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Hugh Mackay

Autor(a) de Advance Australia...Where?

38+ Works 942 Membros 15 Reviews

About the Author

Hugh Mackay is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at The Open University.

Includes the name: Mackay; Hugh

Image credit: Hugh Mackay. Photo courtesy of Mosman Library.

Obras de Hugh Mackay

Advance Australia...Where? (2007) 97 cópias
Reinventing Australia (1993) 79 cópias
The Good Life (2013) 72 cópias
Generations (1997) 54 cópias
The Art of Belonging (2014) 47 cópias
Beyond belief (2016) 37 cópias
Winter close (2002) 28 cópias
Australia Reimagined (2018) 24 cópias
Little lies (1996) 16 cópias

Associated Works

The Scottish Countryside (1928) 2 cópias

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Data de nascimento
1938
Sexo
male
Nacionalidade
Australia
Ocupação
social researcher
writer
psychologist

Membros

Resenhas

Australian Hugh Mackay is a psychologist and social researcher and he knows what makes us tick. Literally! Hugh Mackay is known for studying attitudes and behaviour and I thoroughly enjoyed his non fiction titles What Makes Us Tick in 2022 and The Inner Self in 2021.

In The Therapist, Martha Elliott is a Psychotherapist with a different approach to her treatments, often employing breathing techniques and foot massages within her sessions to help patients ease into their therapeutic discussions with her.

Martha's colleague and business partner Rob have consulting rooms in Chatswood Sydney. Rob has a different treatment style and I enjoyed his work discussions and business relationship with Martha.

The story kicks off with a few new patients for Martha and we seamlessly drop into her day-to-day life, learning about her from the very outset:

"Her handsome face radiated kindness, optimism and an eagerness to ease the pain of all those (well, almost all) who came to her for advice, support, guidance... or for nothing more than the comfort of her patiently listening ear. Perhaps for the reassurance that here was someone who was finally taking them seriously." Page 1
Reading a novel about a psychologist written by a psychologist was a little like Inception, and had me wondering how much of Martha - if any at all - was Mackay himself on the page. We're privileged to sit in with Martha on her treatments which offered an intriguing glimpse into the consulting room for those of us who haven't been to therapy lately/before.

The issues our characters are dealing with include loneliness, relationship breakdowns, IVF and in one case, a desire for revenge. These problems held my interest and while I was hoping the plot would take us into darker thriller territory - like The Family Doctor by fellow Australian author Debra Oswald - Mackay kept to the relative safety of domestic noir.

I enjoyed the brevity of the novel and with my copy coming in at less than 250 pages, many authors could learn from Mackay's concise writing style that still manages to deliver in depth character exploration and growth.

The Therapist by Hugh Mackay is recommended for readers who are curious about what really happens in a therapist's consulting room, and if you enjoyed Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb - also a psychotherapist - this will be right up your alley.

* Copy courtesy of Allen & Unwin *
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Marcado
Carpe_Librum | May 6, 2023 |
Continuing with the theme of self discovery and personal reflection and exploration, it was time to return to the great Australian psychologist and social researcher Hugh Mackay for some more words of wisdom. Listening to What Makes Us Tick: Making Sense of Who We Are and the Desires that Drive Us by Hugh Mackay was an enlightening experience this month.

In this book, Mackay describes the ten desires that drive us, and is careful to point out that a person may be driven by one or more of these desires at any one time. He also goes on to say this is by no means a complete list.

Here are the 10 desires:

The Desire to Be Taken Seriously
The Desire for My Place
The Desire for Something to Believe In
The Desire to Connect
The Desire to Be Useful
The Desire to Belong
The Desire for More
The Desire for Control
The Desire for Something to Happen
The Desire for Love

When reflecting on each of these topics and listening to the author explaining them, I found unprompted examples surfacing from people in my life, those in the media or even people from history who were so driven by one or more of these desires to the point of detriment to those around them.

Mackay covers each of the desires within a separate chapter, and while each can be read on their own and in any order, exploring them all was a worthwhile endeavour. Seeking to understand why others behave the way they do, and what desire/s might motivate them to make the decisions that guide their lives is well worth pursuing.

I can identify two or three desires from this list that motivate many of my own thoughts and actions, those being The Desire to Be Useful, The Desire for Control and The Desire for Love. What about you?

For more by this author, check out my review of The Inner Self by Hugh Mackay.
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Marcado
Carpe_Librum | 1 outra resenha | Apr 20, 2022 |
Australian Hugh Mackay is a psychologist, social researcher and bestselling author, and is known for studying attitudes and behaviour. In 2015, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to the community for this work, and I see him pop up on TV from time to time.

In this book, The Inner Self - The Joy of Discovering Who We Really Are, Mackay outlines our top 20 hiding places where we hide from the truth about ourselves. An interesting concept, these hiding places can include busyness, victimhood, nostalgia, anxiety, perfectionism and work, just to name a few.

Mackay provides case studies to throw light on each of the hiding places, and I found them insightful and sometimes quite funny. I particularly enjoyed the chapter on perfectionism and the case study of Helen dealing with her husband George's pedantry. Throughout the book, I was able to recognise some of these 20 hiding places in the traits of people I know, and of course, within myself, which is the whole point.

Mackay has a great way of speaking and I enjoyed listening to him reading The Inner Self on audiobook. Each chapter can be enjoyed independently of the others, but listening to this over a long period as my reviewing schedule picked up, no doubt diminished the overall impact of the book for me.

I do miss listening to Mackay's pearls of wisdom and I'm sure I'll be seeking out another of his books on audio before too long.
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Marcado
Carpe_Librum | Aug 6, 2021 |
Although social commentary is not the typical read for most of our group, the general consensus was that Mackay did a good job on this one. His research and even-handed approach to the facts, with an objective look at differing attitudes, went a long way to making this an enlightening read and a lively discussion starter.
Self-reflection can be a good thing and we were all made to take a look at ourselves and where we stand in the belief stakes, and why. We shared some personal experiences and thoughts with a mindful respect for each others views and ideas. Not really a difficult thing to do … so why, as a species does it so often go wrong?
We would love to have the answer to that one, but we settled for the idea that belief, whether that be religious or spiritual, is a necessity for the individual and the community. And however you find solace and inspiration, (through prayer or deed) if it gives comfort to you, then who is going to argue with that.
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Marcado
jody12 | Jun 5, 2018 |

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Estatísticas

Obras
38
Also by
1
Membros
942
Popularidade
#27,279
Avaliação
½ 3.4
Resenhas
15
ISBNs
107
Idiomas
2

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