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Welcome

I started this blog in 2013 to share my reflections on reading, writing and psychology, along with my journey to become a published novelist.​  I soon graduated to about twenty book reviews a month and a weekly 99-word story. Ten years later, I've transferred my writing / publication updates to my new website but will continue here with occasional reviews and flash fiction pieces, and maybe the odd personal post.

ANNE GOODWIN'S WRITING NEWS

Psychologists Write: Stuart Larner

14/12/2015

24 Comments

 
Picture
What kind of psychologist are you?
I am a retired chartered clinical psychologist.
I worked in a general hospital in the UK with people who had difficulty coping with disability and physical illness. I devised a method of assessment based on the seven psychological tasks such patients face. These are: understanding and managing symptoms, dealing with the medical procedures, relating to hospital staff, managing upsetting feelings, maintaining a competent self-image, maintaining relationships with friends and family, and preparing for the future. I helped the multidisciplinary team in a physical health setting to understand the illness from the patients’ point of view, and what action might help all concerned. I took on a selected number of patients directly for psychological therapy along cognitive-behavioural lines.
I am also interested in applying psychology to my own life, and have kept up a self-monitoring diary for smoking, drinking, and exercise. As a result, I gave up smoking on July 4th 1984. I’ve not touched the weed since. I also applied some principles of sport psychology to help me play better cricket. However my progress was limited by my sporting ability, not by my psychology.

What kind of writer are you?
I am a writer of poems, stories, plays and articles for numerous international magazines, newspapers, and websites. I am a keen cricketer, qualified umpire, and live in North Yorkshire, UK.
The book that I have published is a fiction, and I wrote it to help myself. It is intended to be light reading for both sexes and all ages.

Did being a psychologist hinder your writing?
Sometimes.  Psychologists and writers look at the human condition in different ways. There is some commonality, but there are many differences between the science and the arts.
Science and arts often interfere with each other because they are on different paths to discovery.
Psychologists and novelists ask questions differently. In the interview /therapy situation, you cannot go off to examine areas of the patient’s life because you think that it would make a good story or novel. You have to honour trust and stay with the therapy model. Very often the great complexity of psychological analysis demanded in the interview situation has often meant that my mind has lost track of the creative idea for a story.
There are also problems of confidentiality, and material from the therapeutic encounter that is remotely identifiable cannot be used. It breaches trust and can be damaging in therapy.

So, where did you get your characters?
As I cannot use my patients as characters, I got my characters form everyday life. The cricket characters from the cricket field. However, I did not import them as complete entities into my work. They exist as bits of individuals that I have put together to make even larger than life characters.

Did being a psychologist help your writing?
I think it helped more than it hindered. The psychologist is journeying to a deeper appreciation of the human situation, via an analysis of cognitions, emotions, and behaviour.  This can stimulate brilliant fiction, because you have the gold dust of people’s experience. It is the heart of writing about humans.
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Guile and Spin
 
An outrageous, compelling, unforgettable story of cricket played to a farcical level you had previously never thought possible. A must-read for cricket fans everywhere.
Jeremy Freeman hates cricket, but is enticed by woman cricketer Claire who turns his life upside-down.  Fardeep Singh shows him how he can use spiritual powers and mystical charms to achieve his secret dreams.
Oriental magic meets sport psychology in an explosive mix. But that is only the start of their problems. Anything can happen – and does.
 
Published by Cricket International at FeedARead
“Guile and Spin” amazon.co.uk  ebook  £0.99p, £9.99 paperback.
 
See Stuart’s blog at http://stuartlarner.blogspot.co.uk/
Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
24 Comments
Charli Mills
14/12/2015 09:57:01 pm

Is this a good boo to read to understand what Cricket is? Stuart makes some interesting points.

Reply
Annecdotist
15/12/2015 10:25:06 am

Thanks, Charli, I'm afraid I can't answer that myself although hopefully Stuart pop back and explain. It certainly sounds intriguing, although my aversion to cricket would be quite a barrier. Makes me think of Netherland by Joseph O'Neill, which I did read but could have done without the cricket!

Reply
sarah link
15/12/2015 01:12:40 am

Has Geoff seen this? Charli...haha! :-D This is so interesting: "Psychologists and writers look at the human condition in different ways. There is some commonality, but there are many differences between the science and the arts." I've often thought that while reading your psychologist / writer posts, Anne.

Reply
Annecdotist
15/12/2015 10:30:10 am

I did think this might be one for Geoff and if he doesn't spontaneously appear I'll chase him via Twitter for an opinion.
Glad you find it interesting teasing out the similarities and differences between the psychology and the writing, as I think different psychologists would look a bit different ways – for some, perhaps me, clinical psychology is more of an art than a science, although its scientific basis helps provide safety and credibility.
I'm working on a guest post at the moment on the differences between academic/clinical writing and fiction, so trying to tease this out a bit more for myself.

Reply
Kate Evans
15/12/2015 08:36:59 am

How funny to wake up and find an interview with Stuart who I know personally. I guess it's the wonder of social media that makes connections between someone I met on Twitter and someone I used to live down the road from! Thanks for an interesting interview Stuart & Anne. Being a therapist myself, I would say there are connections between writing & therapy, especially, I feel, in terms of searching out the story which may be hidden. Though, of course, confidentiality, boundaries & trust come into play with clients and don't with characters we are creating.I feel therapy can also help in unearthing and supporting the writer within which can get submerged in the oughts and shoulds of old scripts.

Reply
Annecdotist
15/12/2015 10:36:28 am

How exciting that you actually know my guest! The world is smaller than we think.
I am with you, Kate, about uncovering the story both in therapy and in fiction. Stuart might need to correct me on this, but I'd experts clinical psychology as practised in a general hospital setting would have more of a focus on here and now management than how did I get here, etc, although how someone integrates an illness into the story of their life would be an appropriate avenue for therapy. I'm really rambling now, but I'm thinking of research people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia which identified different styles of "integration" versus "sealing over" in recovery.

Reply
Kate Evans
16/12/2015 09:19:06 am

I think recovery is always about finding out how the 'there and then' fits into the 'here and now' and, unfortunately, mental health funding doesn't always allow for the full journey of discovery, hence some wounds fester. And I think there's too many either/ors in the way we think about things, therapy and writing are both an art and a science! Will be interested in your guest post on clinical/academic writing and fiction... Have tried to bring the creative into academia myself with my book 'Pathways through writing blocks in the academic environment'. Good luck with it all.

Annecdotist
16/12/2015 10:21:42 am

I tend to think similarly to you, Kate, although the research I referred to (although of course it might have been updated since I was working in the field) suggests sealing over recoveries are just as successful. I suppose it depends on matching the therapy to the individual's personal style. Unfortunately, in the NHS at least, there's a lot connects room for flexibility and creativity nowadays.
My blog post will be quite basic – more about what I found difficult/had to learn in moving into creative writing when I already thought I could write pretty well! But agree, academics also need support to write, and I'm sure your book will be useful in this regard. I don't know if you've also seen Emma Darwin's blog posts on working with academics, at Goldsmiths College, I think.

Stuart Larner link
16/12/2015 12:07:11 pm

Hi Charli. The writer's voice in the book is someone who doesn't know much about cricket, and other characters explain it to him. But it is not just about cricket, but about to how to start a cricket club from the beginning: going onto the streets, getting players, hiring a practice hall, selecting a coach to teach people, and also about how they perform in matches.
Alongside this, it is a love story between the principal voice and his teacher, a professional woman cricketer.
The reader should learn a lot about cricket after that!


Reply
Annecdotist
16/12/2015 03:18:48 pm

Thanks for elaborating on this, Stuart.

Reply
Stuart Larner link
16/12/2015 12:15:48 pm

Hi Sarah, Kate, and Anne

Is therapy and art or a science?
I always felt that mine was a science. It had data, responses, frequencies, antecedents, precipitating factors, causes, all of this applied in the scientific atmosphere of a medical unit in a hospital.
The art sometimes came when I stepped back from the situation and saw all of this in a frame.

My writing is a state of mind. It is like a little flame that has a shade round it most of the time. The shade hides it and shields it from being seen, but it also keeps it alight in the ferocious winds of life.

Reply
Annecdotist
16/12/2015 03:21:10 pm

Thanks, Stuart, beautifully expressed.

Reply
Gargi link
16/12/2015 01:17:12 pm

Cricket and fiction - my two favourites in one! What could be better! I loved Chinaman by Shehan Karunatilaka, and would love to read this book too!

Reply
Annecdotist
16/12/2015 03:17:40 pm

Sounds perfect for you, Gargi, now I have to go and collar another cricket-lover in Mr Tangental!

Reply
Stuart Larner link
16/12/2015 02:06:54 pm

Indeed Gargi.
Whilst there are many books written about cricket, these tend to be mainly factual/historical, technical, or magazinely witty. Unlike baseball or football, there are relatively few novels about cricket.

Reply
Geoff link
16/12/2015 04:20:56 pm

I'm slipping as I've missed this post until Anne felt my collar and it's at least tangentially about cricket, which must be a first for Anne. Stuart is right. Fiction and cricket don't seem to mix. Except maybe in rather feeble attempts at humour such as Tales from the Longroom. Perhaps that's because the factual books are often better than fiction at telling unbelievable stories. I too read Netherland. I too didn't enjoy the cricket but that was because the descriptions and its use in the narrative were so poor it rendered the best sport the human mind has created humdrum. I imagine Stuart's book avoids that problem. By focusing on the characters rather than the mechanics I'm sure he will. As for the sport itself, since it appears, at least at a professional level to have had more than its fair share of suicides it may well lend itself to analysis. As every batsmen knows each innings is another potential death in waiting. I shall add this to my TBR heap.

Reply
Annecdotist
17/12/2015 10:04:10 am

Thanks for chipping in, Geoff, I knew this would be your thing. Interesting that you didn't rate the cricket in Netherland either.
Fascinating about the suicidal cricketers, perhaps that will entice me to take an interest in the game!

Reply
Stuart Larner link
16/12/2015 04:58:08 pm

Hi Geoff,
regarding cricket suicides, you mean of course the excellent book by David Frith:

By His Own Hand: A Study of Cricket's Suicides. London: Stanley Paul. 1991. ISBN 0091746876.

well worth a look at for psychologists.
I don't know whether it's people's personality or the laws which produce the high suicide rate.The laws make it clear that batsmen get only one chance before they are out. And if they have a run of depressingly bad form, then there is no easy way to correct it. If there livelihood is at stake......

Reply
Geoff mob link
17/12/2015 11:27:46 am

Friths book is excellent as was a piece by Atherton the other day. Very sad but fascinating too why it should be so. Interesting we talk of the batsmen having been given a life when a catch is dropped. Sort of emphasises the point

Reply
Stuart Larner link
19/12/2015 04:28:15 pm

Well said Geoff. Atherton's piece was in The Times.

I must now hasten to add that there are no suicides in my book, Just plain honest cricketting lack of skill and embarrassment for the most part. If Bill Shankly said that football is more important than life and death, then cricket should not lead to suicide, even though at times some players are driven to a kind of despair by an umpire's decision.

Reply
t.j. de walle
17/11/2016 03:15:58 pm

Tarrier N T and Larner S
Effects of Manipulation of social reinforcement on
toilet requests on a geriatric ward
1983
vol 12, p234-239
Age and ageing

3
Larner S and Leeming J T
The work of a clinical psychologist in the care of
the elderly
1984
vol 13, p29-33
Age and ageing

Hallo,

Is it possible to sent me ( psychologist) this articles to my mail adres?
Thx!

Reply
Annecdotist
18/11/2016 12:18:02 pm

Sorry, but I can’t provide you with those, TJ. If you’d like to email me through my contact page I could forward your request to Stuart.
Thank you for your interest in my series on psychologist writing fiction.

Reply
Annecdotist
18/11/2016 12:19:08 pm

Or follow the link at the bottom of his post to his blog.

Stuart Larner link
20/11/2016 07:32:00 pm

Hi TJ
I'm afraid I haven't got electronic copies of these for sending out. The paper copies should be available in a university medical library.

Reply

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