November 03, 2005
Theodore Millon on mental illness:
Theodore Millon, one of the grandees of modern psychology (so old-school he's smoking a pipe on his homepage) is interviewed on ABC Radio's All in the Mind.
Misleadingly, the show is pitched as "Theodore Millon – Grandfather of Personality Theory", where in actuality he talks very little about personality research.
He mainly focuses on the wider topic of theories of mental illness, although this is not alien territory to Millon, as he has maintained a clinical focus throughout much of his long and distinguished career.
As well as discussing some of the developments since he started practising over half a century ago, he also talks about his own personal experiences.
I was particularly struck by one, in which he recounts how he spent several days living in a psychiatric hospital he was working at, to better understand the experience of the patients.
He soon became disoriented and started to doubt whether he was a doctor or patient, and had to phone a colleague to test reality.
I like to think the tale caused Erving Goffman a wry smile.
mp3 or realaudio of programme audio.
Link to transcript.
