Hugh MackayBesprekingen

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 *

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.

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.

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.

Another great book by Hugh Mackay. I really admire this man. He always seems to make such sense to me and expresses it wonderfully. If only we could all just live by "The Golden Rule" !

The book is a great 'call to action' on slowing down and considering the quality of our lives and impact on our community - though think at least one or two of the chapters could have been removed. Lots of common sense wisdom and an easy book to read.½

Hugh Mackay looks at the social changes in Australia in the 25 years leading up to 2007, and how Australian's have reacted to them.

He then goes on to see where Australian's are now and where we could possible be in the future. he looks at the loves of children, roles of women, our apparent current lack of interest in politics, shrinking households, increased spening in the arts, decreased spending in education, the future for pensioners and the role of technology.

Mackay points out that while we are relatively prosperous compaired to our parents - our lives are more precarious and we seem to have lost our meaning for living and feel just as powerless in the way we live our lives as our ancestors did.

Basically we have come a long way in 25 years, and we have certainly moved away from the problems that plagued us in the 1970s only to be faced with a whole new set of problems here in the first decade of the 21st century. Divorce rates have risen, birth rates have fallen; also on the rise is obesity, depression, anxiety, loneliness, drug use, alcoholism, gambling, porn consumption.

On the whole though Hugh Mackay has hope for our future. Easy to read most of his arguments have appeared in his newspaper column - he just expanded on his commentary. Some I agreed with, some of his predictions I feel may be a bit far fetched, and some of his arguments are dated already. Other than that it is well worth a read.

I've read this book three or four times now and recommended it to many. It is an easy read for a flight, and good for a few pearls of wisdom to dispense to friends. My favourite chapters were the ones covering the need to be believed and the one about personal space. This book, however, has crossover with another book of his, Right and Wrong - which I picked up later. Some paragraphs are just about the same.

I really enjoyed this story of a Sydney street.

I enjoyed this Australian novel – the fifth by social researcher and author Hugh MacKay – although I’m not sure that it would be everyone’s cup of tea, perhaps precisely because of the things that I enjoyed so much about the story. If you like neat and tidy plots and resolutions, this might not be the book for you. If you like a book that explores various different perspectives on a particular issue or construct, this may be more up your alley.

I empathised a lot with Tom, the protagonist of the story, a ‘jaded’ counsellor who finds that the sorts of behaviours that he has developed in his professional life are having detrimental effects in his private life. This doesn’t necessarily mean that I liked him or respected all the choices that he made in his life, but I found him a well-developed character whose story made me think. And Tom was a particularly interesting narrator, because one of the most interesting things about his character was the gap between the things he’s thinking and feeling and the things he’s saying and doing.

The ‘mystery’ at the heart of the story wasn’t necessarily of interest to me, except as it pondered the book’s fundamental premise – that of ‘escape’. We’ve all dreamed of ‘escaping’ our lives (our jobs, our relationships, and may even our own selves) when things get too much for us, but this book posed questions about the different ways in which we might express these dreams in our own lives – through fantasies, harmless or not, hobbies, therapy, time out, self-sabotage, self-deception, 'escaping' into our professional roles, and perhaps also through actual flight …

It was the exploration of these issues that I enjoyed the most in this book.

Fascinating book by one of the most informed social commentators in Australia today. If you are an Australian, you should read this book. Mackay takes Australian society to task, pointing out that our self-image simply does not match the reality, and that what so many proclaim as 'Australian values' are just a sham.

This book is a wake-up call that will hopefully be heeded. Mackay's suggestions at the end of the book are fantastic, though I can't see anyeone carrying them through any time soon. But if at least he plants a seed in some minds, and Australians take the blinkers off and take a good hard look at ourselves rather than just assuming everything is alright, there is a chance this nation can save itself.

After Cole has a stroke, we hear his story from three different perspectives. A really engaging book, which makes you question the idea of truth and love.

A look at Australia and the directionour society is heading in the next few years. Quotes from many sources including the ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics). Hugh Mackay believs that Australians have been dreaming since 1996 and only now are taking notice again of world events. It seems we got burnt out on big pictures and big events and turned inwards leading to a rise of renovations and home improvement shows. Our children will be the 'Option "generation, keeping options open about life, work, love and home. Readable for the most part, it did get long winded in some parts.

Looking forward to the next one½

and mackay