Kalweb

Has Mark Latham been diagnosed as well-adjusted and happy?

Where is the documentation to support this?

See neither of us really know. And maybe never will.

I can understand Mark's behaviour if indeed he is or was seriously depressed.

You, with your experience should know this also.

Therefore, your post leads me to conclude that you prefer to believe that Mark is simply bad and not mad.

I don't approve of Mark's behaviour, however where there is room for doubt I like to err on the side of understanding rather antipathy. As a sufferer of chronic depression I have become a far more tolerant person. I KNOW how irrational one can behave. I have actually been there. Something that, even the most astute of observers can never really know.

Scout I sympathise with you, but as Kalweb pointed out Latham was never diagnosed with a mental illness-to my knowledge...although there is a defence for his upcoming court appearance.

I must admit - as the author of the article that I am pleased has generated some vigorous discussion - that I am surprised how easily the explanation of 'Latham's madness' is thrown around ... Finally, the last few posts have asked the right question: who ever said he was despressed? OK, there are the well known psychological consequences that seem frequently to follow serious illness, but is that what we are dealing with here? Latham is by nature aggressive, but please remember that since 1993 he was widely regarded as a Labor intellectual. (Has anyone had a crack at his 1998 magnum opus, Civilising Global Capital?) As any reading of the Diaries will confirm, his intellectual and pragmatic credentials as a Third Way politician (in the tradition of Blair, Clinton, etc.) are impecable. Have we really become so used to bland, dispassionate politics that we forget the great tradition (especially in Labor) of idiosyncratic, yes, but truly brilliant politicians who actually believe that politics means something and thus act with conviction and chutzpah. This just confirms my point about the Latham/Keating connection ... Please, no more trite remarks about Latham as a disturbed westie. I suspect he is simply caught between two worlds: on the one hand, his election defeat shattered his faith in the potential of Third Way political programmes and he half-longs to remain a political thinker; on the other hand, he loves his lads and is finding a certain catharsis in his seclusion.

With all due respect Mr Stephens 'the third way politicians' that you seem such an admirer of have to have public support fot that 'way'. Clinton for example carefully gauged public sentiment before producing an oppurtunity to steer away from Bush Snr.

Latham wasn't about gauging public sentiment nor was he a 'representative' as such. He instead was about gauging ALP sentiment, representing the factions and living his dream of emulating Whitlam-a PM whom if it wasn't for that famous dismissal would be regarded as one of the great failures.

Fair enough, wre, but let me put the record straight on a few matters. I'm no fan of the "Third Way" -- it just that Latham was. What defines the Third Way is a kind of willingness to embrace a version of social responsibility (holding onto vestiges of the now-defunct welfare-state) while, at the same time, promoting free-market capitalism and a rather more expansionist and progressive notion of individual achievement. (In other words, it renounces Leftism's collectivity and reformism, promotes competition, but tries to have a good conscience about it.) Also not that Latham's didn't garner support among with the factions no among the Australian public. He was personally boosted by the prospects of winning, by the interest that his local-community-minded policies was generating ... but he held the opinions of the masses at arms length. The purpose of his policies -- and he is pretty clear about this -- was not to attract the people but to create shift in perspective. And it is here that the difference between Clintion/Blair and Latham becomes clearest: for all his love of the vulgar velacular, Latham was no populist ...

Scout

Thank you for your last post.

I too have experienced clinical depression (two occasions many years ago). I diagnosed myself on both occasions and was able to seek treatment and counselling before it became protracted.

I fully understand behaviours associated with long term clinical depression. I learned my own early warning signs so that I could be proactive, and not reactive. As a consequence I have never required hospitalisation, nor have I had a further episode. It's hard work, but it is worth the pain and effort to beat "the back dog", as Churchill put it.

In my view, the only "cure" comes from the therapist within each and every one of us. We have the magic wand.

Cheers
Kay

PS: These experiences taught me a great deal. I became a much better mental health nurse and therapist as a result.