In recent months, the country has experienced gruesome incidents of xenophobia-related violence. Some South Africans attacked, injured and killed a number of non-nationals and South Africans. Businesses belonging to non-nationals were looted and burned. People were driven out of their homes and had to spend time in refugee tent camps. The scenes reported in the […]
mental health
Posted inGeneral
Why it’s important for our health to get rid of the neoliberal regime
In his riveting study, What about me? The Struggle for Identity in a Market-Based Society (trans. Hedley-Prôle, J. London: Scribe Publications, Kindle edition, 2014), the Belgian psychoanalyst, Paul Verhaeghe, gives a resoundingly affirmative answer to the question: “Is there a demonstrable connection between today’s [neoliberal capitalist] society and the huge rise in mental disorders?” Many […]
Posted inGender violence
Relationships of violence: Why abuse counts
If you combine anger and power in a petri dish you often get violence and abuse. You can take it further and combine a history of male shame, violence as a means to end oppression, and outdated notions of masculinity and the results are pretty scary: you end up with a nation of angry men […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence
Asylum seekers and bridging the gap in mental health
*Selam sits nervously in my office, lost in thought. In tears, she recalls her brushes with violence and terror since leaving Ethiopia in 2009. She has been diagnosed with a major depressive disorder, manifested by the continual abuse. She is one of many people being helped by Lawyers for Human Rights’ pilot project, funded by […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, Health, Lifestyle
Can a psychology of ubuntu heal our broken society?
The urgency of activism, although well-intentioned, can hide the ordinary, subtle, even banal nature of how societies become sick. The 16 days of activism, now quickly forgotten, reflected our uneasiness at how things are and had a desire to want to put things right. But change is a process, not an event. Our response to […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Divorce can be deadlier than criminal law
While I specialised in criminal law in 1997 I have been inundated with divorce matters almost from the time that I elected to narrow down the cases that I would be prepared to deal with. The problem is that ordinary people, both men and women, who feel slighted or emotionally scarred by their spouse’s conduct, […]