Paul Crichton

Paul Crichton MA (Oxon), MD (Munich), FRCPsych, PhD (London). Dr. Crichton is a Consultant Psychiatrist working for the Ministry of Justice in London.

His first degree was in Classical Studies (Latin, Greek, Ancient History and Philosophy) at Oxford University.

His medical training was at the Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universität in Munich. He worked for two years in neurology, at the Klinikum Großhadern in Munich and the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London, before doing his psychiatric training, first at Charing Cross Hospital and then at the Maudsley Hospital in London. He worked as a Consultant Psychiatrist in General Adult Psychiatry at Guys Hospital in London and then as Head of the Department of Psychological Medicine at the Royal Marsden Hospital, doing liaison psychiatry and cognitive behavioural therapy with people with cancer. After some years working for the Ministry of Justice as a psychiatric member of the Mental Health Review Tribunal in London, he now reads and writes.

In 2003 he completed a BA and then in 2010 a PhD in philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London. His PhD was entitled “Self-Realization  An Exploration” and his supervisors were Prof. Miranda Fricker and Prof. Susan James. It formed the basis of his book Self-Realization and Inner Necessity  Thinking about How to Live (London: Kiener Press, 2013). His other books are When Patient and Doctor Disagree. Autonomous Patient versus Paternalistic Doctor (2016), Twin Earth (poetry) (2016), Dreams and Delusions  Psychiatric Explorations (2020) and Mind and Morals  Philosophical Explorations (2021).  He has also written papers and articles for scientific and literary journals, including the British Journal of Psychiatry, the Lancet and the Times Literary Supplement. The Turning Tide (poetry) is planned 2022.

His main interests lie in the borderline areas between psychiatry, psychology and philosophy, including, for example, psychotic phenomena, rationality and cognitive distortions, the mind-body problem, autonomy, social justice and political freedom, the social identity of individuals, ethical and non-ethical values, and self-realization. The thinkers who have most inspired him include Aristotle, Plato, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Wittgenstein, Rawls, Freud, Kahneman, Williams, Taylor, Nussbaum and Frankfurt.

www.paul-crichton.co.uk