My office

is where I work, mostly. This morning I had some spare time (well, time without patients at least) so I decided that I could show a little of where I work.

The phrenology head featured on 11 February. The macBook is showing the photo of two of my grandchildren which is the "wallpaper". I was unable to be in the chair as well as take the picture. Some of my collection of journals (I still like paper!) is on the bookshelf; many many more are in storage as I cannot bring myself to throw them away even though no one (including me) refers to them any more.

And on the wall is a valued possession. In 1997 I attended a conference in Vienna, and along with many colleagues visited the Sigmund Freud museum at Bergasse 19. There I bought this photograph, and have it on my wall as an acknowledgement of someone who contributed greatly to the development of psychiatry. I am not an analyst; nor do I undertake formal psychotherapy except occasionally. But our understanding of mental processes depends very much on Freud's insights. My work would be both more difficult and more mechanistic without the understandings he showed the way towards.