richard falvey
Worked abroad in education for 20 odd years, mostly for a large international charity. Now care for my parents and am an activisit in Community based Red-Green politics
Location Beeston, Nottingham, UK
Activity
-
richard falvey replied to Alessandro Osini
@AngelaHarwood - thanks for trying :)
-
richard falvey replied to richard falvey
@SusanCleland :) and I've been laying off the sauce recently .....
-
Lots of people experience the high of morphine / heroine in hospital, few of them go on to become addicts - surely there must be more to addiction than "the SEEKING desire to experience the high that was initially felt when the drug/ substance was first taken." - otherwise hospitals would be an akin to addict producing factories, wouldn't they?
-
richard falvey made a comment
Deleuze and Guattari famously said that schizophrenia was a rational response to an irrational world. While I'm sure that comment was more metaphor than science, there doesn't seem to be any question of changing the world in your approach, it's all about accomodating yourself to it. Maybe it's just that societies are sick and making their people ill?...
-
richard falvey replied to Alessandro Osini
@AngelaHarwood Thisn is the paper - would be interested in a downloadable link if anyone can source it? I don't have an institutional log in
https://www.academia.edu/40383888/Identity_Subjectivity_and_Disorders_of_Self_in_Psychosis -
richard falvey made a comment
I wonder if your argument is a bit Left brain centric? https://www.essentiafoundation.org/seeing/iain-mcgilchrist-consciousness-is-the-stuff-of-the-cosmos/
-
There's always plenty going on in the world worthy of a rage response! In fact it's almost as if the system we've adopted promotes it.....
-
richard falvey made a comment
Is there any research to suggest that Lithium, used as a treatment for Bipolar Affective Disorder, can have the unintended consequence of dulling the Seeking instinct?
-
@StephenNewton Seems to me the problem is capitalism, which is based on creation of endless 'wanting' with little accompanying 'liking', and no concept of enough (endless growth). Get rid of capitalism rather than playing around like this for a 'cure':
"Encouragingly, some recent findings from animal studies have suggested it may be possible to rather...
-
richard falvey made a comment
It's fast, fearful and furious. Like a fighter pilot constantly scanning the cockpit for threats unseen, unknown and uncontrollable. When a 'pleasure' opportunity arises, we tend to take them, whether they satisfy a real need or not, often as part of fear of losing out (FOLO) or to distract from fear.
-
richard falvey replied to Clive Sims
@ElizabethReid That's ok Elizabeth, no offence taken.
-
richard falvey made a comment
I have 2 problems with Mark's arguments, and both 'challenges' apply equally to Subjectivity and Consciousness as described so far. In my opinion Mark fails to really address these problems in Response C and also elsewhere in a response on Buddhism. But I'll hold fire for now and see whether these issues are repeated in relation to intentionality and agency...
-
richard falvey made a comment
Mark says: ".....the Freudian unconscious – the repressed – comes about. These are premature, illegitimately automatised solutions to life's problems which we can't solve." This sounds to me like the source of 'scripts' in Transactional Analysis - would that be a correct assumption?
-
richard falvey replied to Stephen Newton
@MiskAlJahwari Humans coded AI, but the humans that coded AI were themselves coded by Humans. So AI and Humans are both coded by humans - what's the difference? Re Being 'alive' we function through chemical reactions and electricity - is there a real difference for a computer?
-
@AnnettePayling yes, but men get their bacteria from their mothers? BTW it's not an argument I'm proposing, it's just another perspective. I'm not at all religious or even spiritual by the standards of many of my friends. In fact I get worried when I exhit what I think of as Religious thinking for example I worry that my belief in Human Rights could be...
-
richard falvey replied to Clive Sims
Was it Skinnerian practicioners who did Rats on Crack (or heroine, but Crack scan better), who went on to extrapolate that rats (and by proxy humans) got addicted fast to heroine because of its addictive qualities, but forgot to take into account the fact that the rats (who are overtly social) were in prison conditions, in 24/7 isolation? I've never understood...
-
@StephenNewton Can you expand on why you "believe the mind is separate from the brain, even though it physically exists in the brain."
If mind can exist outside the brain (though finds it convenient to sit within the brain for those entites that have them) then why limit mind to entities with brains? I don't think trees have brains? But they (apparently)...
-
@AnnettePayling further the gut regulates serotonin production which is significant in regulating synapse activity - the gut is run by bacteria - we are more made up of bacteria than anything else. Are we simply a host for bacteria colonies that give us a sense of mind (drives, instincts and all) so that we carry on procreating. Bacteria (microbioeme) are even...
-
richard falvey replied to richard falvey
@AngelaHarwood Thanks, they did help clarify, but I still have pronblems with Subjectivity as argued by Mark. My objection has nothing to do with Behaviourism - they have much to answer for and little to offer in my book. The worst of the quantitative empiricists, driven to try harder to be 'more objective' than the hard sciences becase they were new kids on...
-
richard falvey replied to Clive Sims
Was he the lumberjack who couldn't fell a tree without an audience?
-
richard falvey made a comment
I'm not sure I've seen any evidenced argument or proof for the existence of Subjectivity, all we've seen is the assertion that we have it because it feels like we have it. The existence of the nodule (forget the name - heard it in a Mark S video recored in Haifa I think) that seems to be the site of consciousness in our lizard brains only prooves we have an...
-
Have you not been watching the news? Everyone seems to have a contrary perception of reality - there is no consensus :)
-
richard falvey made a comment
Blue and Black and a score of 2 - my connection with reality is strong, obvs ;)
-
richard falvey made a comment
posted in wrong place
-
richard falvey replied to Clive Sims
Hi Clive, I saw you thought the absence of Skinner from the reading list was an error, but I couldn't find any previous comment re Argument from Analogy - could you repost here, or post a link to a succinct summary of that argument.
-
richard falvey made a comment
I could probably be described as a hard core determinist, which often leaves me thinking about life in terms of "Why bother?" - but that's a fairly fruitless journey, and as I'm also a scientific materialist motivated by a belief in and desire to create a better world through cooperation, getting a handle on mine and other minds seems important. I'm interested...
-
richard falvey made a comment
Life determines consciousness not counsciousness life - to mis-quote Karl
-
richard falvey made a comment
Seems to me Subjectivity has been asserted rather than evidenced. ANd if subjectivity isn't, neither are the other 3. It seems the whole construct is there to 'explain' an a priori assumption i.e. that we are bounded individuals with a sense of self - but Lacan would argue (as I understand it woithpout having read any Lacan) that we only come to see purselves...
-
richard falvey made a comment
I think I'm drawn to panpsychism and /or simultaneously the idea that the subjectivity that humans 'experience' is illusory / a mere product of our situated biology / genes / perceptual apparatus (/ genes/nature/nurture). Coupled to this I wonder if subjectivity is both relatively modern and weirdly and warpedly Western and a product of Descartes separation of...
-
richard falvey replied to Harpreet Kaur
Thanks - that must be hard, especially as most of us are not great at tolerating ambiguity.
-
The mind "is just a very complicated information-processing device" ... is an analogy that has been used time and time again. Hopefully, you'll this course course will change the way you see the mind :)" @AngelaHarwood Is that your *intention*? ;)
-
richard falvey replied to Harpreet Kaur
Hi Harpreet - what is GAD?
-
@BarbaraK-S long may that remain possible - although the well worn strategy of Defund, Distress, Privatise seems to be in full swing. In my role as a patient/carer voice and activist I see a lot of distress in the NHS and associated systems, including 'moral distress' where employees find themselves having to implement systems that they know are substandard...
-
@BarbaraK-S You're right Barbara, it isn't ALL about Big Pharma, and there is some research that isn't profit driven and some can be - especially for late career professionals with a track record of delivering - interest / curiosity led. However this: "All done in spare time between our usual work load for no extra pay and with no extra funding." speaks...
-
@AlexJohnstone(LeadEducator) Thanks for that interesting. I need to find time to rewatch it and comment more fully, but may lose access to the course before I find time - so tyhis is a placeholder comment:
I don't think Yeo endorses the argument that this course seems to be taking or that you've really addressed the CIM challenge to the EBM model....
-
@BarbaraK-S Perhaps initially blue sky "but as early as 1999 the University of Cambridge had found that giving leptin to obese people in general did not help." Therein ended the interest of drug companies as no big market. With the neoliberalisation of education the scope and funding for blue skies research has diminuished in equal proportion to the increaase...
-
@BarbaraK-S yes, of course - but this discovery probably didn't come about because of a blue sky research and a desire to address this specific issue of these rare individuals - it came about because Big Pharma saw potential for marketisation of a discovery and a potential mega profit and becuase society expects simple solutions in accessible forms viz 'a...
-
richard falvey replied to richard falvey
@BarbaraK-S I thought you posted a Canadian Food Chart - might have been someone else?
-
@SeanWilliamson This may possibly be true: "The Energy Balance Model has a proven track record and people will lose weight through it if they have the willpower to stick to a calorie controlled diet and exercise regularly."
But if it only works for the handful of people, with willpower and access to healthy food products and a lifestyle / resurces that...
-
richard falvey replied to richard falvey
@BarbaraK-S @SeanWilliamson The UK largely deindustrialised in the 80's and claimed to be transitioning to and winning the Knowledge and Service economies. We also imported Eastern Europeans to do farm work, then kicked them all put and left our crops to rot, as well as not having any HGV drivers as we kicked them all out as well. But even heavy industry these...
-
richard falvey made a comment
My baseline is: Gentle walking 3-6km a day, 10 mins mindful standing yoga a day, 30 mins meditation a day. Am pretty good at achieving this with the occaisional noncompliance. Looking to increase all of those and add in a couple of HIIT sessions a week.
-
I've def seen 7 a day 'officially' recommended - but not sure where?
-
richard falvey replied to richard falvey
@BarbaraK-S Some yes, but many office jobs are unneccessary see Graeber for example (apologies for linking to neoliberal rag like the Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/25/bullshit-jobs-a-theory-by-david-graeber-review) and more would be so in a non-capitalist society. Automation should have released many folks from the factory line by now.,...
-
richard falvey made a comment
Thanks - gave my final thoughts in section 4.14
-
richard falvey made a comment
On the course you push oily fish quite a lot, but I'm looking for alternatives to oily fish (Vegan);
I think you need to answer the challenge to the Energy balance model (EBM) you follow posed by the Carbohydrate Insulin model (CIM)
Gut health research, in my view, doovetails much better with a CIM than your EBM model
Obviously energy in - energy out plays... -
richard falvey made a comment
people talk about doing 10,000 steps a day - there is no scientific rational behind the 10,000 steps - it was just a snappy marketing slogan
-
richard falvey made a comment
We weren't designed to sit at desks or work on a production line in a factory - capitalism forced us of the land in order to make us wage slaves in factories and then offices - capitalism kills.
-
The need for fortification suggests an unsustainable culture to me
-
richard falvey replied to Surinder Hundal
it's always all about the money, and the latest fad, though having said l'atest fad', research in this area has been growing over the last 15-20 years but it always takes an age for findings and understanding to filter down through the medical establishment. But the most striking point you make is that not long ago people pickled and preserved foods as a...
-
richard falvey made a comment
Very indicative of the "a pill for an ill" culture that dominates our medical and pharmaceutical industries. If you only look for profit making magic bullets, you'll likely ignore a whole bunch of simpler, safer, better solutions.
-
"In the developed world we currently eat in excess of our calorie and protein requirements contributing to a positive energy balance and resulting in weight gain."
It is clear that this course adopts an Energy Balance Model and does not consider a Carbohydrate Insulin Model (Ludwig, D et al below)
I would like to see the course educators provide a...
-
It would seem that the science behind intermittent fasting is more related to a metabolism and endocrinology paradigm for understanding fat accumulation, that the energy balance paradigm - what are your thoughts on it @TheroigneRussell - is it both sensible and science based, or just another fad?
-
@TheroigneRussell - excellent find. I think the Course Educators really ought to address the points you have raised, as it would appear they believe in the energy balance paradigm
-
richard falvey replied to richard falvey
@GeorginaAndrews thanks Could you add more re this: "the extraction can be wasteful"
-
@PatriciaBallard yes, they should and farmers are often abused by the Corporatised Agiculture and F&B retail giants. Most farmers are victims of the system.
-
Socialism might help?
-
richard falvey made a comment
Intersteing to note the parallels between the inbuilt need for growth of cancer cells and that of capitalism - both obviously negatively impact on humans. if only more folk realisied this. Capitalism Kills.
-
richard falvey made a comment
Wendy mentioned positive health benefits of garlic and other pungent veg. Why do ayurvedic health approaches reject onion and garlic? Are they right?
-
richard falvey made a comment
Went lacto-ovo-veggie aged 18 in 1986, backslid into eating fish aged 23 and still do. Aspire to be Vegan. In 1986 the driver for me then was the economics of food and waste, the need to equitably feed the planet. Since then my vegan aspirations are more about environmental sustainability. More recently health has become a factor and fish and seafood, which...
-
richard falvey made a comment
C'mon Wendy, you *know* that the real take home message is that capitalism is incompatible with healthy food production and consumption. I could see in your eyes that's what you wanted to say.
-
richard falvey replied to Romayne W
I've heard algae is also a vegan source .....?
-
richard falvey made a comment
I've read recently, but can't remember the source, that RDI of Omega 3 can be effectively sourced from algae. Is this correct? If so wouldn't it be more sustainable to cultivate and consume algae, which also captures carbon, than run energy heavy fishing fleets and deplete stocks?
-
richard falvey made a comment
Why don't we just ban refined products? It's an extra process that is unneccessary, adds financial cost and has costs in terms of health. It wouldn't take long for people to forget about refined rubbish.
-
richard falvey made a comment
I thought the UK had moved from 5 a day to 7 a day? Or is that the WHO?
-
richard falvey made a comment
Dr Hollis should have introed to this tune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZw23sWlyG0
-
richard falvey made a comment
The Land, Food and Beverages Lobby has far to much power in the setting of the regulatory framework re food production and presentation. It uses this power to fight a war against good standards, the creation of an informed public and the cultivation of healthy tastes, while instead investing heavily in processes to make chaep and unhealthy food taste good and...
-
richard falvey made a comment
Hmm, thinking of people as 'consumers' probably doesn't help change things?
-
richard falvey made a comment
It is difficult to have a vision of what true sustainability would look like from the present context, but it needs to include the concepts of eco-justice, cooperation and internationalism and it has to exclude capitalism. Real sustainability is a post-capitalist concept.
-
richard falvey made a comment
I fail to see how this can be billed as a case study when there is neither contextualisation nor interrogation of the validity of the claims of the corporate spokesperson. This is a PR video.
However, I don't want to knock the John Lewis Partnership too much as despite the fact that they've never been a proper cooperative and have reduced rather than...
-
Interesting questions, and worth researching. The approach seems confused looking at the macro meat protein/GHG/ill health cluster), then a micro focus for solutions in technological detail, new plant protein including "Work is needed to create sustainable and healthy protein ingredients, foods, meals and drinks which can be consumed across the lifespan" -...
-
richard falvey made a comment
You said that your reserch finding that meat = over 50% of GHG in the UK diet was probably an overestimation, but this reseach seems to put the figure at 57% - "The use of cows, pigs and other animals for food, as well as livestock feed, is responsible for 57% of all food production emissions, the research found, with 29% coming from the cultivation of...
-
richard falvey made a comment
As a general rule of thumb, the more processed food is, the worse it is for you.
Processed food should be taxed and regulated out of the market - but then we'd also all have to learn to cook from scratch, which takes time. So wages need to increase and work hours reduced and we all learn to cook from scratch and not depend on time saving, convenient food that... -
richard falvey made a comment
Thanks Geraldine, I note you are a dentist. I was once told that up until approximately the 1950's dental caries was the No 1 killer in the UK. Is this true? Also is it true that oral hygiene in the UK is in rapid decline? -Thanks, Richard.
_________________Sugar, Salt, Heroin and Cocaine. The 4 deadly poisons of modern life, 2 of which our processed...
-
richard falvey replied to richard falvey
@AlexJohnstone(LeadEducator) yes I am (enjoying the course), and my comment wasn't serious ;)
-
Working now - must have been a temporary server issue
-
richard falvey made a comment
No, not really - but advertising is insidious and capitalism creates false wants and needs so that the F&B industry can sell us stuff. Also society is organised to make us time poor - good, healthy food requires time - to plan and execute. When we are time poor we default to quick and easy food that is usually bad for us and readily available - in fact it is...
-
richard falvey made a comment
So it's only the June '20 cohort who get the full service?
-
richard falvey replied to Daniel Hammond
you have probably not clicked on the "mark as completed' button at bottom of page at end of each section - there are 18
-
richard falvey made a comment
where can Vegans get zinc and iron?
-
richard falvey made a comment
link to GI + GL for 100 foods seems to be broken
-
richard falvey made a comment
What does ATP stand for?
-
richard falvey replied to Omar Tariq Khan
Animal protein comes with side effects I think - more toxic waste, less roughage. Plant protein is often bound up with roughage and less toxins.I'd say, all things being equal, plant based protein is superior, but you may have to eat more volume to achieve the same results re protein functions than with animal protein - my comments need verifying by one of the...
-
I don't know the name of the study - or the location, but one London borough is adopting a scandinavian approach top early onset psychosis which is heavily resource intensive, boith of health and care professionals and family, friends and significant others of the patient and interestingly avoids chemical kosh - in sum its a patient lead, intensive, marathon...
-
richard falvey made a comment
I couldn’t be a shrink. I had tears running down my cheeks. Great acting by Dave and Mathew obviously being himself as a practitioner. Also very instructive. I’ve been on the receiving end of those interviews, but never been aware of the structure in advance. Very interesting to watch someone’s else on the receiving end of such questioning.
-
richard falvey made a comment
Dynamic risk factors = capitalism kills
-
richard falvey made a comment
RE the last question of the suicide quizz, the explanation failed to state that there is a low incidence of suicide risk associated with psychopaths and sociopaths and a higher proportion of those among corporate CEOs and Managing Directors ;)
-
richard falvey made a comment
I think the hardest thing for psychiatrists must be that sometimes there are no solutions. Least not within our capitalist set up where worth is largely determined by ones role in employment performed to provide necessities and ensure survival.
-
richard falvey made a comment
In a context where healthcare
Professionals are prevented from taking the necessary time to get to know and understand their patients, screening tools may be a mitigation method. There is a danger though that they become the default system for
Noticing rather than being seen as a back up system for an under resourced system -
richard falvey made a comment
A lot of people are saying that Matthew's manner and skill as an interlocutor is a result of him being a mental health prodfessional and his training.
I've seen many a psychiatrist in my time and about 50% of them are good interlocutors, 50% of them are also below par.
It's also my experience of managers. Some listen, most don't, but some of those who...
-
richard falvey made a comment
1. Why are you expected to show happy while the capitalist machine exraxts surplus labour from you?
2. HR is NEVER on the side of employees
3. Managers are only nice to subordinates if they think it will increase productivity or boost their self esteem
4. Capitalism makes you sick
5. Everything else is HR-wash -
richard falvey made a comment
In my experience men are very much solution givers. I suffer from this myself and constantly have to check myself. Usually the person with a challenge knows most about their situation, has insight into what would be the best course of action and just needs the friend to listen - just listen - allow the sufferer to have a bit of a rant / moan / whine / dark...
-
Medicine and hospitals especially are structured to be medically efficient from the
Perspective of medics and accountants. Targets targets targets. It’s had an empathy bypass that excludes the patient from being anything but a recipient. While once again a key pillar “going forward” patient centred or personalised care is an aspiration that administrator... -
Mindfulness practice, and being mindful, have been shown to change neural pathways within as short a period of 21 days - the brain is physically different when MRI scans are compared ........ but I agree positive thinking self help gurus and cults are, well, culty. ..... and profitable!
-
richard falvey replied to D W
@DW - Abdominal fat is the key issue, I think, because it reduces the space for organs - 'cramped' organs underperform leading to illness. Obesity is a shorthand message that gets easily adopted and targetted by medical practicioners (and the press), though it is dangerously misleading / oversimplified, as you can be 'thin-fat' i.e. generally have a...
-
@GabriellaLewis I'd suggest that the brain-gut axis research is much stromger than 'can affect', is probably the explanation for the autoimmune and inflammatory disease epidemic we are experiencing and involves many environmental elements also i.e. braoder than a narrow mind/body diagnosis, but includes all aspects of life and living. Also it's been about 15...
-
@StevenGray why not? it's very political, after all. The choices made about what sort of health provision is available are largely informed by politics and corporate lobbyists. Our health care needs are largely driven by the lifestyles we are forced to live (note - not lifestyle choices)
-
richard falvey made a comment
Would be interested to know what the Mind - Body Champion role involves within the Eye group?
-
yes, @CT but also, mostly, they are just short of time.
-
Yes a broken leg could have all sorts of knock on effects and worries - loss of or potential loss of employment or disruption study with all that goes with that. Immobility has challenges with weight gain and wasting and inability to participate. It’s not inevitable there’s will be MH challenges, but not difficult to see there might. Also if the injury were...
-
how many women over time have simply been labelled ‘hysterical’ by a male dominated profession
