First Person

Professor Phil Mitchell
Head of the school of psychiatry

“I trained in medicine at University of Sydney, qualified with first-class honours and was appointed as a professorial intern at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in 1977.

“I was expected to train in internal medicine and become a physician. My decision to train in psychiatry was regarded with incredulity and bemusement, with a number of consultants (particularly in surgery) convinced that I had gone off the deep end.

“My intrigue with mental illness commenced in my undergraduate days, and increased with a number of cases of severe depression I saw on the wards of the teaching hospitals. These patients were severely unwell, but their illness was poorly understood, and the stigmatisation by ward staff was palpable.

“I have also had a fascination with human nature, so I entered psychiatry with the biological interests of a physician combined with a philosophical intrigue for the human condition.

“My research interests are in bipolar disorder and depression, with a particular fascination for the abnormal mechanisms that cause these conditions (such as genes for bipolar disorder), and a strong desire to improve treatment and patient outcomes.”

What do you like most about your job?
The freedom to undertake research that may ultimately add at least one small piece to solving the puzzle of bipolar disorder and
depression.

Pet hate?
The increasingly bureaucratic demands of the university system.

What are you reading?
George Eliot – A Life by Rosemary Ashton. I have only had the joy of discovering Victorian novelist George Eliot in recent years. Middlemarch and Silas Marner include the most acute and astute descriptions of human behaviour and nature, as well as being marvellous stories.

Best advice you’ve ever received?
Research not published is research not done!

Who inspires you?
My patients who battle with conditions such as bipolar disorder and depression, despite the havoc the illnesses cause to their relationships and careers.
You’re hosting a dinner party and can invite four people. Who is on your guest list?
George Eliot, cricketer WG Grace (I am a cricket history buff), JS Bach and Solomon (I never cease to be amazed at the deep wisdom of the Old Testament book of Proverbs).

What are you good at?
At work, I think my main strengths are in my critical judgment, and capacity to synthesise broad fields of knowledge. At home, I try to do a passable job as a husband and father – despite the never-ending demands of my career!

What can’t you do?
Bat for Australia, a dream I gave up many seasons ago.

The stack

New books by UNSW authors

Realising Democracy: Electoral Law in Australia – Edited by Graeme Orr, Bryan
Mecurio and George Williams

The Battle for Asia – Mark Berger

Antonin Artaud, a critical reader – Edited by Edward Scheer

Occupational Toxicology 2ed – Edited by Chris Winder and Neil Stacey

Introduction to Systematic Functional Linguistics 2ed – Suzanne Eggins

Raymond Williams’s Sociology of Culture – Paul Jones

The Howard Years – Edited by Robert Manne with contributions by Julian Disney and William Maley

All these titles are available from the UNSW Bookshop, Ph 9385 6622, www.bookshop@unsw.edu.au

Sociologists make top national book list

Two books by staff from the school of sociology and anthropology have been named among the 10 most influential works in Australian sociology.

Gender at Work by Associate Professor Ann Game and Economic rationalism in Canberra by Emeritus Professor Michael Pusey were nominated for the list, which was coordinated by the Australian Association of Sociologists (TASA) to mark its 40th anniversary in 2003.

Pusey also won TASA’s inaugural Stephen Crook memorial prize for the best book in Australian sociology 2002–2003, for The experience of middle Australia: the dark side of economic reform.