Reading for Battle
Battle Readings is a regularly updated compilation of articles, essays, and opinion pieces relevant to the themes of the Battle of Ideas.
Choose a theme from the listing on the left to narrow your search, or view all readings.
Health & Well-being
We need more friends and fewer shrinks
The medicalisation of social problems is straining mental-health services
Ken McLaughlin, spiked, 3 September 2015
The medicalisation of social problems is straining mental-health services
Ken McLaughlin, spiked, 3 September 2015
Mindfulness: Lobotomisation by proxy
This latest therapeutic fad encourages us to retreat from life.
Patrick West, spiked, 21 August 2015
This latest therapeutic fad encourages us to retreat from life.
Patrick West, spiked, 21 August 2015
Vaping bans: Irrational and illiberal
The crackdown on e-cigs threatens more than smokers’ health.
Rob Lyons, spiked, 9 June 2015
The crackdown on e-cigs threatens more than smokers’ health.
Rob Lyons, spiked, 9 June 2015
Time to Shout About Mental Health
Mental illness is no respecter of wealth, class, creed, nationality, sex or job. It just is, and the sooner we are as open about our mental health as we are about our physical health, the happier and better off as nations we will all be.
Alastair Campbell , Huffington Post, 20 April 2015
Mental illness is no respecter of wealth, class, creed, nationality, sex or job. It just is, and the sooner we are as open about our mental health as we are about our physical health, the happier and better off as nations we will all be.
Alastair Campbell , Huffington Post, 20 April 2015
We know how you feel
Computers are learning to read emotions and the business world can’t wait
Raffi Khatchadourian , New Yorker, 19 January 2015
Computers are learning to read emotions and the business world can’t wait
Raffi Khatchadourian , New Yorker, 19 January 2015
Meditation obsession: This mindfulness craze is madness
The new obsession with meditation is a sign of exactly how mindless our places of work have become.
Andre Spicer , City AM, 22 December 2014
The new obsession with meditation is a sign of exactly how mindless our places of work have become.
Andre Spicer , City AM, 22 December 2014
Did 2014 mark the beginning of the end for mental health stigma?
A lot of dreadful things happened in 2014. But one potential positive trend is that it seemed increasingly difficult to get away with dismissing or condemning those with mental health problems. Is this an anomaly, or is the tide really turning against mental health stigma?
Dean Burnett, Guardian, 19 December 2014
A lot of dreadful things happened in 2014. But one potential positive trend is that it seemed increasingly difficult to get away with dismissing or condemning those with mental health problems. Is this an anomaly, or is the tide really turning against mental health stigma?
Dean Burnett, Guardian, 19 December 2014