distressed economist encounters demon

The LRB has reprinted the late Wynne Godley's account of the origins and progress of his nervous illness, and the mindboggling misery he went through under psychoanalysis. Another tale of the times.

Comments

[Phil]

A close (though geographically distant) friend of mine wrote a biographical study of Winnicott as her dissertation when she was training to be a psychotherapist; I've got chunks of it in draft form on my hard drive. It should really have been published in some form, but she died of cancer shortly after qualifying. I remember sending her a copy of this article. She was a great fan of Bion (mentioned in one of the letters).

I'm convinced that Winnicott was a genius. I haven't read much about Khan or wanted to. (Linda Hopkins, one of the letter writers, has written his biography.)

No point really, just that both the subject matter and the mood of that article - the sense that sometimes life just is fucked up, and sometimes it's irremediable - has a lot of resonances.

[Phil]

Actually 'irremediable' is wrong - just that sometimes you're digging in the wrong place & need to stop digging.

[bert]

His piece on the euro reads extremely well twenty years later. A very interesting life, the fuckedupness being part of the fascination, I guess. That's him as an archangel conquering the devil on the outside of Coventry cathedral.

[bert]

In real life the demons were chasing him.

[CMcM]

Jeez - that's Wynn Godley? When I lived in the city I walked passed that most days. That might rate as the most Utterly Useless but Totally Compelling fact I've ever picked up on B&T. Bert, I am in your debt.

[bert]

Another useless fact: Godley was the Treasury official who handled the '67 devaluation of sterling.
"Pound in your pocket" and all that.

[bert]

There's that and more in this bit of family history.
He's in his 80's, shows signs of being fairly heavily medicated, and was dead within 18 months. Worth a watch nonetheless.

[godoggo]

Oops, I definitely should not have posted that. Please remove. Thank you.

[godoggo]

Also, I'm aware n retrospect that it could have used some proofing.

[john b]

It's OK, if there was ever a sociopolitical website that was also wholly open to the discussion of the contributing community's horrendous urological disorders, it's this one.

[Chris williams]

Yeah, I haven't got the privs to delete that comment, but I am willing to dilute it by alluding to the fact that I am very clued up on what 'Trans-urethral resection of tumour' means in practice. Of course, if Jamie then deletes the other comment, this will be left looking a bit of an irrelevance; but I can cope with that.

[john b]

I hope Jamie won't delete the comment. We're all in this together, as someone once said.

[Barry Freed]

You should try my patent Tangiers Bug Powder. It'll do you wonders.

[Phil]

I know nothing of godoggo beyond what he's chosen to share in comments here, but I think the comment should probably be deleted.

[john b]

Barry: is it made from the true black meat, the Brazilian aquatic centipede?

Phil: spoilsport.

[ajay]

Boy, this thread makes interesting reading if you're coming to it fresh this morning.