Volume 223 - Issue 5 - November 2023
Untitled (date unknown), Mary Barnes
Mary Edith Barnes (1923–2001) is an English artist and the best-known resident of Kingsley Hall, a radical therapeutic community established by R D Laing in Bow, East London in 1965. Barnes worked as a nurse before she experienced a psychotic breakdown in her 40s and sought counsel from Laing. She was the first to move into Kingsley Hall where she was encouraged by Laing to regress to infancy and to live through her illness and trauma. Barnes initially spent time curled in a foetal position in a shroud-like box on the floor. Her creativity was ignited when Dr Joseph Berke a young, American psychotherapist arrived at Kingsley Hall to work with Laing. He developed an intense therapeutic relationship with Barnes, using unconventional methods such as him feeding and bathing Barnes as if she were an infant. Barnes began to mark the walls of Kingsley Hall using her excrement, applied with her fingers. This led to conflict with the other residents who wanted her evicted. Berke offered her art materials and encouraged her to scribble. There began a flourishing artistic practice that resulted in many hundreds of works, and that she continued into her later life, spent in Scotland. Despite no formal artistic training, Barnes developed an expressionist style, characterised by heavy, layered application of oil paints, often using her fingers as seen in this example. Her inspiration included depictions of her psychosis, a dark, fractured form she named IT, relational themes as seen in the featured work, and after her recovery - the Scottish landscape and her deep Catholic faith. Barnes's artwork and her archive have been acquired by the Wellcome Collection. Find out more about Barnes http://www.mary-barnes.co.uk and a series of celebrations in the anniversary year of her birth: https://falklandestate.co.uk/rebirth-a-celebration-of-the-life-and-work-of-mary-barnes/
Professor Victoria Tischler
Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey
We are always looking for interesting and visually appealing images for the cover of the Journal and would welcome suggestions or pictures, which should be sent to Dr Allan Beveridge, British Journal of Psychiatry, 21 Prescot Street, London, E1 8BB, UK or [email protected].
Highlights of this issue
Highlights of this issue
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- 01 November 2023, p. A41
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BJPsych Editorial
The BJPsych: your journal, your voice, your research, your choice
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- 01 November 2023, pp. 499-500
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Editorial
New guidance for self-harm: an opportunity not to be missed
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- 29 August 2023, pp. 501-503
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Short report
Effect of prior pharmacotherapy on remission with sequential bilateral theta-burst versus standard bilateral repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in treatment-resistant late-life depression
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- 19 June 2023, pp. 504-506
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Invited commentary
Catching the threads: caregiving in Alzheimer's disease
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- 01 November 2023, pp. 507-508
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Paper
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on self-harm and self-harm/suicide ideation: population-wide data linkage study and time series analysis
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- 21 September 2023, pp. 509-517
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Severe mental illness, race/ethnicity, multimorbidity and mortality following COVID-19 infection: nationally representative cohort study
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- 25 October 2023, pp. 518-525
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Book Review
Will You Read This Please? Edited by Joanna Cannon The Borough Press. 2023. £14.99 (hb). 224 pp. ISBN 9780008519971
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- 01 November 2023, p. 526
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The Right to Be Protected from Committing Suicide By Jonathan Herring Hart Publishing. 2022. $104.12 (hb). 288 pp. ISBN 9781509949045
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- 01 November 2023, pp. 526-527
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Spirituality and Psychiatry (2nd edn) Edited by Christopher C.H. Cook and Andrew Powell. Cambridge University Press. 2022. £39.99 (pb). 418 pp. ISBN 9781911623304
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- 01 November 2023, p. 527
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Kaleidoscope
Kaleidoscope
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- 01 November 2023, pp. 529-530
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Corrigendum
Cognitive-behavioural versus cognitive analytic guided self-help for mild-to-moderate anxiety: a pragmatic, randomised patient preference trial – CORRIGENDUM
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- 18 September 2023, p. 531
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Extra
Equanimity for anger: creating space for difficult emotions – Psychiatry in sacred texts
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- 01 November 2023, p. 503
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Phantasm and suicide – Psychiatry in movies
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- 01 November 2023, p. 517
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Eternal nightfall – Poem
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- 01 November 2023, p. 525
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Not Now, Bernard: a Freudian fable – Psychiatry in literature
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- 01 November 2023, p. 532
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Front Cover (OFC, IFC) and matter
BJP volume 223 issue 5 Cover and Front matter
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- 01 November 2023, pp. f1-f3
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Back Cover (IBC, OBC) and matter
BJP volume 223 issue 5 Cover and Back matter
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- 01 November 2023, p. b1
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