and structures involved in setting up national systems of supervision for work and organisational psychologists. This was at the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology’s

contribute

Siblings and mental illness When I turned the page of the November issue of The Psychologist to discover the article ‘Rethinking siblings and mental illness’ , I felt an almost immediate sense of support and half-relief. Only half-relief as my elder sister is currently experiencing acute psychotic symptoms, which have been on and off for many years. She lives very far from me and has

always had her partner to help her through the worst times, until recently.

The article couldn’t have come at a better time, as the past week has been the most challenging, resulting in me contacting various mental health teams and a hospital stay for my sister. It’s at times like this when it feels especially important for the

health professionals involved in a sibling’s care to be as open and supportive as possible.

I have come into contact with some unhelpful staff, leading to tears of anger, frustration and helplessness.

I remember visiting my sister in hospital when I was 13 years old. I had never seen anyone so sedated, let alone someone whom I love and

These pages are central to The Psychologist’s role as a forum for discussion and debate, and we welcome your contributions.

Send e-mails marked ‘Letter for publication’ to psychologist@bps.org.uk; or write to the Leicester office.

Letters over 500 words are less likely to be published. The editor reserves the right to edit or publish extracts from letters. Letters to the editor are not normally acknowledged, and space does

care for. I left visibly distressed, yet the nurse who let me off the ward did not offer any words of reassurance.

On the other hand, there have also been many people involved in my sister’s care that have helped immensely.

My sister is closer to me than to any of our other family members. This is why it’s important for health

not permit the publication of every letter received.

However, see www.thepsychologist.org.uk to contribute to our discussion forum (members only).

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Small Group Meeting in Katowice Poland in September. One of the aims of the workshop was to explore examples of good practice from other European countries in order to formulate plans and activities for practice development in Central and Eastern Europe.

We delivered a symposium based on our experience in three core areas of the Society’s Qualification in Occupational Psychology: (i) Qualifications Standards (Kathryn, current chair of the Qualifications Standards Committee); supervision (Angela, former Chief Supervisor); and (iii) assessment (Gail, former Chief Assessor). At the meeting in Poland the principles of academic, professional and ethical standards were well understood. The need for working in partnership was warmly welcomed. With our European colleagues we talked about, and reflected upon, the need for systems and structures that were flexible, fit for purpose and future proof. Yet we also found ourselves questioning the extent to which current ways of working within and across the Society’s myriad Divisions, Sections, boards and committees were really ‘good practice’?

Our point here is that it is relatively easy to reflect upon and challenge assumptions at an individual level of analysis – in other words as practitioners, candidates, supervisors, reflexive researchers, and so on. It may be harder, however, to question and challenge the assumptions of our discipline at divisional and institutional levels of analysis. Critical reflection is not something that only happens inside the head of the professional practitioner; it engages with the power dynamics, ideological, political and cultural contexts of professional practice. Perhaps now is a time for wider critical reflection across all Divisions in order to – as Peter Martin’s letter argued – find ways of subscribing to the view ‘It is all psychology’. We suggest that a Delphi inquiry, or related approach, with key stakeholders in Divisions and the Society may help us achieve this level of inter-Divisional engagement and critical reflection.

Dr Kathryn Waddington Dr Angela Carter Dr Gail Steptoe Warren Division of Occupational Psychology

Private education – a research opportunity?

Reading about the BPS Award for Promoting Equality of Opportunity in a recent issue made me wonder why I have never seen reference in BPS publications to the particularly British issue of the lack of equality of opportunity for those attending a state school. According to the Sutton Trust, an educational charity, around 50 per cent of our ‘top jobs’ go to those attending private schools, despite only 7 per cent of pupils attending these. Our political leaders are largely privately educated, two thirds of the new Cabinet in 2010 attended such schools.

It would appear that 93 per cent of the nation’s children face massive career discrimination because our two educational systems don’t offer equality of opportunity, and yet I couldn’t recall, or find, a single article in a BPS publication referring to the issue of private/state education and its consequences. I am puzzled as to the reason for this; surely this issue isn’t only of interest to sociologists, educationalists and politicians. I can think of a number of psychological questions that might be investigated (and maybe have been, but I couldn’t find it): I What are the differences between school leavers from the two types of school, in the areas of thinking styles, selfesteem, self-efficacy, self confidence, social skills, problem-solving skills, career perception and knowledge, networking skills?

I How does the existence of elitist private schools affect the self-perception and aspirations of state-educated pupils?

Do they see themselves as ‘second best’?

I How do interviewers react to job applicants from the two types of school, dependent on the interviewer’s own type of education?

I What are the mechanisms that give privately educated alumni preferential access to ‘top jobs’?

I Is there evidence that private schools cause ‘detriment or harm’ to society? This is a crucial area in the awarding of charitable status to private schools, where public benefit has to be established. Currently the Charity Commission does not accept that there is clear evidence of harm.

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professionals to simply ask the patient about their different relationships, and not assume parents are their closest relationship. I agree with the article that some positives can also come from this situation – such as a closer bond and personal growth.

Reading the article almost instantly made me feel more supported and less alone. It’s great that the siblings of those with mental health problems are becoming more recognised, and if simply reading the article provided me with reassurance, I expect the forums, advice and

november 2013

Mind the gap – pathways to psychosis Helen L. Fisher explores links between childhood maltreatment and adult psychosis

Incorporating Psychologist Appointments £5 or free to members of The British Psychological Society

letters 778 news 786 careers 826 new voices 840

renewal of ethics 802 siblings and mental illness 808 interview with Richard Byrne 812 looking back: self mutilation 842

support available on the Siblings Network (www.rethink.org/siblings) will help me and other siblings even further.

Name and address supplied

read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk

Such studies would have two major benefits. First, by evaluating whether the private school advantage in career access is due to better employment-relevant skills, psychological differences in alumni, or other factors such as access to privileged networks, state schools could use the information to make changes to help their students compete.

Second, they would provide hard data for the debate on whether private education in Britain should continue. We might decide, like Finland did in the 1970s, that educational equality and social cohesiveness requires the abolition of private schools, and then see ourselves rise to the top of international education league tables, as they have (Sahlberg, 2012).

Martin Fitch Ashby de la Zouch Leicestershire Reference Sahlberg, P. (2012). Finland: A non-competitive education for competitive economy. In Strong performers and successful reformers – Lessons from PISA for Japan (pp.93–111). Paris: OECD.

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Altruists before super-altruists Tom Farsides’ piece on the super-altruists (October 2013) made for daunting and inspiring reading. It made me doubt that I could ever make sacrifices like those made by the super-altruists he describes, but at the same time left me knowing that I could be much more altruistic than I am now.

If increasing individual altruism is a worthwhile objective – and many people agree that it is – then it’s worth thinking about how this can be effectively achieved. An evidenced-based approach seems most promising. At the

upstream level, psychology can help identify the characteristics of altruists and putative predictors of altruistic behaviour, or draw on models of behaviour change to understand and promote altruistic behaviour. Further downstream, at the implementation phase, established evaluative methods can be used to assess the effectiveness of different kinds of altruistic behaviour in terms of its real-world impact. The charity 80,000 Hours for evidenced-based altruism is a recent example of such an approach.

As Farsides notes, wealth is a relative asset and most people reading The Psychologist are likely to be richer than the vast majority of people alive today, so one of the easiest acts of altruism may be to give away some of what we earn. It may lack the glamour of some acts of ‘super’ altruism, but it can have a large impact. Extreme poverty in the developing world is a major cause of premature morbidity and mortality, and a small percentage of our income given to the right charities (see for example www.givingwhatwecan.org)

will help reduce this obvious suffering. If becoming more altruistic is an important goal for us, then this is one way to achieve it.

Acts of super-altruism may move and inspire us, but they will remain the exception rather than the rule. There may be more to be gained from systematic efforts to understand and promote smaller, routine acts of ‘everyday’ altruism than from rare acts of heroism. We can’t all we super-altruists, but we can all be altruists.

Francis Vergunst Oxford

Dangers of denial In his excellent article ‘A renewal of ethics’ (November 2013) Mark Burton writes: ‘…to some extent we are all denialists – it’s how we stay sane in the face of impending catastrophe’. He writes of a ‘perfect storm of economic, ecological, social and political crises’, which are upon us and which threaten ‘the very basis of human life’. All this is true. He might have added the nuclear issue. Dr Helen Caldicott, nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, has warned that the ongoing mega-disaster at Fukushima threatens the entire northern hemisphere.

NOTICEBOARD I The Psychology Department at Swansea University is promoting the fantastic potential a degree in psychology can impart. As part of our student employability strategy we would like to be able to show the variety of career pathways open to a psychology graduate. Can you help us by recounting your career stories?

Have you done or are you doing anything really quirky with your psychology degree, have you had several careers, have you come to psychology in a round-about way? If you have a story to tell then please contact us.

Andrea Tales & Claire Williams A.Tales@swansea.ac.uk Claire.Willaims@swansea.ac.uk

At every moment we are threatened by disaster from the existence of arsenals of nuclear weapons through accidents, malfunctions or vicious intent. Einstein said: ‘The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and thus we drift towards unparalleled catastrophe.’

We have not changed our mode of thinking.

Freud wrote of the ‘opposition between the ego or death instincts and the sexual or life instincts’. It Fukushima – the unleashed power of the atom has would appear the death changed everything instincts are rampant.

To a lay person all this powerful sociopaths (psychopaths?) who suggests many questions for are our decision makers. Mark Burton psychologists. Is it possible for entire writes about vulgar denial and finessed cultures to become insane? What denial. What about ‘irrational denial’? Is definition of sanity is applicable to that not a fit topic for psychological individuals who are willing to incinerate study? millions of their fellow humans in order Closely associated with denial is the to protect their ‘vital interests’, as our widespread phenomenon of passivity. government puts it?

Why is it that when our society is clearly Denial is only a rational response to threatened with its untimely termination mortal threats if there is nothing can be its citizens are so passively awaiting their done about the threats. If sufficient fate? Another topic, surely, for study by individuals were willing to suffer the psychologists. anxiety they would experience if they dropped their denial they might work Jim McCluskey together to negate the influence of the Twickenham, Middx

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Austerity – time to find our voice We have keenly followed the articles and responses about ‘austerity psychology’ in the pages of this publication, and note with interest related ideas elsewhere, e.g. the recent column by Dr Jim White in The Herald (Scotland) newspaper (http://bit.ly/1h6dhzx).

This in turn has echoes on the other side of the Atlantic in the thought-provoking consideration of contemporary clinical psychology by Gaudiano & Miller (2013).

Although an attempt to engage readers of The Psychologist in an online debate about social change was abortive (Letters, May 2013), we have nevertheless been involved in increasingly interesting discussions with several others via Twitter. We suspect that sociopolitical engagement is an area of interest to a growing number of trainee and newly qualified psychologists across various disciplines – but wonder whether, collectively, we are still uncertain of the best way to make our voices heard.

James Anderson, in his excellent ‘Manifesto in an age of austerity’ (September 2013), states: ‘Collectively, we have a professional voice.’ Do we?

And even if we do, who – other than fellow psychologists – is listening?

Alison Beck, referring to the Francis Report in the September 2013 issue of Clinical Psychology Forum, writes: ‘It is possible that we missed an opportunity to have political influence.’ How frequently, we wonder, is this the case?

In suggesting that psychologists might become agents of social change, we accept that we are laying ourselves open to accusations

of idealism. However, as articulated so clearly by Mark Burton (‘A renewal of ethics’, November 2013), the status quo is increasingly unsustainable.

There are certainly no easy answers, but is that not exactly why we should be having this debate and beginning to explore possible courses of action?

We would echo Mareike Suesse’s suggestion (Letters, November 2013) for a regular community psychology column in this magazine, and hope that the BPS’s Community Psychology Section can become a more vocal and visible driver for debate and – just possibly – change.

Psychologists, as Mark Burton makes clear, hold a societal position of power. Do our professional organisations exist merely to consolidate that power? Or might they allow us to use our collective scholarship and understanding to explore – to borrow a phrase – new ways of working? the

psychologist

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september 2013

Austerity psychology

Is the economy affecting how you research, teach or practice?

10 years of the Digest 630 euro congress 636 careers 680 looking back 696

Incorporating Psychologist Appointments £5 or free to members of The British Psychological Society

swearing – language of life and death 650 anorexia and the autistic spectrum 656 no voice, no choice 660 interview with Oliver Sacks 664

Simon Stuart Trainee Clinical Psychologist, University of Edinburgh/NHS Lothian @soothron Dr Jade Weston Clinical Psychologist, Milton Keynes @liljadeywadey Dr Joe Judge Clinical Psychologist, Hamilton @JoeJudgePsy Reference Gaudiano, B.A. & Miller, I.W. (2013). The evidence-based practice of psychotherapy: Facing the challenges that lie ahead. Clinical Psychology Review, 33(7), 813–824.

read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk

FORUM HEALTH MATTERS In my teens, my sister and I would spend hours dissecting the minutiae of the boys we fancied. They seemed complex and deep and we analysed their every move and word. ‘He said this…’ we would say ‘What did that mean?’ or ‘He looked at me like that. Do you think he likes me?’. And in our twenties as the relationships got longer the analyses became more elaborate as we worked out who they really were, what they thought and how they felt about us. ‘It’s due to his parents’ we would say, ‘He went to a boys school’ or ‘He doesn’t know how to show his emotions’. But now, decades later, these complex beings are simply ‘an idiot’, ‘totally useless’, ‘a real sweetie’ or ‘probably gay’– pure nuggets of truth left over from all that rumination.

My gran recently died aged 100, and the older she got the more specific and narrow her stories became. We often heard how her father (who had several illegitimate families) came back one day after two years away whilst she was in the alleyway with her mother and the nosey neighbours, how my asthmatic uncle could never sleep apart from on her chest (until when? we used to ask) and how her compulsive Greek gambler of a second husband had a heart attack in the chair after losing everything she owned and how she ‘didn’t rush to call the ambulance’. And as the other stories of her life vanished into the past, these stories crystallised with the people summed up in their own nuggets. Her father was ‘a one’, my uncle was ‘always difficult’ and the Greek… ‘good company’(!).

So what lasts and what is lost? Of all this life we have, what do we store and what passes us by?

And why do bits of people and bits of events last longer than others?

In health psychology we spend our time studying beliefs: beliefs about behaviour (diet, exercise and smoking) and beliefs about illness (obesity, Discussing nuggets? heart disease and cancer) are the mainstay of our discipline. We explore how people make sense of their symptoms, form representations of their illnesses, cope with their health and adapt as their health status changes. And we use these beliefs to predict behaviour and to change what people do.

But in our nuggets of boyfriends there are no beliefs just nuggets of emotion: mostly fun or irritation. And my gran’s nuggets were driven by feelings of shame, upset or happiness, which underpinned how all the vastness of her life was processed and distilled. We hear, store, remember or think in our personal lives because of how we feel. But this remains seriously neglected in our academic lives.

And even when we recognise we are missing something, we simply add a box called ‘fear’ or ask our participants in a cognitive way ‘to what extent do you think you are happy’.

According to Einstein (via Radio 2) time passes through us; we do not pass through time. And according to my gran, how time passes through us is determined by our emotions. So only when we can properly address emotions, in an emotional way, can we start to understand who we are and why we do the things we do.

Jane Ogden is Professor of Health Psychology at the University of Surrey. Share your views on this and other health-related matters by e-mailing psychologist@bps.org.uk

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letters

Self-care… or procrastination?

When does an activity move from being pure procrastination into the realms of a developmental self-care strategy? As a trainee clinical psychologist I am encouraged by my tutors to participate in self-care as a way of taking time out to reflect, and look after my own wellbeing. However, when I do partake in acts of self-care, I find that the distinct opposite occurs. My stress levels tend to drastically increase as I reflect on the mountain of work I have to do and the dwindling time I now have left to complete it.

I do not even think I would need to officially ‘self-care’ if I just got on with what I was supposed to be doing, when I was supposed to do it. Then, these ‘self-care’ strategies would be more thought of as Soak looming deadline worries away… hobbies and interests that I have the time and space to enjoy. Maybe I am being certainly not the case! I know that it is just a procrastination strategy, in a slightly cynical and missing the point? Or maybe cuter and more socially acceptable outfit!

I have uncovered the secrets of self-care?

Where previously I would ‘mindfully’ do The act of writing this letter could be the washing up or soak my looming regarded by some as a self-care reflective deadline worries away in the bath, I now piece, aiding my development and find myself writing a letter to The supporting me on my path to becoming a qualified clinical psychologist. But I hate Psychologist. I am therefore definitely to burst that bubble and say that it is most developing, just not in the way I or my

tutors probably had in mind?

All has not been in vain though.

Whilst writing this letter, I have realised that if I reframe my time-wasting strategies as ‘self-care’, I tend to feel a whole lot better about myself. Maybe that is the point?

Nicola Fedyszyn Chester

obituary

William Glasser (1925–2013) Dr William Glasser, world-renowned psychiatrist, author, and creator of both reality therapy and choice theory psychology, passed away peacefully in August at home in Los Angeles.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1925, Dr Glasser reached international fame in 1965 when his ground-breaking book Reality Therapy challenged the traditional approach to psychiatry at the time and continued to do so for many years thereafter; particularly the ‘medical model’ of mental illness. As an increasing number of people wished to learn his methods he founded the Institute for Reality Therapy, now called William Glasser International. Today, his ideas on therapy, education, management and personal well-being are taught throughout the world, although still to a much lesser extent as yet in the UK. The reality therapy Glasser developed was primarily focused on the present, the necessity of self-responsibility, and based on his contention that a vast array of mental health disorders, behavioural problems, including addictive behaviours, emotional distress and, indeed, an array of health-related problems was caused or exacerbated by the person’s continued failure and sustained frustration in being unable to meet their essential and innate human needs, and particularly the needs of love and belonging, and self-worth. He contended that the distress of such

perceived loneliness, emptiness and sense of powerlessness cannot be tolerated or suppressed indefinitely by human beings and, given time, may express itself as a mental, emotional and/or physical symptom or disorder. Therefore, the approach in reality therapy is not only to deal with the presenting problems, symptoms or behaviours, but to focus more on the underlying cause (unmet needs), so that meaningful and lasting change can occur.

It was only in more recent years that Glasser was duly recognised and honoured within his own profession. In 1989 the Milton Erickson Foundation’s Evolution of Psychotherapy Conference admitted him as a member of the distinguished faculty of Pioneers in Psychology. In 2004 the American Counseling Association honoured him as a ‘Legend in Counseling’. In 2005 the American Psychological Association awarded him the prestigious ‘Master Therapist’ designation.

Then, as recently as May this year, the California Senate passed a resolution to honour Dr Glasser for ‘a lifetime of achievements and meritorious service to humanity’. It was so fitting that this last honour should have been in his home state and city.

John Brickell Director of Training, Institute for Reality Therapy UK

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PATRICK BREMER

obituary

Professor Rob Farr (1935–2013) Emeritus Professor Rob Farr died on Friday 11 October 2013.

Rob Farr joined the LSE in 1983 as Professor of Social Psychology and was instrumental in building up the Department of Social Psychology, founded by Hilde Himmelweit. He was internationally known as a specialist on the history of social psychology and particularly well-known for bridging psychological and sociological forms of social psychology – a separation he deplored. His work bridging these traditions produced novel perspectives on concepts at the heart of the discipline: the social self, social attitudes, attribution theory, ideology as well as on the role of laboratory experiments in the development of psychological theory. Much of this was enabled by his scholarly reading and insightful interpretations of George Herbert Mead, Erving Goffman and Gustav Ichheiser. In particular, his work played a very significant role in advancing the reception and elaboration of the concept of social representations for the English-speaking world.

Rob Farr’s intellectual outlook was interdisciplinary and truly international. He was acutely aware of how parochial psychology often is and dedicated himself to building bridges and awareness of psychological work conducted by colleagues from the former Eastern European countries, India, China and Latin America.

He was an inspiration for a large number of psychologists around the globe who shared his sharp critique for the desocialisation of the behavioural sciences. One of his central empirical contributions was to demonstrate that individualism

has become the collective representation of the Western world as is outlined in one of his now-classic texts The Roots of Modern Social Psychology (Blackwell, 1996). Other important works include Representations of Health, Illness and Handicap (with I. Marková, Harwood Academic Publishers, 1995) and Social Representations (with S. Moscovici, Cambridge University Press, 1984).

Rob Farr was a wonderful teacher and supervisor, a kind, warm and generous man, who always had time to give to the many generations of students who came to the LSE in search of a kind of psychology that is relevant to society. As a colleague he will be remembered by his collegiality, support of young colleagues and his uncompromising scholarship.

Daniel Linehan, Caroline Howarth, Sandra Jovchelovitch Department of Social Psychology London School of Economics and Political Science

obituary

Andy Calder (1965–2013) Andy Calder, dearly loved by his family and his many friends and colleagues from all over the world, died unexpectedly on 29 October 2013. Born in Edinburgh in 1965, he was a loving brother to his sisters Kath and Clare and brothers-in-law Gary and Tony, and a devoted uncle to his nieces and nephews.

Andy was known internationally as a leading cognitive neuroscientist. He was a deep thinker, a meticulous experimenter, and an inspiration for those who worked alongside him. His groundbreaking research led to major new insights into vital social abilities, such as how we recognise faces, and how the brain processes and distinguishes between emotions.

After completing a PhD at Durham, Andy joined the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at Cambridge (then the Applied Psychology Unit) in 1993, becoming a programme leader in 2000. In addition to his dedicated team in Cambridge, Andy worked closely with many collaborators, bringing to each project excellence in methods and precision in scientific thinking. This led to new discoveries including the brain systems that underlie unusual social abilities in conduct disorder and autism.

The news of his untimely death is devastating for all that knew him. Not yet 50, Andy had a wonderful future as a scientist

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still ahead of him. His abilities to answer important fundamental questions using rigorous methods will continue to inspire his many collaborators and the broader field of social neuroscience.

A passion for overseas exploration made Andy a great travelling companion and a keen guest in the laboratories of his dear friends and fellow scientists, including Gilli Rhodes and Colin Clifford in Australia.

Andy was wonderful company. He was an entertaining house guest with his family every Christmas, and took a keen interest in all his nieces and nephews Clark, Amy, Ava, Rebecca, Cameron, Tim and Eve as they were growing up. He had a passion for film and theatre, and every summer would make the trip home to take full advantage of the Edinburgh Festival. A gifted pianist and singer, Andy was a key figure in pantomimes and productions in Cambridge. He made many lasting friendships with colleagues, who were delighted by his warmth, lightness of spirit, and wit (see colleagues’ memories via tinyurl.com/p5sg87b).

Andy will be held dearly in the hearts of the many that knew him. He is greatly missed, but his spirit, life and achievements will be celebrated for many years to come.

Susan Gathercole Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit Cambridge

ARTICLE

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psychology of science is that to fully appreciate and understand scientific thought and behaviour – from the infant trying to figure out her world to the historically great scientific discoveries – we must apply the best theoretical and empirical tools available to psychologists.

Psychology is extraordinarily well suited to unpack the mechanisms behind Gregory J. Feist presents an overview of the emerging subdiscipline scientific thought and behaviour.

By science, however, I mean something broader than the thought and behaviour of practising scientists. Rather, scientific Other studies of science – sychology is the scientific study thought and behaviour can be both philosophy, history and sociology – of thought and behaviour. Science implicit and nascent, as expressed by are well-established investigations is one of the more intriguing and children and adolescents, as well as into the nature of science. culturally important forms of thought and explicit and developed, as expressed by Psychology of science, until behaviour. Therefore, scientific thought scientists (Feist, 2006; Proctor & Capaldi, recently, has been a missing and behaviour should be a focus of 2012). Thus, psychology of science is not perspective. This review psychologists’ empirical attention. just about the psychological forces behind summarises and highlights key A psychological perspective on scientific the thought and behaviour of professional empirical findings from the last thought and behaviour goes back nearly scientists. It also encompasses the concepts decade or two that demonstrate 100 years, but only in the last 10 has it of human development and scientific that psychology has important begun to congeal into a formal discipline reasoning in infants, contributions to make to the study of the psychology of children and adolescents; of the nature of scientific thought science. talent and interest in and behaviour.

The psychology “It is not easy… to obtain science among high of science sets out to school students; loss of empirically investigate the real-time brain images interest in science among full range of psychological of scientific reasoning” college students; and processes behind scientific even pseudoscientific behaviour, interest, talent thinking and beliefs among and creativity. To be sure, adults. In short, the psychology of science the field is immature and relatively late in concerns anyone engaged in implicit or developing compared to the other studies explicit scientific thought and behaviour. of science. Most everyone is familiar with There are as many psychologies of the terms philosophy of science, history of science as there are major subdisciplines science and sociology of science. Yet when in psychology. The necessary brevity of you mention the ‘psychology of science’, this piece precludes a fully developed many people – even other psychologists – Do scientists approach problems in a and integrated treatment of the entire often do not know what you mean. For different from nonscientists? psychology of science (see Feist, 2006; the last five to 10 years, however, the To what extent is interest in and talent Feist & Gorman, 2013; Gholson et al., discipline of the psychology of science for science a product of psychological 1989; Proctor & Capaldi, 2012; Simonton , has shown some real promise of becoming forces, such as intelligence, personality, 1988, for more detailed treatments). I will a new subdiscipline in psychology. Indeed, motivation and social influences? nevertheless attempt to provide the reader we now have a small but active society – with a cogent and representative sampling the International Society for the of the kinds of questions the field has Psychology of Science and Technology www.ispstonline.org addressed, and hint at unexplored (ISPST; www.ispstonline.org), which has http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book. questions for future researchers on the regular conferences. In this article I aim asp?isbn=9780300143270 psychological foundations of scientific to summarise and highlight some of the thought and behaviour. Although nascent, exciting findings from this fledgling field. the psychology of science mirrors its The fundamental argument of the

The psychology of scientific thought and behaviour

references

resources

questions

P

Aragon, C., Poon, S. & Silva, C. (2009).

The changing face of digital science: New practices in scientific collaborations. Proceedings of ACM CHI 2009 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2009.

Retrieved 25 September 2012 from http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=1 520340.1520749 Brewer, W.F., Chinn, C.A. & Samarapungavan, A. (2000).

Explanation in scientists and children. In F.C. Keil & R. Wilson.

(Eds.) Explanation and cognition (pp.279–298). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Dunbar, K. (2000). How scientists think in the real world: Implications for science education. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 21, 49–58.

Dunbar, K.N., Fugelsang, J.A. & Stein, C. (2007). Do naïve theories ever go

away? Using brain and behavior to understand changes in concepts. In M.C. Lovett, P. Shah, M.C. Lovett & P. Shah (Eds.) Thinking with data (pp.193–205). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Feist, G.J. (1998). A meta-analysis of the impact of personality on scientific and artistic creativity. Personality and Social Psychological Review, 2, 290–309.

Feist, G.J. (2006). The psychology of science and the origins of the scientific mind. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Feist, G.J. & Gorman, M.E. (Eds.) (2013).

Handbook of the psychology of science.

New York: Springer Publishing.

Fugelsang, J.A. & Dunbar, K.N. (2005).

Brain-based mechanisms underlying complex causal thinking.

Neuropsychologia, 43, 1204–1213.

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parent discipline and can be divided into similar subdisciplinary groupings: neuroscientific, cognitive, developmental, social, personality, educational and clinical psychologies of science.

Neuroscientific psychology In addition to regulating the body, one of the primary functions of the brain is to make sense of and organise sensory input.

At the risk of oversimplification, this is also what science is about – trying to understand our experience of the physical, biological and social worlds.

Scientific thought involves a more systematic and explicit form of everyday intuitive or implicit thought (Feist, 2006; Proctor & Capaldi, 2012).

Trying to understand the genetic and brain mechanisms involved in scientific thinking is a perfect topic of study for the psychology of science, and yet it is necessarily a difficult enterprise. It is not easy or cheap to obtain real-time brain images of scientific reasoning and problem solving. Recently, however, a few

psychologists have begun such investigations, with Jonathan Fugelsang and Kevin Dunbar leading the way. They have focused on the neural mechanisms underlying scientific and causal reasoning.

Fugelsang and Dunbar (2005) for example, argue that people pay more attention to evidence when it concerns plausible theories than when it concerns implausible ones. They discovered that when data are consistent with one’s theory, neural mechanisms in a region surrounding the hippocampus – the brain’s learning and memory centre – are activated. When data are inconsistent with one’s theory, brain mechanisms in the prefrontal cortex, areas involved in error detection, attention and monitoring conflicting points of view, are activated (cf. Dunbar et al., 2007).

Other neuroscientists have investigated brain regions involved in two kinds of reasoning involved in science – namely, deductive and probabilistic reasoning (Osherson et al., 1998). Compared to a language-comprehension control task, both forms of reasoning activated

prefrontal brain regions involved in attention and working memory.

Cognitive psychology Of all subdisciplines, cognitive psychology is perhaps the most developed of the psychologies of science (Tweney, 1998). Problem solving, confirmation bias, creativity, analogical and metaphorical reasoning, visualisation and memory all play important roles in science, and psychologists have investigated these and other cognitive principles as they apply to scientific thought. Cognitive psychologists of science have examined thought processes of nonscientists solving scientific problems, of historical figures in science, and of scientists solving simulated problems and real-life problems in the lab.

Over the last decade, however, more and more cognitive psychologists have gone into scientific labs to observe, record and analyse the thought and behaviour of scientists on the job. Kevin Dunbar pioneered this technique. Among his chief early findings were that scientists use anomalies and unexpected findings as sources for new theories and experiments, and that analogy is very important in generating hypotheses and interpreting results (Dunbar, 2000). Others have continued this line of investigation and similarly have found that in trying to figure out an anomalous result, for example, applied scientists (meteorologists) were more likely to mentally manipulate and spatially rotate the image, whereas pure scientists (astronomers and physicists) were more likely to run through a conceptual simulation (a ‘what if’) of the unexpected result (Trickett et al., 2009).

Developmental psychology

Psychology of science concerns anyone engaged in scientific thought or behaviour

Gholson, B., Shadish, W.R., Neimeyer, R.A. & Houts, A.C. (Eds.) (1989). The psychology of science: Contributions to metascience. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gopnik, A. (2009). The philosophical baby.

New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Hemlin, S., Allwood, C.M. & Martin, B. (Eds.) (2004). Creative knowledge environments: The influence on creativity in research and innovation.

Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar.

Kessler, R.C., Berglund, P., Demler, O. et al. (2005). Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey replication. Archives of General Psychiatry, 62, 593–602.

Klahr, D. (2000). Exploring science: The cognition and development of discovery processes. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

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Developmental psychologists address many intriguing questions of scientific thought and behaviour: How do infants and children develop implicit theories

Koerber, S. & Sodian, B. (2009).

Reasoning from graphs in young children: Preschoolers’ ability to interpret covariation data from graphs. Journal of Psychology of Science and Technology, 2, 73–86.

Koslowski, B. (1996). Theory and evidence: The development of scientific reasoning. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Kuhn, D. & Pearsall, S. (2000).

Developmental origins of scientific thinking. Journal of Cognition and Development, 1, 113–129.

Liberman, S. & Wolf, K.B. (1998).

Bonding number in scientific disciplines. Social Networks, 20, 239–246.

Ludwig, A. (1995). The price of greatness: Resolving the creativity and madness controversy. New York: Guilford.

Newcombe, N.S., Ambady, N., Eccles, J.

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and concepts about how the world works, and are these theories and concepts different in different domains, such as the physical, biological and social worlds? How does interest in science develop? At what age does scientific productivity and creativity peak? Does birth order play a role in the development of scientific interest and achievement?

And does scientific interest develop differently for boys and girls?

I can only touch on few of the empirical findings that have answered some of these questions. Recent research has demonstrated that babies as young as eight months understand probability (Gopnik, 2009; Xu & Garcia, 2008) and that children as young as four years old can correctly draw causal inferences from bar graphs (Koerber & Sodian, 2009).

Other developmental researchers have explored the extent to which children and adolescents can distinguish between their ideas (theories) and evidence for their ideas – a key component to scientific thinking. In general, children, adolescents and nonscientist adults use different criteria when evaluating explanations and evidence, they are not very good at separating belief from fact (theory and evidence), and they persistently give their beliefs as evidence for their beliefs (Brewer et al., 2000; Klahr, 2000; Kuhn & Pearsall, 2000). Researchers have found that one reason for the inability to distinguish theory from evidence is the belief that knowledge is certain and absolute – that is, either right or wrong (Yang & Tsai, 2010).

If children view knowledge as less certain and absolute, then they are better able to know that evidence is separate from belief.

Koslowski (1996), however, provides cogent evidence that people have more complex scientific reasoning than is sometimes presented by other scholars.

Social psychology Social psychology examines how other people (real or imagined) influence a person’s thought or behaviour. Applied to science, social psychology examines

et al. (2009). Psychology’s role in mathematics and science education.

American Psychologist, 64, 538–550.

Osherson, D., Perani, D., Cappa, S. et al.

(1998). Distinct brain loci in deductive versus probabilistic reasoning.

Neuropsychologia, 36, 369–376.

Proctor, R.W. & Capaldi, E.J. (Eds.) (2012). Psychology of science: Implicit and explicit processes. New York: Cambridge University Press.

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how scientists persuade others to change their mind (attitude), how groups of scientists both cooperate with and compete against one another, how leaders in science set policies that affect the creativity and productivity of teams of scientists, and how collaborations form to foster creative team productivity (Shadish & Fuller, 1994).

One of the more intriguing applications of social psychology of science is Robert Rosenthal’s groundbreaking work on experimenter effects, that is, how the experimenter – through belief, dress, age, gender, appearance and personality – can actually affect the behaviour of participants and hence outcomes of studies in unconscious and unwitting ways (Rosenthal, 1994). Other more recent social psychological research in scientific behaviour has focused on how computerbased communication (e-mail, texting, etc.) facilitates team collaborations in science (Aragon et al., 2009), how conflict and cooperation influences scientific creativity (Schultz & Seuffert, 2013), how leadership qualities affect creative output in scientific groups (Hemlin et al., 2004), and how different collaborative patterns and authorship bonds exist in different disciplines (Liberman & Wolf, 1998).

Personality psychology Personality traits make some behaviours more likely and others less likely. The question is whether particular patterns of personality traits make scientific thought, achievement, and behaviour more likely.

The answer is ‘yes’.

Results from a meta-analysis of 26 studies reporting effect sizes on the relation between personality and scientific interest showed that scientists are moderately higher in conscientiousness and lower on openness to experience than are nonscientists (Feist, 1998).

Conscientiousness is characterised by being cautious, careful, fastidious and self-controlled, and low openness is characterised by being conventional, socialised and rigid. Similarly, a meta-

Rawlings, D. & Locarnini, A. (2008).

Dimensional schizotypy, autism, and unusual word associations in artists and scientists. Journal of Research in Personality, 42, 465–471.

Rosenthal, R. (1994). On being one’s own study: Experimenter effects in behavioral research – 30 years later.

In W.R. Shadish & S. Fuller (Eds.) The social psychology of science (pp.214– 229). New York, NY: Guilford.

analysis of 28 studies comparing personality in creative to less creative scientists found that, compared to their less creative peers, creative scientists are more confident and open to experience and are less conscientious (Feist, 1998).

In short, the personality traits that make scientific interest more likely are high conscientiousness and low openness, whereas the traits that make scientific creativity more likely are high openness, low conscientiousness and high confidence.

Dean Simonton recently advanced the field of personality psychology of science by quantifying the degree of genetic influence of personality on scientific talent (Simonton, 2008). Using effect sizes from the meta-analytic and behaviour-genetic studies of scientific talent, Simonton estimated the effect of genetic contributions to scientific performance and achievement. He found that the upper-bound estimates of genetic effects explained between 37 per cent and 48 per cent of the predicted variance in scientific talent.

Educational psychology Psychological science can contribute much to improving the state of mathematics and science education.

Newcombe and colleagues (2009) summarised four major areas in which psychology can make and has made contributions: early understanding of mathematics, understanding of science, social and motivational factors behind scientific and mathematical interest, and assessing mathematics and science learning. For example, Zimmerman and Croker (2013) argue that both cognitive and metacognitive skills are involved in learning scientific concepts and procedures. Eccles et al. (cited in Newcombe et al., 2009) demonstrated the power of beliefs and expectations of success in influencing students’ decisions to take advanced mathematics and science courses. Self-efficacy, intrinsic motivation and self-identity are other

Schultz, A.D. & Seuffert, V. (2013).

Conflicts, cooperation, and competition in the fields of science and technology. In G.J. Feist & M.A. Gorman (Eds.) Handbook of the psychology of science. New York: Springer Publishing.

Shadish, W. & Fuller, S. (Eds.). (1994). The social psychology of science. New York: Guilford.

Simonton, D.K. (1988). Scientific genius: A

psychology of science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Simonton, D.K. (2008). Scientific talent, training, and performance: Intellect, personality, and genetic endowment.

Review of General Psychology, 12, 28–46.

Trickett, S.B., Trafton, J.G. & Schunn, C.D. (2009). How do scientists respond to anomalies? Different strategies used in basic and applied

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psychological forces behind interest, performance and achievement in mathematics and science courses.

one general conclusion that can be drawn from this review is that each of many different domains of psychology – neuroscience, cognition, development, educational psychology, personality, social Clinical psychology and clinical – has important One of the least developed things to say about who but nevertheless most becomes interested in science, intriguing psychologies of about scientific reasoning, and science deals with mental about who goes on to become health and science. The scientists and mathematicians. question is whether there The overarching conclusion are any elevated mental from these many domains of health problems in scientists findings is one unified point: compared to nonscientists. scientific interest, thought, Indeed, historically science talent and achievement can has had its share of figures only be understood if a who suffered some kind of psychological perspective is psychological disorder – applied. Together, the puzzle from Newton and Darwin pieces of how scientists to Tesla and Faraday. develop, mature and achieve In order to answer this can only be put together by question, we must first know the cumulative findings of all the base rate for mental of the psychologies of science. health problems in the To be sure, integration of all of population. The most recent A better understanding of the research process will make these findings requires sharp and survey reported that 46 per scientists more reflective about their assumptions and methods creative theorising as much as cent of Americans will suffer anything else. Like many social from at least one diagnosable out a caveat: It may be that science tends sciences, unified theorising is lacking and mental health episode over the course to weed out those with mental health is one of the more important goals for the of their lifetimes (Kessler et al., 2005). problems in a way that art, music and future of the field.

Natural scientists, however, are less likely poetry do not. In other words, aspiring In the end, one of the important than other creative groups to suffer from scientists with mental health problems applied goals of psychology of science is mental illness (28 per cent vs. 59 per cent: will be less likely to get hired or finish that a better understanding of the research Ludwig, 1995). Even social scientists are their degrees than aspiring artists will. process will make scientists more reflective somewhat less likely to suffer one bout of Science requires regular focus and about their assumptions and methods in psychological disorder over the course of attention to problems over long periods ways that will lead to improved research. their lives than are other creative groups of time; it also requires one go into a lab Indeed, psychology of science has begun (51 per cent versus 59 per cent: Ludwig, or work on a problem consistently. to be applied in informing the 1995). Similarly, recent self-report research If a person cannot work methodically development and organisation of scientific using nonclinical assessment of schizotypy and consistently, she or he is not likely labs and in informing science of science (i.e. eccentricity) suggests that scientists to become a productive scientist. policy. Additionally, from a pure science are lower on unusual experiences and perspective, the studies of science have cognitive disorganisation than artists and been missing these important empirical musicians are (Rawlings & Locarnini, and theoretical contributions in their 2008). From these results, one is tempted Conclusions understanding of scientific thought, to conclude that scientists are less prone Until the middle of the 2000s, there was motivation, interest, creativity, social to mental health difficulties than are other no formal discipline of the psychology influence, mental illness and personality. creative people. of science. There is now, even if it is still Science is a driving force of modern That may well be the case, but before relatively undeveloped and in need of society; if we are to understand this driving we draw that conclusion, we must point more systematic and integrated work. The force and to foster greater interest in science and science careers in our talented young people, then we must continue to apply and develop a healthy and mature science. Topics in Cognitive Science, 1, Yang, F. & Tsai, C. (2010). Reasoning about psychology of science.

711–729. science-related uncertain issues and Tweney, R. (1998). Toward a cognitive psychology of science: Recent research and its implications. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 7, 150–154.

Xu, F. & Garcia, V. (2008). Intuitive statistics by 8-month-old infants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 105, 5012–5015.

epistemological perspectives among children. Instructional Science, 38, 325–354.

Zimmerman, C. & Croker, S. (2013).

Learning science through inquiry. In G.J. Feist & M.A. Gorman (Eds.) Handbook of the psychology of science.

New York: Springer Publishing.

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Gregory J. Feist is in the Department of Psychology, San Jose State University, California greg.feist@sjsu.edu

INTERVIEW

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spinal frogs. Better by far were the lectures and case demonstrations in the university psychiatric clinic. This was more than exciting – it was the most intellectually thrilling experience that I ever had. The professor was renowned for his ability to present cases to students.

He clearly enjoyed himself in these demonstrations, and the patients he selected played along good-naturedly.

I very much wanted to understand what was the matter with them, why they suffered from invisible and intangible phenomena. So if anything, that was what got me totally hooked into psychology.

From art to autism Uta Frith takes Lance Workman on a journey through her collection of memories

believe you initially began your studies with history of art in IGermany, but then became interested

ANTONIO OLMOS/GUARDIAN NEWS & MEDIA LTD

in psychology, and autism in particular.

Yes, it’s quite a long journey. At school I was not particularly good at science subjects and much better arts and languages. No wonder these were the subjects I was expected to study at university. But looking back, this is a common situation for girls to be in, and it was a bit of a trap. Actually, I had many and diverse interests. So, one thing I love to tell girls in a similar situation is that you can escape the trap. You can change your mind about what you’d like to study, and in any case it is very difficult to know what you are good at.

The school I went to in Germany gave me a nice all-round education, including nine years of Latin and six years of Greek. I absolutely loved it.

I dreamt my future would be to study ancient civilisations – finding treasures and deciphering texts in some longlost language! By comparison, art history is far more down-to-earth.

The art history courses offered at my university were fascinating. They allowed me to explore different artists, different times, places and materials.

But I was very curious about what was on offer elsewhere. I went to lots of different lectures and remember my timetable being completely full up. This seemed to me the best thing about being a student: soaking up learning while being inspired by the commitment that eminent scholars bring to their subjects. At that point I only had a very nebulous and indeed misguided idea of what psychology was about. But I happened to drift into a lecture on analysis of variance. Far from being put off, the idea that you could use stats to measure psychological abilities strangely appealed to me. For the first time I learned that it was possible to do experiments about how people remember things, and how they solved problems, or rather how they failed to solve them.

So I went to the psychology department and asked if they would take me on as a student. It was very small department and you quickly got to know everybody. But it was quite a remarkable department because they followed a natural sciences model using American textbooks. This was tricky for me because

I didn’t have English, and my classical education seemed rather quaint. But I was not deterred. I ended up doing more and more psychology and less and less art history, mainly because the psychology course was well structured with an exam at the end. This certainly gave me some focus. It occurred to me gradually that it was the mind I was interested in, and even more gradually that this included the brain.

As part of the psychology course I took similar courses to the medics.

I have to admit that the physiology lab classes were rather tough for me. There were some alarming moments involving

You came to England around this time – how did that come about?

Well, I needed to learn English to read the textbooks and journals – and so I came to London. I found I liked it even more than Paris, and that was saying something. I went to visit the Institute of Psychiatry, because I had heard of HansJürgen Eysenck, who was the head of department. I was extremely taken with his books that were debunking the woolly end of psychology and psychoanalysis.

Like everyone else I had read Freud and swallowed it wholesale. But Eysenck’s books threw a different light on things.

Where was the evidence for Freud’s theories? If the evidence was in the patients that were cured, then it was very thin indeed. If the patients did not get better, then apparently this was because they resisted. Something was not quite right here. It seemed a suspiciously circular argument.

I saw Professor Eysenck only very briefly, but he seemed happy enough for me to stay around to see if I could do odd jobs. One of the lecturers, Reg Beech, gave me some data to analyse from an experiment he had done with patients who had obsessive compulsive disorder.

My job was quite basic – correlations, that sort of thing – but I enjoyed doing it. It was an exciting environment where psychologists tested hypotheses, and treated patients, not with psychotherapy, but with methods based on learning theory. I found out that there was a unique course in clinical psychology, and I was longing to be able to do this course. The course was about to start when I had already sent back one suitcase before returning to Germany. Then suddenly somebody dropped out and they had a vacancy. So I went to the head – Monte Shapiro – and asked if he would take me on. Amazingly, he did, and I am for ever grateful to him. Then I had to tell my parents. I knew I imposed a heavy financial burden on them, because the exchange rate between the pound and the

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Deutschmark was extremely poor at that time. However, they were always unbelievably supportive of me and of anything I decided to do. So they accepted my sudden change of plan. Still, I intended to go back to Germany after the course had finished. But, I never did.

Instead I got married to Chris! He had just finished the course and was starting a PhD. At some point during the course I found out about autism. I was completely fascinated as soon as I met the first autistic child, and have been ever since.

By sheer luck, the Institute of Psychiatry was the place to be for anyone interested in autism – Mike Rutter, Lorna Wing, Neil O’Connor and Beate Hermelin, all these heroes were there at that time.

Things were really very different then. What was the prevailing view on autism during the 1960s and 70s in terms of causes?

The prevailing view was that something in psychosocial relations had gone wrong during early development, and that this caused the state of autism. Still, at the Institute there was also the view that autism should be seen in the context of mental deficiency. This was a term for conditions thought to be due to brain pathology. To me however, the autistic children didn’t look like other children with mental disabilities. Was there a hidden intelligence? Many of the children I met had no language. Could they perhaps learn to speak? Would they then grow out of their autism? The children with Down’s syndrome I met did have language and were quite social – but the autistic children were so strange, so different.

You once described autistic children as being like the ones in John Wyndham’s The Midwich Cuckoos – later made into the film Village of the Damned.

This is one of the romantic images about autistic children I have toyed with.

I freely admit that some of my fascination was fed by romantic notions. Perhaps it was possible here to make contact with something like an alien mind. At first I thought it would be very difficult to study autistic individuals in a strict experimental fashion. Perhaps case studies were the only way. Then I happened to read a paper by Beate Hermelin and Neil O’Connor and realised that it was after all possible to do experiments with these children.

I plucked up courage and managed to talk to them a couple of times. One day they asked me whether I would like to do a PhD. I didn’t hesitate for a second.

I immediately knew that this is what I

most wanted to do. But it also put me in a quandary as I had already been talking to Reg Beech about doing a PhD on obsessive compulsive disorders. He was very understanding. He could see that my interest in studying autism was unstoppable. I was extremely lucky. This whole area of research into disorders of cognitive development was only just beginning, and I happened to be in the right place. When people asked what I was doing and I said I studied autistic children, they invariably thought I was studying artistic children! When I did explain about autism, they generally thought it was odd to study something that was so very rare.

Things changed radically, with you as one of the people that suggested autistic children couldn’t mentalise.

Did that happen overnight or was it an idea that gradually emerged?

The ground for the idea was well prepared in many ways. The rigorous experimental approach to autism pioneered by Hermelin and O’Connor was one thing, and so was the finding that the really critical feature of autism was not people’s aloofness, but their strange failure in reciprocal communication. ‘Theory of mind’ was an idea which just then surfaced and inspired developmental psychologists Heinz Wimmer and Josef Perner. It only needed these strands bringing together.

There was a sort of insight moment: If young children needed a ‘theory of mind’ in order to understand pretend play, as Alan Leslie argued, then it was possible that autistic children who had recently been found to lack pretend play, did not have a ‘theory of mind’. Simon BaronCohen started his PhD at this time and carried out the critical experiments. One of them has become a classic experiment with the Sally-Ann False Belief Task.

Simon found that autistic children aged 9–10 years failed this task when children with Down’s syndrome and ordinary fiveyear-olds succeeded. John Morton suggested the novel term ‘mentalising’, short for ‘the ability to use mental states such as intentions and beliefs to predict behaviour of others and self’. So we all continued to work on the idea that mentalising failure might be key to the social impairments in autism. Convincing other people of this idea was not easy.

I tried to do this in my 1989 book Autism: Explaining the Enigma.

You found that specific deficit.

Yes we did find a specific deficit in social cognitive processing, and we designed other tests to show that there was no

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general cognitive impairment that would explain the results. But it was very difficult to get these ideas accepted. We wanted to claim that there was a neural basis to this specific deficit and that this might help us to identify a cause of autism in the brain. At the time brain imaging had just emerged. It was almost like science fiction. Here was an amazing technique that promised to make thinking in the brain visible. What about thinking about mental states? Of course, I could not have dreamt of doing brainimaging studies on my own. But fortunately Chris was very much involved in the early development of functional imaging techniques, and he was brave enough to give it a go. His colleagues have told me since that, at the time, they thought he was completely mad to do this. It took about 10 years for other centres to take up these crazy ideas and pursue them further. Today it is taken for granted that there is a mentalising system in the brain. What we still don’t know, however, is in what way this system is or is not working in autism. This has proved very elusive. I still remember that we expected to get an immediate and clear answer to this question. How naive!

If you put someone with autism in a scanner and gave them a specific task, how would their pattern of response differ from a non-autistic person?

This is a far more difficult question than it appears. It depends on the task, of course, and on how the person in the scanner decides to do the task.

Psychological tasks all involve many different cognitive processes, and we hardly know how even a few of these processes might be manifest in brain activity. There are individual differences in brain structure and brain function within the general population, let alone the autistic population. But we still know very little about individual differences.

A lot more work needs to be done here.

Studies looking at brain activity during mentalising tasks in autistic people reliably find atypical brain activation in the mentalising system. But it is difficult to interpret this and identify what exactly makes this activation atypical.

You have also suggested that autistic individuals might have some cognitive advantages?

At least 10 per cent have outstanding talents, and possibly as many as 30 per cent have superior abilities in quite specific areas, and it is important to explain these. My hope was that one single cause might explain these special abilities and at the same time the

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undeniable weaknesses that show up in tests such as ‘Comprehension’. That’s how I arrived at the theory of weak central coherence. Basically, there is the Gestalt, and there are the pieces giving you the information about the wood and the trees.

Weak central coherence is when you can’t see the wood for the trees. This can be both an advantage and a disadvantage.

There are tasks where it is important to resist the pull of the big picture, for example when you need to find a hidden object. Amitta Shah, another of my brilliant PhD students, showed that autistic children are good at finding hidden figures, and can easily see how to segment a picture in the Block Design Test. On the other hand, they may often miss the main point of a question in the ‘Comprehension’ test. Then Francesca Happé came along and showed that you don’t have to be autistic to have a detailfocused processing style.

Sarah White, a more recent PhD student, found that it is only a subgroup of autistic children who show weak central coherence. To my mind these are the children I used to see long ago, very much like the ones Kanner described.

They are the classic cases that still exist,

p.s. o

but now they are only a small part of the whole autism spectrum.

We still don’t know how to explain the amazing talent seen in some autistic individuals, but one ingredient may be the ability to zoom in easily on a small detail and stay there until it is mastered by countless repeats.

The film Rainman brought autism to the attention of the public in the 1980s – do you think that was a good portrayal of an autistic individual?

It was an outstanding portrayal, even though the character of Rainman was based on a composite of a number of autistic people. Apparently, Dustin Hoffman studied these people carefully, and managed to convey for the first time their endearing naivety and their charming social faux pas. The film increased the awareness of the condition, especially in adults. It may also have increased the unrealistic expectation of outstanding talent. Most importantly, it helped to lessen any feelings of fear and dread about autism.

You mentioned your husband earlier, Chris Frith. When I interviewed him,

one question I asked was How do you feel about working with your wife? I’m curious if I ask you the same question about him to see whether you give the same answer?

It’s a marvellous feeling. We have always talked to each other about our work and have read each other’s papers in early drafts. We have always been interested in each other’s work, and it helped that it was different. It was no accident that we were in separate departments and were pursuing different projects. It is only really in recent years that we have been working together. We found that we enjoy it! I think writing together has worked very much to my advantage.

Chris often starts drawing out a structure and puts down rough ideas. Then I just have to do a bit of editing and expanding.

It seems like a free ride.

Maybe the two of you bring separate skills to the work – a bit like Lennon and McCartney?

I honestly believe I bring much less to it than he does.

Well, I can tell you that’s certainly not what he said!

Psychology of Sexualities Section Annual Awards

The Psychology of Sexualities Section of The British Psychological Society provides a forum for those with an interest in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues.

The Psychology of Sexualities Section awards three Annual Prizes: Practitioner Award (for a mental health professional who has made a substantial contribution to the field) Research Award (for a professional, in the UK or Internationally, writing in relation to sexualities) Student Award (awarded for an outstanding piece of work written in relation to sexualities) The awards comprise a cash prize, a certificate and publication in the Psychology of Sexualities Review.

Closing date: 30 April 2014.

For more information on the awards visit http://pss.bps.org.uk/pss/annual-awards.cfm.

www.bps.org.uk/pss

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Division of Forensic Psychology Annual Conference 2014 25–27 June, Glasgow Caledonian University Call for Submissions All abstracts must be submitted by using the BPS Online Submission System. Please ensure you read the submission guidelines prior to submitting.

Submission Deadlines: Symposia, Workshops and Individual Papers – 30 January 2014 Posters – 13 March 2014

Confirmed Keynotes Dr John Livesley, University of British Columbia, Canada Dr Jo Clarke, University of York Professor Alison Liebling, University of Cambridge Mr Lawrence Jones, Rampton Hospital and Nottingham University

Invited Symposia Dr Nikki Graham-Kevan, University of Central Lancashire Dr Catherine Hamilton-Giachritsis, University of Birmingham Crime Writers Section: Denise Mina Bursaries and Awards: Details available on the website.

Registration: Now Open!

Early rates available until 8 May 2014. All rates will increase after this date.

Further information can be found at www.bps.org.uk/dfp2014

Technical Support in Psychological Research Award Closing date from nominations: 1 February 2014 The Research Board and the Association for Technical Staff in Psychology are delighted to announce a new annual award recognising the valuable role that technicians play in supporting research within their psychology departments.

The Award seeks to recognise excellence work by psychology technicians in the following areas of skill: G Using technology G Interpersonal communications G Instruction/research G Problem solving G Innovation G Special skills G Project management G Publications The nomination should take the form of a narrative report evidencing the criteria above. This should be a maximum of 1000 words supported by testimonials from staff or students as appropriate.

For further information on how to make a nomination and the award criteria please contact liz.beech@bps.org.uk

892

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The British Psychological Society Promoting excellence in psychology

2014 CPD events New workshop dates announced!

We are pleased to announce the launch of the Society’s 2014 learning and professional development directory, which will be available later this month: www.bps.org.uk/cpd.

Our popular CPD workshop programme contains over 100 events in clinical, counselling, education and child, forensic, health, occupational, and sport and exercise psychology.

The 2014 programme includes extra dates for our popular supervision and private practice workshops. The programme of workshops will be updated throughout the year. For the most up-to-date information keep an eye on the monthly listing in The Psychologist and our website.

Follow @BPSLearning on Twitter to find out when new workshops are announced.

www.bps.org.uk/findcpd

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2014 CPD Workshops Professional development opportunities from your learned Society Supervision skills training: Workshop 3 – Models of Supervision

10 January

Working sucessfully in private practice

16 January

Setting up and running a social enterprise providing child clinical psychology services (DCP CYPF) (Milton Keynes)

23 January

Supervision skills training: Workshop 4 – Ongoing development – Supervision of supervision

24 January

Using trauma focused CBT to work with PTSD

30-31 January

Expert witness: Essential knowledge of being an expert witness (Level 1)

4 February

Expert witness: Report writing (Level 2)

5 February

Expert witness: Presenting evidence in court (Level 3)

6 February

The neuropsychological management of Multiple Sclerosis (DoN) (Liverpool)

13 February

Supervision skills training: Workshop 1 – Essentials of supervision

14 February

Strategies for improved decision-making (Cognitive Section)

19 February

Using therapeutic skills to engage individuals with physical and long-term conditions to manage their health (DHP)

21 February

An introduction to sleep: Psychobehavioural assessment and treatment strategies for people with insomnia (DCP)

24 February

Refresher course on Repertory Grids (DOP)

27 February

Developing effective, efficient, equitable, acceptable and accessible services for common mental health problems in the 4 March age of austerity (DCP & Community Section) Get productive wheel: Using systemic thinking for supporting best performance, well-being and mental health (SGCP)

5 March

Supervision skills training: Workshop 2 – Enhancing supervision skills

12 March

The behaviour change wheel guide to intervention development, evaluation and evidence synthesis (DHP)

13 March

Cognitive analytic therapy in a forensic setting (DFP & DCP FFCP)

14 March

Cognitive assessments with children and young people in CAMHS and other non-specialist settings: Update your skills (DCP CYPF)

20 March

Expert witness: Use of Psychometric assessments for court (Level 4)

21 March

Supervision skills training: Workshop 3 – Models of Supervision

21 March

The practice of educational psychology in an increasingly diverse society (DCP CYPF)

24 March

Developing evidence-based approaches to practice in organisational psychology (DOP)

28 March

Advanced Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) (DHP / DFP / QMiP Section)

31 March

Supervision skills training: Workshop 4 – Ongoing development – Supervision of supervision

2 April

Researching your psychology teaching practice: an action research approach (DARTP)

4 April

What's the story? Using metaphor and stories in therapy, counselling and coaching (DCP / SGCP)

9 April

For more information on these CPD events and many more visit www.bps.org.uk/findcpd.

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LOOKING BACK

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Broadmoor Hospital – a unique facility From the year of Broadmoor’s sesquicentenary Tony Black presents a professional memoir, looking back to its centenary in 1963

smiled and thought they could manage he profession of clinical psychology that and, indeed, Dr McGrath, the new was effectively brought about by the medical superintendent, had emphasised creation of the NHS in 1948, which, his hopes for research at Broadmoor – an by the time of Broadmoor’s centenary in invaluable ‘quote’ subsequently.

1963, comprised over three hundred posts. Yet mental hospitals, as they were then known, had only been gradually following the example of the teaching Broadmoor life hospitals and setting up posts of their In 1959 Broadmoor didn’t seem too own; Broadmoor, in Berkshire, followed different from other mental hospitals of the trend in 1959 by appointing me. those days but peripheral security was To see how it was by 1963 needs clearly tighter, the wall more impenetrable explanation of how I had decided to and checking of everything more shape the new service for this challenging meticulous. Separate keys operated for the and intriguing place when appointed male and female wings, graded from M1 those few years earlier.

In 1959 I was interviewed in the daunting Savile Row offices of the then Ministry of Health. Asked if I had any questions, I caused surprise by saying ‘Yes’. I asked if money would be available to set up a lab. Don Walton, who trained me at Rainhill Hospital, Liverpool, on the probationer in-service system, had urged the need for lab facilities in the expanding role clinical psychologists were developing and John Tong, at the sister special hospital of Rampton, showed me his own lab on my visit there. The two-man appointment board asked how much, and I said: ‘About five Peripheral security was clearly tighter, the wall more hundred pounds’ (a cheeky impenetrable and checking of everything more ask, 54 years ago). They meticulous

further reading

T

Black, D.A. (2003). Broadmoor interacts.

Chichester: Barry Rose Law. Blackburn, R. (1971). Personality types among abnormal homicides. British Journal of Criminology, 11, 14–31.

(Also Special Hospitals Research Reports, No.1) Gordon, H. (2012). Broadmoor. London: Psychology News Press.

Megargee, E.I. (1966). Undercontrolled and overcontrolled personality types in

extreme antisocial aggression.

Psychological Monographs, 80, No.611. Berkeley, CA: American Psychological Association.

Partridge, R. (1953). Broadmoor. London: Chatto & Windus. (Reprinted 1975 by the Greenwood Press, Westport, CT) Stevens, M. (2013). Broadmoor revealed.

Barnsley: Pen & Sword Books.

or F1 for the ward staff up to M5 for the physician superintendent. There was a further ‘top lock’ key for all ward doors when they were locked at night as well as round the clock on the two ward blocks housing the most disturbed patients. My key was M4 and I had a top lock key, but I had to phone in advance if I was visiting the most disturbed wards (the ‘back blocks’) and arrange an escort to accompany me when seeing a patient in the female wing.

At about 850 patients at that time (in a hospital built for 500) and some 40 acres within the walls there was considerable scope for a varied life for this long-stay population. This included a wide range of workshops, kitchen gardens, a chapel choir, a choral group, a drama group (the ‘Broadhumoorists’), recreational activities on each of the ward blocks, including table tennis and snooker tables, and a television in each ward.

Groups of half a dozen escorted parole patients worked on the grounds outside the walls, though the former hospital farm was by then privately run.

Musical instruments, hobbies and gardening were all encouraged, whilst a large sports field enabled football, cricket and athletics to take place. The whitewashed inside of the perimeter wall was claimed to be the largest sight-screen in the country, whilst all matches were played at home! There were bowling greens on the terraces of both male and female wings whilst the women had the addition of a croquet lawn. The finals of the sporting competitions, as with the parole patients’ dances in the central hall, were social functions that the hospitals’ ‘officers’ were expected to attend with their spouses, the superintendent’s or chaplain’s wife usually presenting the prizes. The kitchens were also a patients’ workplace and provided impressive refreshments for these occasions.

Admissions Arriving in 1959 afforded a year’s experience of the pre-war legislation because the radical changes of the 1959 Mental Health Act weren’t implemented until November 1960. The new Act did not affect the way patients were admitted to Broadmoor as it did elsewhere (where admission on medical grounds, rather than a magistrate’s authority, was a revolutionary change). The majority of patients still came via the courts, with a number transferred from prison. It affected the type of admission, however, which doubled the annual admission rate in the space of a few years, from 70 to

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Broadmoor Gatehouse

140 men and from some 10 to 20 women.

This was catastrophic for a building already over full. Some day-room facilities had to be given over for dormitories, and beds were sometimes set up in corridors.

This increase at an already overcrowded hospital was partly due to the new Act’s inclusion of ‘Psychopathic Disorder’, for the first time as one of the its four categories of Mental Disorder, but partly also to the category of ‘Mental Illness’ replacing the longstanding criteria of insanity defined by the M’Naghten Rules.

The latter restricted admission eligibility to those who were too insane to ‘instruct counsel, understand evidence, challenge witnesses, understand the nature of their actions, etc.’. ‘Mental illness’ was intentionally an altogether looser concept.

The range and number of admissible mental disorders thus greatly increased the admission rate. Dangerousness was still the crucial extra criterion applied, with the new Act allowing those who had committed lesser crimes (e.g. petty theft) to be treated in local psychiatric hospitals.

Among other factors in the new Act increasing the workload was the introduction of Mental Health Review Tribunals to which patients could appeal against their continued hospitalisation

Assessment The strategy for a psychological service, I decided, must include setting an admission baseline from which to assess change and ultimately fitness for discharge or transfer, the vital special hospitals’ question and one emphasised to me by John Tong at Rampton. I used the routine test of those days (WAIS) to assess the impairment of those abilities which typified certain mental disorders; a test of perceptuo-motor impulsiveness

keep up with the doubling of the (the Porteus Mazes) to reflect admission rate in the 1960s. There was this facet of psychopathy; and no other clerical back-up at that time a widely used questionnaire except in the medical office where the (MMPI) with norms for typists struggled to fit in my reports to various psychiatric conditions their schedule. and personality traits linked There were naturally also specific with impulsivity and referrals for psychological investigation, psychopathy. chiefly from the two consultants, leading This assessment of all to use of a wide range of other admissions would also be psychological tests of that era whilst used on potential discharges another arm of our information gathering to show differences that would was a survey of the entire male wing of hopefully confirm the hospital (the female wing would have improvement. Ultimately to come later). Small groups at a time longitudinal assessments were given the Raven’s Matrices, the Mill would accrue, and years later Hill Vocabulary and the Maudsley I managed to complete a Personality Inventory. This proved helpful follow-up study of a five-year for subsequent investigations and showed cohort of male discharges. a generally high level of ability in the These early tests might patient population, to the surprise of nowadays be thought dubious many and despite the impairment of the but they were standard usage then in more acutely disturbed patients (the augmenting psychiatric opinions, one ‘Mental Subnormality’ and ‘Severe of the reasons for clinical psychologists Subnormality’ categories of the 1959 Act having been introduced to the NHS. Data went to Rampton or Moss logging for research Side Hospitals, their role in at Broadmoor also those days.) This work also needed to look at “The range and number of helped to make the case for both psychiatric admissible mental disorders expanding the workshops diagnosis and thus greatly increased the and recruiting more offence category, admission rate” occupations officers, whilst thus doubling the an education officer was research load. So a recruited and a ‘school’ created. treatment role had Furthermore it helped our social worker to wait for both data to accrue and the who had to arrange a job and a place to department to acquire more people to live before a patient’s discharge could be undertake it. approved. Vocational interest and aptitude A male staff nurse was attached to me tests were used for this. as both escort and someone who could keep records and carry out routine testing. As a former staff sergeant in the REME he was well drilled in military Research routines and so an ideal person to train What of the lab then? Well, it was built for the job. Between us we managed to and it gradually acquired equipment.

A student who had built one for John Tong at Rampton built a device for presenting a sequence of lights of varying complexity and at increasing speeds for measuring change of response under stress (revealing over-reactors and under-reactors), a method devised for pilot selection in the war. The student had formerly been a telephone engineer and made use of telephone relay equipment from the government surplus stores of those days. Dr McGrath called this the ‘demented pianola’, which he took delight in bringing VIP visitors to see. In later years, the lab was increasingly developed, including the addition Patient in workshop – operating a steampress

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of a polygraph. This was not used as a lie detector but to compare autonomic responses to various sensitive stimuli related to patient’s offences, compared with neutral ones, and under controlled conditions in the lab (contrary to criticisms from press and patients’ rights groups who thought patients were being encouraged to indulge their deviant fantasies).

Case conferences and treatment A weekly admission case conference took place in the superintendent’s grand panelled office with its array of Richard Dadd’s paintings. In 1959 there were only two consultant psychiatrists, the medical superintendent and a part-timer shared with St George’s. The case was presented by one of the three senior registrars and a staff nurse who reported the patient’s condition since admission. The social worker and I also presented our findings whilst also in attendance were an SHMO (senior hospital medical officer) who was also deputy superintendent, the CMN (chief male nurse, matron for the female wing), and the chaplain –a prominent figure in hospital life in those days.

The outcome of the case conference would be a diagnosis, treatment plan and a decision as to which ward block the

Secluded patient's room

patient would be sent. The most disturbed and difficult to manage would go to Block 6, otherwise the majority to Block 4. With my heavy involvement in assessing the parameters of the population and the condition of each new patient, there was little scope for an involvement in treatment, although my suggestions for what the nascent psychological therapies could provide were often invited with the somewhat

taunting question: What has conditioning got to offer, Tony?

Psychiatric treatments in those times mainly comprised one or other of the plethora of pharmacological drugs being developed; or electro-convulsive therapy. This latter continued for many years, not only for depression but also in many cases of schizophrenia, although anaesthetics were used to reduce the distressing and potentially damaging convulsions that would otherwise ensue. Surgical leucotomies, still being done weekly when I left Rainhill, were taboo with Dr McGrath who maintained we had too many Parole patient's room patients who had been brain damaged therapeutically anyway!

Insulin coma therapy was still being done but was discontinued not More research followed and staff long after. additions by the 1970s went on to develop treatments of that era such as social skills training and, later still, anger control. I hope this gives the lie to the Centenary and beyond often voiced view that Broadmoor was an This, then, was the hospital, its work academic and professional backwater. and my role at the time of the centenary That Broadmoor has patients, not in 1963. prisoners, with treatment and an active When the centenary came, Broadmoor and varied life within its walls, and that arranged the usual celebrations including pioneering professional work goes on the hosting of several conferences of there, often surprises the world at large, professional bodies. One of these was who believes Broadmoor to be a bear pit for the BPS’s Committee of of hopeless cases. Repeated publicity fails Professional Psychologists, forerunner to change this view. The public seems to of the professional Divisions, where have a need for an ‘out of sight, out of I presented some of our early findings. mind’ attitude. Of course, there have I did the same at the eleventh hour always been wards where there are highly to replace an indisposed speaker for disturbed patients who spend protracted a meeting of the Royal Medicospells in seclusion. But the majority Psychological Association, forerunner would settle and improve with the of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. medication of those days, plus good At this meeting I presented some nursing, occupational and recreational of the findings from our admission facilities. The psychotherapies were yet assessments that demonstrated to come, although the two consultants differences between patient groups did what they could. Until the system defined both by diagnosis and by was satisfied that they were no longer offence. Some were to be expected but likely to be a public danger, however, the unexpected ones caused some patients stayed there. surprise. The main surprise was that Calls for Broadmoor’s closure didn’t a substantial group of the most ‘severe’ occur in those days when psychiatric offenders (i.e. the homicides) showed hospitals were opening their doors and predominantly unimpaired, symptom-free depending on the backstop of Broadmoor profiles. They also showed high levels of to sustain this. Nowadays such calls are defensiveness. Only later in the 1960s frequent, but this unique facility seems when Ron Blackburn joined the vital in order to allow the rest of the department, did the explanation begin to system to work, although the regional emerge. He analysed the admission data secure unit system now helps to spread in more detail and derived a number of the load. distinct patterns, one of which was clearly the same as a group described at that time in the USA by Edwin Megargee as ‘overcontrolled’. Thus a term that has passed I D.A. (Tony) Black was Head of Psychology into common use began its UK life at Services, Broadmoor Hospital, 1959–1986 Broadmoor. dablack@waitrose.com

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