Theodore Dalrymple

What a book. Clive Aslet, Country Life Characteristically brilliant. Dominic Lawson, Sunday Times A little oasis of sanity. Daily Mail. Driving the four hundred miles from Glasgow to London, Theodore Dalrymple found practically every yard of roadside to be littered with rubbish flapping in the wind like Buddhist prayer flags. What does it say about a culture when a country tips its rubbish anywhere it likes? Ranging from the poorer areas where he used to work to chewing gum and the behaviour of students and the educated, Dalrymple casts a witty and unsparing eye on modern life shared with others.

Travelling to the hard-living Dylan Thomass Boathouse in Laugharne, Wales, psychiatrist Theodore Dalrymple considered along the way another foible the folly of eminent people. Praised for their attainments in one area, high-achievers are more often than not prone to unexpected failings elsewhere. Enter a large cast of anti- and vivisectionists, surgeons, theologians, philosophers, admirals, judges, astrophysicists, Nazi-leaning homoeopaths, and writers such as D.H.Lawrence, Aldous Huxley, P.G. Wodehouse, and Conan Doyle. In his pithy and amusing style, Dalrymple casts a sobering light on an insuppressible trait of ours the fallibility of the human mind.

What is the connection between God and East Sheen? How do you talk your way out of an Albanian jail? Why do dictators love to make comic books? How does a missed penalty-kick lead to a bloody war? Theodore Dalrymple, a psychiatrist who gives expert witness in murder cases, has a passion for sideways thinking. In The Pleasure of Thinking he takes us on a witty and erudite voyage along the hidden pathways that bring ideas together. At once light-hearted and enlightening, it is an amusing flight of the imagination in which we discover the happy accidents that befall those who remain endlessly curious.

More than half a century ago, George Orwell wrote an essay about the decline of the English murder. Since the 1990s, Theodore Dalrymple has witnessed its modern variety in real life. For over a quarter of a century he has treated and examined many more murderers than most as a prison doctor, psychiatrist, and court expert in some of Britains most deprived areas. Here, he delves deep into his life of personal encounters with the murderous underclass to determine what has changed overtime and what has not. Inimitably, his unique portrait of modern criminals is at the same time a parable of dysfunction in our own culture. Through his experiences, he exposes todays vicious cult of denial, blaming and psychobabble that hides behind a corrosive sentiment of caring. Illustrated with scores of eye-opening, true-life vignettes, The Knife Went In is in turn hilariously funny, chillingly horrifying, and always unexpectedly revealing. Taken together, this lifetime of experience is a clear and unsentimental mirror in which we view modern progress without its varnish.

Not since Christopher Hitchens assault on Mother Theresa have so many sacred cows been slaughtered in such a short volume. Spectator One of our most celebrated essayists. Toby Young, Mail on Sunday [A] cultural highlight. Observer Surgical demolition. Guardian In this perceptive and witty book, Theodore Dalrymple unmasks the hidden sentimentality that is suffocating public life. Under the multiple guises of raising children well, caring for the underprivileged, assisting the less able and doing good generally, we are achieving quite the opposite -for the single purpose of feeling good about ourselves. Dalrymple takes the reader on both an entertaining and at times shocking journey through social, political, popular and literary issues as diverse as child tantrums, aggression, educational reform, honour killings, sexual abuse, Che Guevara, Eric Segal, Romeo and Juliet, the McCanns, public emotions and the role of suffering, and shows the perverse results when we abandon logic in favour of the cult of feeling.

Nothing But Wickedness delves into societys subtleand some not so subtletransgressions that contribute to the decline of our culture. Theodore Dalrymple, drawing on his extensive experience as an inner-city GP and prison psychiatrist, examines the underlying factors that drive societal behaviours and self-deception. The book covers a range of thought-provoking topics, including what drives doctors to work for dictators, the benefits of idleness, understanding the mindset of Hitler, why doctors collect body parts, the true meaning of illness, and how war can paradoxically advance medicine. This wide-ranging exploration is a compelling read for the intelligent reader and the Theodore Dalrymple fan. Dalrymples insights offer a unique perspective on the complexities of human behaviour and cultural decline. Whether you are intrigued by the benefits of idleness, fascinated by the darker side of human nature, or interested in historical and psychological analyses, Nothing But Wickedness promises to be an enlightening and engaging read ranging across many genres.

How did Britain become a nation seemingly resigned to its own indifference? In this sharp and entertaining critique, Theodore Dalrymple dissects the cultural decline through a series of observations of everyday slovenliness. From the paved-over front gardens that become car parks to the carelessness toward civic beauty, Dalrymple argues that a collective affection for what is held in common is eroding the nations spirit. This book is a humorous, and sometimes acerbic, examination of modern Britains peculiar ailment and how to restore civic pride and end performative behaviour.

Theodore Dalrymple, uno de los comentaristas más incisivos y menos políticamente correctos de nuestros días, desenmascara el sentimentalismo oculto que asfixia la vida pública. Bajo la guisa de esfuerzos encomiables como la correcta educacion de los niños, la atencion a los desfavorecidos, la ayuda a los menos capacitados y el bien en general, estamos consiguiendo todo lo contrario: el sentimentalismo destruye el sentido de responsabilidad, debilita las relaciones humanas y en realidad esta muy cerca de la agresion y la violencia. Al hilo de su perspicaz y en ocasiones incomodo comentario de temas sociales, politicos, populares y literarios muy diversos, Dalrymple nos muestra las consecuencias perversas que tiene abandonar la logica en favor del culto a los sentimientos.