Part 11: The Blessing Ben’s pack had not survived the culling. He never saw Cecil, George, Salomé or Wolf again. And most of the countless other dogs that Ben had befriended were now no more. The few remaining poor souls that were left to wander the beaches had probably only…

And the Problem of Social Etiquette It was another hot and humid day during the madness of the pandemic that had robbed the world of all reason — or at least some sense of proportion. Ben sat in an Italian restaurant eating tagliatelle and bolognese (but without cheese, due to…

Society, OCD and the question of acceptable risk Only in a historical re-telling of the time of the pandemic will we see the true suffering of what has taken place. I suspect that the victims of social distancing with the stress of isolation, the breakup of relationships, the loss of…

The Holocaust of Behavioural Materialism He had just turned fourteen and was six months into his treatment for a crippling form of OCD (though it was known as obsessional neurosis back in 1973). Ben exited his room into the hallway of the boys’ ward on the first floor of the…

Medical ethics and living with the suffering and death of a loved one Ben stared hard at the image on the computer screen after filling in the box that required his date of birth. …

Ego Shmeego — The Demonization of the Ego 1. The misunderstood ego In an age when egotism, fuelled by social media and politics, has become disturbingly fashionable on almost every level of society, it is an auspicious time to re-examine the evolution and de-volution of the meaning of the word…

Transcript of an interview with a veteran of OCD Hal: So you mentioned that there was a particular event that catalysed what you call your ‘fall.’ Would you like to talk about it? Ben: Yes. It was in 1970 and the spring of my final year in junior school, just…

Part 10: The Return Nine months later, Ben’s arrival at Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok came as a welcome relief after many hours of back-numbing immobility during his long flight from London. …

Part 9: The Departure The day before Ben’s departure was a time of frenetic activity and mounting stress. He said his goodbyes to his friends, paid his bill at Cactus, giving Mama (the matriarch of Cactus) some extra money for allowing his dogs to remain there during his absence, and…