The Critical Commentator

  There are two certainties in life: death and taxes. It seems now the uber-rich and famous appear to believe thar they may be able to avoid them both. Leading health professionals have recognised a new disorder, longevity fixation syndrome, which they say is an obsession with longevity so all consuming it begins to take over daily life. Now a Swiss clinic has said that it has seen a "significant uptick" in clients coming to them exhibiting symptoms. On the lakefront in Zurich, the upper echelons of society make their way to Paracelsus Recovery, a mental health clinic with a highly personalised and skilled team treating patients for about £90,000 a week. Immortality Henry Fantin-Latour (1836-1904) Photo Credit: Museum of Wales [Public Domain] Jan Gerber, the founder and chief executive, said: "It's like any fixation, like an eating disorder or a classic behavioural addiction... People start giving up on things that are important for them - the career can suffer, pers...

  Tracking our kids' every move with phones or AirTags is causing a "deeply concerning" increase in anxiety among young people, according to more than 70 psychologists, doctors, nurses and health professionals who have come together to urge parents to "reconsider whether the surveillance childhood we are sleepwalking into is really benefiting our children." They add: "We are implicitly telling them that the world is unsafe," and warn that constant monitoring prevents kids learning the skills and developing the autonomy necessary to navigate real life. "It's so normal to want to keep our children safe," says Clare Fernyhough, co-founder of the campaign group, Generation Focus. "But there is no evidence that tracking makes them any safer." A Huntsman with His Horse and a Group of Hounds Charles Bilger Spalding (1810-1871) Photo Credit : Walker Art Gallery [CC BY-NC] It's also a staggering invasion of privacy. I would never tra...

Five years ago, Thomas Yarrow was going through a difficult time: his marriage was breaking down. He was aware of the advice given to all men  at such moments: that it's essential for your mental health to open up to friends, to talk about your feelings, to express your emotions. His response? to spend lots of time with people who didn't talk much at all... and when they did, the discussion was about welding, axles and engine parts... Now Yarrow, [professor of anthropology at Durham University] 48, is publishing a groundbreaking study of the relationships within the group - and it will not make him popular with the burgeoning mental health industry that centres on  coaxing men into emotional disclosure. In fact a stiff upper lip, he found, serves many men pretty well. The study, published later this month in the journal American Ethnologist , is subtitled "Rethinking male friendship and the value of personal reticence".... It argues that research routinely linking emo...