Remarkable lives: Christopher Fox in conversation with Jerome Carson
| Date | 09 November 2015 |
| Published date | 09 November 2015 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/MHSI-08-2015-0032 |
| Pages | 174-179 |
| Author | Christopher Fox,Jerome Carson |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Mental health,Social inclusion |
Remarkable lives: Christopher Fox in
conversation with Jerome Carson
Christopher Fox and Jerome Carson
Christopher Fox is based at
Psychology, University of
Bolton, Bolton, UK.
Jerome Carson is Professor
of Psychology at Psychology,
University of Bolton,
Bolton, UK.
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of the paper is to provide a profile of Christopher Fox.
Design/methodology/approach –Christopher provides a short biographical account of his life thus far.
He is then interviewed by Jerome. He describes how he has coped with serious depression.
Findings –Christopherclaims that he owes his own lifeto two things, Philosophy and hisclose friend Helena.
Research limitations/implications –The wide diversity of first person accounts shows the necessity of
collecting them as they reflect the lived experience of people battling with serious mental health problems.
The personal is often lost in the quantitative world of p values and statistical tests.
Practical implications –Christopher mentions being helped by numerous informal chats with peers rather
than medication and focused psychological therapies.
Social implications –While Christopher drew much sustenance from the works of Nietzsche, he was most
helped by a friend who had been his learning mentor at school. Friendship can be critical in maintaining hope.
Originality/value –Like many before him, Christopher says he “learnt more about himself in the days where I
sat in the garden (with peer survivors) than in the collective sessions of therapy, CBT or hospital visits”.
Keywords Philosophy, Nietzsche, Friendship, Recovery, Depression, Self-harm
Paper type Case study
Introduction
I remember being drawn to Christopher one day when he engaged me in a discussion about
Positive Psychology. “Why did everyone have to be so positive? Was it alright to be negative?”
He also told me about his interest in Nietzsche. He points out in his interview how he was helped
by reading Nietzsche. “I could be what I wanted to be instead of what my illness made me”. The
quest to develop a renewed sense of self-identity after the experience of mental illness has been
highlighted as one of the four key components of recovery identified by Andresen et al. (2003).
The others being hope, having a sense of meaning and self-determination. Let Christopher tell
the story […].
Brief biography of Christopher Fox
Recovery is a word thrown around all too often when in or around mental health, almost as if
there is some way of shaking it all off to a state of feeling that nothing had happened. To many
people, depression is seen as a self-indulgent, self-inflicted and selfish attitude rather than a
legitimate state of mind. But to argue such a point, to me, seems rather absurd. The standard
response to hearing someone state they have depression is usually something along the lines of
“pull yourself together”or “go out and do something”, and to my surprise I heard it a lot when
undergoing therapy and through my visits to the nearby hospital.
PAGE174
j
MENTALHEALTH AND SOCIAL INCLUSION
j
VOL. 19 NO. 4 2015, pp. 174-179, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 2042-8308 DOI 10.1108/MHSI-08-2015-0032
To continue reading
Request your trial