Kevin Rudd - hero or psychopath?

I have argued elsewhere that many leading Leftists are psychopaths so I find the analysis below reasonable. The point that psychopaths have some advantages is made below and I also have an academic article to that effect

A GIANT ego. A narcissist. A micro-manager. An impulsive control freak. A haphazard and secretive decision maker.  This is not what Kevin Rudd's political enemies think of him. It's what many of his colleagues do.

Whether openly or whispered in hushed tones to journalists, this is the picture once painted by his fellow ministers, MPs, public servants and diplomatic associates.

It's a decent rap sheet - one that easily tops the usual bile directed at colleagues or opponents in the den of iniquity that is politics. But nothing that borders outlandish.

Then, one day, the dam broke. The outspoken and literally outgoing member for Bendigo Steve Gibbons took to Twitter and publicly declared his former leader a "psychopath". Among other less than genteel terms.

Gibbons is a man who is routinely and rightly pilloried for making crude, stupid and nasty remarks in the name of cheap publicity.  But this time the term took off, which perhaps says more about Rudd than it does about Gibbons.

So is it true? Is the man running this country really a psychopath, given the aforementioned ferocious descriptions appear to tick plenty of the boxes that define such a diagnosis?

Firstly, one has to demystify the term.  Such a designate is no longer deemed by experts to be the exclusive domain of murderers, serial killers and rapists.  No, you could indeed be sitting next to one. Your boss could be one, or, perhaps more likely, your high-flying CEO in his spacious corner office suite.

In fact prominent Australian psychotherapist John Clarke claims that between one and three per cent of the Australian population could be certifiably deemed psychopathic, and he warns not just police to keep a look out but companies and political powerbrokers.

Anthropologist Stephen Juan suggests that one in 10 companies are headed by a corporate psychopath.

It seems psychopaths are everywhere, and they are more likely to wear a suit and tie, than carry a bloodied weapon or be pointing a sawn-off shotgun.

"One of the misconceptions about psychopathy itself is that people think a psychopath goes out and kills people. By definition, they are somebody that is recklessly indifferent to any physical, emotional harm they may cause," criminal mind expert Steve van Aperen said.  "There are certainly many undiagnosed psychopaths in business and politics."

Juan says often people get confused between the terms psychopath and psychotic, which makes people less inclined to label someone as the former and thus grouping them with such fiends as Ivan Milat, Charles Manson or Martin Bryant. The distinction is reality, he says. Those suffering from psychosis have lost grip on reality. Those deemed psychopathic are very much aware of it, and are attempting to control it.

They are often easy to spot, Juan says, and follow a defined set of traits that set them apart from normality.  "The corporate psychopath is the type of psychopath that gets into politics because they are usually exceedingly ego-oriented - it is all about them. So even when they get criticism, it is still all about them," he says.  "They love the centre of attention. Good or bad they see themselves being the centre of the universe.

"They are the great users, the great manipulators, they often have aides and underlings do work for them, and expect blind loyalty but they don't give loyalty in return. They use everyone for gain.

"Everything is about them. If you talk to them in a conversation about your issues, they will immediately turn it around to their issues. It's as if no one exists other than them."

They are always exploiting issues for their own gain, says Dr Juan.

They climb the corporate ladder very effectively, they are often very charming and articulate, often very good looking which they use to their advantage.

It is the only thing they exist for. Themselves. They can't be trusted, they will lie to your face and deny they have when they are caught. They never own up to their own actions, they are always blaming others. They are polar opposites in public and private, with the former a place for their charm offensive to be exercised, and the latter a dark place of indifference and loathing.

It's the psychopath's modus operandi; a persona that they can't escape from, a disguise that soon becomes arduous to hide.

In a bid to unmask those with psychopathic tendencies and prevent crime, Canadian criminal psychologist and FBI adviser Robert D Hare created the Psychopathy Checklist in the early 1990s that remains the gold standed for reference.

Its defined set of traits include impulsiveness, superficial charm, grandiosity, callousness, manipulative, lack of remorse or guilt, propensity to blame others, poor behavioural control, egocentric.

Whether unfairly or resoundingly just, Kevin Rudd's name has oft been etched beside those traits, by members of his own camp or from across enemy lines.

His impulsiveness is well documented, from rushed decision making done without proper consultation with colleagues or stakeholders, to his "policies on the run" such as the changes to the Fringe Benefit Tax system that  crack down on salary-sacrificed cars, to the detriment of the struggling car industry.

On these rash methods, he is internationally renowned.  "He makes snap announcements without consulting other countries or within the Australian government," said a US Embassy official of Kevin Rudd in a leaked memo to the Whitehouse.

Superficial charm? The opposition have climbed aboard this freight train, frequently referring to the PM as fake. Even Fairfax editors denounce the man who is smiling, caring Kevin the Queenslander, but is vastly different behind closed doors, where no cameras lurk.

"Much has been written and said about Kevin Rudd when the camera is rolling and Kevin Rudd in private," editor of the Launceston Examiner, Martin Gilmour said.  "Based on my experience on Thursday morning when the doors closed, he was about as engaged and charismatic as a silt rake."

Grandiosity? Egocentric? Enter stage left, former opposition leader and intimidating hand-shaker Mark Latham.   "I mean this guy is a once-in-a-century egomaniac," said Mr Latham in his jilted-lover tome.

Poor behavioural control? The RAAF air hostess who copped a Rudd spray because his special meal wasn't available; the foul-mouth tirade delivered while filming a video message in Chinese; the exodus of 16 staff from his office in his first year as PM due to his "short fuse and unreasonable demands" and the current rumours that 80 per cent of his staff hate his guts.

In a News Corp Australia survey of 30,000 voters last month voters were given a list of words to describe Rudd.  The results were stark: smug, manipulative and egotistical.

Claude Minisini spent 15 years within the FBI's behavioural science division. In his opinion, Kevin Rudd is your classic organisational psychopath. Ticks every box, allegedly.

"One of the traits of a psychopath is a lack of remorse. Has Kevin Rudd shown that? In relation to the pink batts saga, has he ever come out and said sorry to individuals for him making that bad decision? The answer is no," Ms Minisini said.

"Is he indifferent, or does he rationalise having hurt or mistreated someone else? I suppose he ticks that box too. I would certainly say that he is impulsive. Has he failed to adequately plan ahead? I suppose he ticks that box too. Is he irritable and aggressive? Yes, he probably ticks that one.

Research conducted by Western Sydney University professor Peter Jonason claims that while Machiavellianism is apolitical in its nature, there is a "left-leaning bias for those individuals high on psychopathy".

"Psychopathy may thrive in more liberal areas because of the lessened focus on law and order. And thus, it is within liberal areas that psychopathy may have a freer reign, therefore, freeing up men to benefit from such an approach to life," he said.

But there are other known traits of the psychopath that Rudd bypasses. Psychopaths are usually submerged in sexual promiscuity (not sure a visit to Scores counts) and have poor marital relations.

Despite the obvious shortcomings, several clinical psychologists and researchers believe possessing the traits of a psychopath could be advantageous for someone seeking political power.

A research paper lead by Emory University's Scott Lilienfeld explored such issues, pinpointing which US presidents were more likely to exhibit psychopathic traits.

"Some psychopathic traits, such as interpersonal dominance, persuasiveness and venturesomeness, may be conducive to acquiring positions of political power and to successful leadership," the paper claimed. It cited Winston Churchill and Lyndon Johnson as perfect case studies, claiming both possessed very real characteristics of a psychopath, but who "managed to parlay these traits into political success".

<a href="http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/kevin-rudd-hero-or-psychopath/story-fni0cx12-1226694584192">SOURCE</a>

Charles Chenevix Trench

(Obit. of 29 Nov 2003)

Charles Chenevix Trench, who died on Wednesday aged 89, became the author of a wide variety of popular historical works after serving as an Indian Army officer in the 1930s, winning an MC during the Second World War and then becoming a district commissioner in Kenya.

Employing a crisp, anecdotal style, he wrote 19 books, including three classic accounts of British India: The Indian Army and the King's Enemies, 1900-1947; The Frontier Scouts; and The Viceroy's Agent.

His interest in the 18th century led to Portrait of a Patriot, a biography of the demagogue John Wilkes who nevertheless established important constitutional freedoms, and The Royal Malady, a witty study of George III's madness which drew on the unpublished papers of the King's physician, Sir George Baker, and the diary of Dr John Willis. He also produced The Western Risings, a judicious account of the Duke of Monmouth's rebellion, and Grace's Card, Irish Catholic Landlords 1690-1800.

Charley Gordon was a reassessment which revealed a humorous element in the Victorian general who had been attacked by Lytton Strachey; and The Great Dan showed the strong imperial streak in the Irish nationalist leader Daniel O'Connell. There was also The Poacher and the Squire, a survey in which Chenevix Trench drew on personal experience, since he admitted that he had done "a bit of big game poaching" in India, although he had also been concerned with game preservation in Kenya. Two other amusing potboilers were A History of Horsemanship and A History of Marksmanship, which reflected his love of the outdoors.

The Desert's Dusty Face, describing his career in Kenya, was a collection of true stories which abounded with Wodehousian wit and jibes at American hunters. It was written to make readers feel as though they, too, were making a safari around a remote district.

A descendant of an Archbishop of Dublin and the son Sir Richard Chenevix Trench, a member of the Indian Political Service, Charles Pocklington Chenevix Trench was born on June 29 1914 at Simla, India. He was educated at Winchester, concluding after a year that he must be rather "wet" because he had not been beaten; he proceeded to take steps to remedy this deficiency.

"With some difficulty, and after several warnings about untidiness and so forth, I succeeded," he recalled in a letter to The Telegraph. "It was, of course, disagreeable, but left no permanent scars on my personality or my person . . . For my last three years I spent most of my spare time fishing, and tying trout flies for sale at the local tackle-shop. Although these pursuits contributed nothing to the honour of the house, I was neither persecuted nor mocked for them."

After reading PPE at Magdalen College, Oxford, Chenevix Trench was commissioned into Hodson's Horse, the Indian cavalry regiment, which was serving in Persia, Iraq and Syria on the outbreak of war. He then attached himself to the 12th Lancers for the closing weeks of the British First Army's advance into Tunisia in 1943.

The following year he was sent on a course at Benevenuto in Italy, from which he took "French leave" to visit a brother Hodson's Horseman, who was GSO 1 of 8th Indian Division. This led to his attachment to 1st/12th (Northwest) Frontier Force Regiment with which, as a fluent Pushtu speaker, he was put into the Pathan company. When the company commander was killed, Chenevix Trench took over, and a few weeks later led a successful night attack on the German position on the last ridge overlooking Assisi.

By then, however, his regiment had tracked him down, and demanded his instant return to Syria. Here he learned that he had been awarded an immediate MC for his conduct during the attack near Assisi; the citation recorded that Major Chenevix Trench had "set a magnificent example of coolness and disregard for his personal safety", and that "the success achieved by C Company was largely due to his inspiration and leadership".

In 1946 Chenevix Trench retired from the Army to follow his father into the Indian Political for the 18 months until Partition; he then became district commissioner in the Kenyan colonial government. He served in the Northern Frontier district, before moving to Nanyuki. In addition to learning Swahili, he was the only officer in the district who spoke Somali, essential to understanding the problems posed by infiltrators from over the border.

When he made his two-week safaris, Chenevix Trench insisted on being accompanied by the troop of tribal police, which was mounted either on Abyssinian ponies, or on horses which they had been allowed to catch on European ranches for £5 each; this enabled him to get a far closer feel for the people and their way of life than if he had travelled by vehicle. The only interruption came during the Mau Mau emergency, when his combination of Kenyan and military experience led him to be brought back to Nairobi as GSO 2 (Civil) to the Director of Operations.

During the run-up to independence, the colonial administration decided to hold a census of the population for the benefit of the incoming native government. But one British officer of the King's African Rifles, who was responsible for the count, was unsure about how to record five soldiers who had registered as "Jesus Christ", and four who claimed to be "Agatha Christie". Chenevix Trench, the returning officer, was writing an article about Jacobean table manners when he was asked for advice. Without looking up, he replied "Doesn't matter a bugger provided you don't call any of them Son of God!"

After independence in 1963, Chenevix Trench retired once again to embark on a new career. His cousin, Anthony Chenevix-Trench, who had just been appointed Headmaster of Eton, invited him to join the staff. However, he decided instead to go to Millfield, in Somerset, where he taught English, Swahili, Urdu, history, symbolic logic and polo for six years. He now retired for the last time, to Nenagh, Co Tipperary, to concentrate on his books, and on hunting, fishing and farming; one year he named two turkeys Hitler and Goebbels, so that he would not mind killing them for Christmas.

For 20 years he composed a lucid monthly article on current affairs for that pillar of Empire, Blackwood's Magazine, under the pseudonym "The Looker On"; he also reviewed books regularly for the Irish Times and the Irish Independent.

Charles Chenevix Trench married, first, Jane Gretton, with whom he had a son, who predeceased him, and two daughters. After their divorce he married Mary Kirkbride, with whom he had two daughters.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1448007/Charles-Chenevix-Trench.html


Explanation of the name:

Melesina Chenevix was a society beauty of Huguenot extraction.  In 1803 she married Richard Trench, who was also well-connected.  She was so highly regarded by her two sons Francis and Richard that, after her death, they changed their surnames to Chenevix-Trench.  Richard went on to become Archbishop of Dublin in the Church of Ireland (Anglican).  He was also a well-regarded poet and an intellectual of his day. He had 14 children and  Charles Pocklington Chenevix Trench  (above) was one of his grandsons (via Richard Chenevix Trench).

The Cuckoo’s Calling: publishers' embarrassment at turning down JK Rowling detective novel

Publishers have been left red-faced after discovering that they rejected the latest novel by JK Rowling, one of the world’s best-selling writers.

The book, named The Cuckoo’s Calling, was critically acclaimed but had sold fewer than 500 copies before the Harry Potter creator was unamsked as its author at the weekend.

One leading editor bravely admitted that she had unwittingly turned down the crime novel, which was billed as the debut of a former soldier, because it failed to stand out from all the other manuscripts sent in by hopeful authors.

Kate Mills, publishing director of Orion, said she thought the work was “perfectly decent, but quiet” and confessed she could not find a unique selling-point with which to market it.

The editor added: “When the book came in, I thought it was perfectly good - it was certainly well written - but it didn't stand out.

“Strange as it might seem, that's not quite enough. Editors have to fall in love with debuts. It's very hard to launch new authors and crime is a very crowded market.”

The Cuckoo’s Calling was published in April under the name of “Robert Galbraith”, who according to his biography was a former plainclothes military policeman who had left the Army in 2003 to work in the private security industry.

It achieved glowing reviews and laudatory quotations for the cover from well-known crime writers.

However, suspicions were aroused by the author’s assured writing style and skill at describing women’s clothes and people’s appearances, leading some readers to speculate that an established female novelist might be behind the book.

Further detective work by The Sunday Times uncovered the fact that Mr Galbraith and Miss Rowling shared the same publisher and editor, and on Sunday she confessed to the deception.

The 47-year-old Harry Potter author said: "I had hoped to keep this secret a little longer because being Robert Galbraith has been such a liberating experience.

"It has been wonderful to publish without hype or expectation, and pure pleasure to get feedback under a different name."

The publishers said The Cuckoo’s Calling had sold some 1,500 copies in hardback, but figures compiled by Neilsen Bookscan suggest that the number bought from British retailers was actually 449.

This changed dramatically overnight with the revelation of the book’s actual author. Orders on Amazon.co.uk shot up, propelling the novel from 5,076th place to the top of the sales chart.

It was not clear why Miss Rowling offered the book to other publishers before it was accepted by Sphere, an imprint of Little, Brown, which last year published her first adult novel, The Casual Vacancy.

Her spokesman said: “I can confirm the book was treated like any new novel by a first-time writer. We are not going into any more detail than that or commenting further.”

This is not the first time that Miss Rowling has faced literary rejection. In 1996 the manuscript of her first Harry Potter book was turned down by 12 publishers before Bloomsbury picked it up for an advance of just £1,500. The series went on to sell more than 450 million copies worldwide.

Her decision to choose a male pen name raised a few eyebrows. She was forced to publish the Harry Potter books as “JK Rowling” because her publishers were worried that a woman’s name on the cover might put the target audience of young boys.

Miss Rowling’s spokesman said she could not comment on why the author chose a male pseudonym.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10178960/The-Cuckoos-Calling-publishers-embarrassment-at-turning-down-JK-Rowling-detective-novel.html

In praise of porridge

When determining the greatest invention in human history, one would usually consider the wheel, the Internet or even sliced bread.  But one academic, an expert in the study of DNA, has found it was something far simpler - a humble bowl of porridge.

Alistair Moffat, who has studied the development of early humans through his research into DNA markers, has argued the move of hunter-gatherer societies into farming was pivotal to the building of nations.

Speaking at the Chalke Valley History Festival, he said the "greatest revolution in our history" came from the development of farming, which in turn brought porridge.

Before porridge, he claimed, women were compelled to breast feed their children until the age of four or five years, because fragile milk teeth could not cope with the meat and vegetation enjoyed by hunter-gatherers.

The action of breast feeding, a natural contraceptive, as well as the necessity of carrying babies around as they moved, meant women often had long intervals between giving birth.

Mr Moffat, whose next book is entitled "The British: A Genetic Journey", claimed feeding children porridge left women free to have more children, who then went on to populate the Earth.

Speaking at the Chalke Valley Festival this week, he told an audience: "This is true.

"The greatest revolution of our history wasn't the invention of the iPad, it wasn't the invention of the steam engine, it wasn't all the things you might might lay your mind to.

"The great invention, the greatest revolution in our history was the invention of farming. Farming changed the world because of the invention of porridge."

Mr Moffat, whose company Britain's DNA recently found Prince William had Indian ancestry, added: "Hunter-gatherer bands were mobile, they had to be because they ended to move between ranges.

"And they could not carry infants - more than one infant - around with them at a time. Imagine North American Indians with a papoose.

"It couldn't be the case that hunter-gatherer bands had lots of children at the one time.

"They ensured that this could not be the case in one particular manner; nursing. Breast-feeding makes it very difficult for a woman to conceive.

"In hunter-gatherer societies, infants were breast fed for much much longer until the age or four or five years old. The reason for that is that mother's milk was their sole source of class one protein, because of the softness of their teeth.

"Their teeth simply could not cope with the roots, fruits and berries and so on that we're the staple of the hunter-gatherer diet.

"When farming was invented and cereals were grown, charred, ripened and mashed into a pulp - porridge - it could be spooned into the mouths of infants and was extremely nourishing. And it allowed women to stop breast feeding after one or two years and so the birth interval halved and the population rocketed.

"Farming also involved not mobility but stability; the ability to nurture land and make it production, to look after your domesticated animals and so on. And as populations expanded they had to move. All of these surplus children had to move.

"And you watch a particular chromosome marker rippling across Europe at this time."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/10148594/How-a-bowl-of-porridge-transformed-mankind.html

A wise woman

UK mum Fran Bunce sells all her belonging to raise money for deposit on home

JUST how far would go to get a leg up on the property ladder? One determined young mum is living in an empty shell after selling everything she owned to scrape together a home deposit.

Industrious Fran Bunce wasn’t going to let lack of funds lock her out of home ownership, so the 28 year old embraced the "whatever-it-takes" approach to raise enough money for a $7000 deposit she needed to get off the rental roundabout.

The software engineer used websites and classified ads to flog all her worldly goods.

Items sold by the mother-of-one included a motorbike, sofa, bed, mirrors, fridge-freezer, light fittings, dining room table, cushions and dishwasher.

She even parted with many of her prized possessions, including precious jewellery and ornaments, and sold most of her vast collection of shoes - while her nine-year-old daughter Summer sold her toys and games, the Daily Mail reports.

To supplement her fundraising, Miss Bunce, who lives in Bath in England, also retrained as a beautician so she could work evenings and weekends.

She told the Daily Mail she was thrilled to own a house  but is now living in an empty space after selling everything.

"I have sold whatever there is you can sell, you wouldn’t believe it. I had friends messaging me asking if I was selling my whole life," Ms Bunce said.

"I’m over the moon to have finally done it, but I’ve been left in a bit of an empty shell now. I’ve got a mattress on the floor and my daughter has got her bed and that’s about it."

Miss Bunce decided to sell her possessions after she worked out she could halve her monthly outgoings if she bought a house.

She sold many of her items to strangers and managed to negotiate prices with fellow tenants for white goods like her fridge and dishwasher.


http://www.couriermail.com.au/realestate/buying/uk-mum-fran-bunce-sells-all-her-belonging-to-raise-money-for-deposit/story-fnihpo73-1226669467279

Are you a precariat, new affluent worker or elite? Study reveals there are now SEVEN social classes in the new jargon-filled British class system

• Study comes five decades after hit Frost Report sketch on three classes featuring John Cleese and the Two Ronnies
  
• Elite people make up six per cent and have savings of more than £140,000 and top university education
• The 'Precariat' group sits at bottom of the classes and make up 15 per cent of Britain and earn £8,000 after tax
  
• More than 160,000 people have taken part in BBC's Great British Class Survey
  

By Steve Doughty, Social Affairs Correspondent

PUBLISHED: 10:33 GMT, 3 April 2013 | UPDATED: 07:16 GMT, 4 April 2013

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There was a time when the  British class system was quite simple.

Often the subject of satire – most notably in the Frost Report sketch of the 1960s – it basically came down to Upper, Middle and Lower.

Half a century on, however, the BBC and academics claim that is outdated and we now fall into seven social groups.

Scroll down for video and to take the test yourself

Top dogs: There is an 'elite' - just 6 per cent of people - who have savings of more than £140,000, many social contacts and education at top universities, according to the BBC's Great British Class Survey

At the bottom: The 'precariat' group is 'marked by the lack of any significant amount of economic, cultural or social capital', said Professor Mike Savage, of the London School of Economics and Political Science

Wealthy: The average age of this group is 46 and they tend to work in management or traditional professions and mainly come from middle class backgrounds

For instance, if you’re a van driver on less than £160 a week who doesn’t like jazz, you must be a member of the Precariat.

 

More...

• Vile product of Welfare UK: Man who bred 17 babies by five women to milk benefits system is guilty of killing six of them
• Our great posh pretence: One in five people change their accent to sound more posh to get a job or chat someone up, survey finds
• Rural life WAS grim (although in a lot of ways it was richer): MAX HASTINGS backs producers for avoiding glossy TV costume drama version of The Village for honest one

On the other hand, if your income is over £89,000 a year, you have a comfortable  private pension, and you go to dinner  parties with lawyers and dentists, you belong to the Elite.

The new social scale, backed by the BBC and called the Great British Class Survey Experiment, tries to take into account the music we listen to, the people we mix with, and the likelihood that we use social networks, to determine where we stand.

More than 160,000 people took part in the poll via the BBC website.

New class: Only six per cent of people are classed as Technical Middle Class. People in this group tend to mix with people similar to themselves and enjoy highbrow culture and tend to live in the suburbs

Bang in the middle: The New Affluent Workers are youthful and are sit in the middle in terms of wealth. Many of the group tend to live in former manufacturing areas in the Midlands and North West

On the decline: A much smaller percentage than may have been expected are in the Traditional Working Class group, which has the oldest average age at 66

Financially insecure: The 19 per cent of Britain that are classed as an Emergent Service Worker tend to be young and have low scores for saving and house value but spend time enjoying emerging culture and socialising

Freshly-identified classes include a Technical Middle Class, which contains aircraft pilots, radiographers and social researchers, and New Affluent Workers, children of the old working class who went to new universities, many of them people working in sales.

Call centre workers and chefs fall into an ‘Emergent Service Sector’ of educated young people in insecure jobs who are well versed in popular music, sport and social networks.

The Precariat – a word coined from precarious and the Marxist jargon proletariat – make up nearly one in six of the population.

The survey said they have tiny incomes, no savings, rent their homes, have the least cultural interests of any social class, and are ‘the most deprived’.

A high concentration of the Precariat, the survey claims, can be found in Stoke-on-Trent.

One of the academics who drew up the new scale,  Manchester University sociology professor Fiona Devine, said it  presented a ‘more sophisticated, nuanced picture of what class is like now’.

She added: ‘It is what is in the middle which is really interesting and exciting, there is a much more fuzzy area between the traditional working class and traditional middle class.’

But author and social commentator Jill Kirby said: ‘This survey has kept sociologists busy, but it is a doubtful use of BBC resources. It does show how difficult it is to categorise people.

'But it also shows there is plenty of social mobility – even the Precariat can escape more easily than the working class of 50 years ago.’

The BBC scale, produced with the help of the state-run Economic and Social Research Council and academics from six universities, follows the 1980s teachings of French philosopher Pierre Bourdieu, who said class depended on culture, taste and who you mix with as well as the kind of job you have.

The report said: ‘We have been able to discern a distinctive elite, whose sheer economic advantage sets it apart from other classes.

'The fact this elite group is also shown to have the most privileged backgrounds is an important demonstration of the accentuation of social advantage at the top of British society.’

It said fewer than four out of ten people are counted as part of traditional working or middle classes.

The Frost Report sketch from 1966 made fun of the British class system but was acclaimed for its simplicity.

It featured Ronnie Barker saying to a tall John Cleese: ‘I look up to him because he is upper-class.’ He then added to small Ronnie Corbett: ‘But I look down on him, because he is lower-class. I am middle-class.’

Now click here or scroll down to take the test.

Experts: Professor Mike Savage (left), of the London School of Economics and Political Science, carried out the research with Professor Fiona Devine (right), of the University of Manchester

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2303333/Great-British-Class-Survey-reveals-UK-7-social-classes-Are-precariat-new-affluent-worker-elite.html

OBITUARIES: Donald William McElwain AO, ED, FBPsS, HonFAPS 1915-2000.

(Mac was Head of the Dept. of Psychology during my time at UQ -- JR)

Don McElwain was one of the foundation members of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies and was a member of its interim Council from 1962 to 1964 and Council from 1964 to 1974. He was the Chairman of the Psychology, later Education and Psychology, Panel from 1973 to 1978. The Institute was to occupy much of his commitment and interest. He had deep respect for the vision of the Hon. WC Wentworth and the founding members who contributed so much to ensure the secure foundation. The initial work was to salvage at-risk languages but the focus quickly broadened to include the widest coverage of all aspects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander life. McElwain gained great satisfaction from the progress of the Institute with its broad compass of academic and social contribution. In an interview (15 February 1969) recorded by the then Director of the Queensland Art Gallery, Laurie Thomas (1976:248-52), he said, `In general I am in agreement with the policies of the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs. I think the policy of land ownership by Aboriginals has important psychological implications in that a person owning land has, in part, freed himself from the overwhelming feelings of dependency that many Aboriginals have'.

He spent many long hours late at night or on early foggy mornings at Canberra airport as the sole Queensland member travelling to Council and committee meetings in the early days of the Institute. He had great admiration for the steady and careful direction of Fred McCarthy, the founding Principal. He quickly recognised the important contribution of the members of the early Council. With the appointment of Dr Peter Ucko he saw changes which brought rapid expansion that created a university-like structure which profoundly advanced the growth of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander studies in Australia. The growth, and particularly the controversies, in archaeological and linguistic scholarship brought him much excitement and pleasure.

His interest in cross-cultural psychology goes back to childhood in New Zealand where the Depression influenced the community. He was conscious of the prevailing narrow attitude towards Maori and was concerned at the failure of many to appreciate the richness and complexity of their culture and heritage.

Donald McElwain was born in Wanganui in the North Island of New Zealand on 8 May 1915. He was educated at Wanganui Technical College where he won a scholarship to Victoria University College in Wellington. The Depression was still pressing on the rural communities and the University of New Zealand permitted students to complete first-year university at selected high schools before transferring to Wellington, so his first-year studies were done concurrently with his last year of secondary studies.

He took his BA in 1933 in Education and Philosophy, and his MA with First Class Honours in Education in 1934. While at the university he was a resident of Weir House. Catherine Webb, later to become the wife and life-long partner and collaborator of Ron Berndt, was a student at the same time. He was awarded the New Zealand Postgraduate Overseas Scholarship to undertake post-graduate studies at University College London. On completion of the degree in 1937, Dr McElwain returned to Wellington where he was appointed as a statistician with the Social Science Research Bureau of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.

In 1939 he was appointed as Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Western Australia where Hugh Fowler was Head of Department. In 1940 both he and Fowler were members of the Davidson expedition (Fowler 1940), working with Aboriginal groups from the Gasgoyne area of northwestern Australia.

In June 1942, following the appointment of Fowler to the position of Director of Psychology in the newly established section of the Adjutant General's Branch, he was called up by the Australian Military Forces and appointed Assistant Director and Officer in charge of the Research Unit of the Australian Army Psychology Service. He remained a consultant to the Australian Army for more than 40 years and was the Colonel Commandant of the Australian Army Psychology Corps from 1976 to 1980. He served as a member of the interim Council of the Royal Military College, Duntroon.

While serving with the Army during the war he was involved in a large number of research projects concerned with the selection and psychological adjustment of serving soldiers. Later he was to advise the Australian Army about selection procedures for a locally raised military force in Papua and New Guinea. This was a difficult task, given the large number of languages in that country. This ruled out the use of traditional group assessment procedures. Very few of those tests which claimed to be culture-free lived up to their title, so new techniques and instruments had to be developed. The resultant work was a milestone in that a psychological instrument was developed which could be used with very remote populations and at the same time had high validity when used with standard Australian populations and special populations such as the deaf (Kearney and McElwain 1970).

In 1995 he joined with Dr Alex Sinclair, a consultant psychiatrist from Melbourne and Col. EF Campbell, the Director of Australian Army Psychology, to conduct the first survey into the mental health of Papuan and New Guineans (Sinclair 1957). When the University of Papua and New Guinea was established, there was an attempt to encourage him to apply for the vice-chancellorship, but he steadfastly refused, arguing that it was essential to have a Papua New Guinean in that position.

In 1946 he had been seconded to the University of Melbourne to establish the Department of Psychology until the professor-designate, Oscar Oeser, was able to be released to take up duty. McElwain was appointed the Senior Lecturer in Melbourne and, in 1952, Associate Professor in that Department.

In November 1955 he was appointed foundation Professor and Head of Department at the University of Queensland where he remained until his retirement in 1983. The university had rejected efforts to introduce the teaching of anthropology and there seemed to be little likelihood of the establishment of the discipline in Queensland. By his initiative he was responsible for the formation of anthropological teaching in Queensland. The demand for psychology was strong and when a new lectureship was established the job description required an appointee to have breadth in social theory. This led to the appointment of Dr Donald Tugby who held dual qualifications in anthropology and psychology. Subjects were introduced in anthropology. From this initial appointment the demand for further teaching grew until an independent Department of Anthropology and Sociology was established in 1964.

Over the years McElwain became a recognised leader in the field of cross-cultural psychology. The University of Queensland was the first Australian university to offer courses in cross-cultural psychology. He also introduced a subject, The Psychology of Art', in which Aboriginal art had a predominant place.

In 1949-50 he was a Nuffield Fellow in the Social Sciences at the Institute of Psychiatry, London. In 1963 he was invited to be a Senior Technical Expert of the United Nations Technical Assistant Board (International Labour Office), attached to the Government of India. In 1971 he was appointed Visiting Professor at the School of Education, University of the South Pacific.

He became an Associate of the British Psychological Society in 1944 and was elected a Fellow in 1948. He was a member of the Australian Association of Philosophy and Psychology, and, in 1946, was its President. In 1944 he was one of the seven Fellows and Associates of the British Psychological Society who signed a petition requesting the formation of an Australian Overseas Branch. He was Chairman of the Australian Branch for 1958-59 and was Editor of the Australian Journal of Psychology from 1949 to 1960. During this time he produced the AJP's first twelve volumes and journal's two monograph supplements. He was a foundation member of the Society and served on its Council and a number of committees. In 1973 the Society conferred on him the rare honour of Honorary Fellowship (Anon. 1974). There is a limit of 15 Honorary Fellows in a membership that currently stands at over 12,000.

Much of his most influential writing was in the form of submissions to governments and others. In the early 1960s he found that the Vice-Chancellor, Sir Fred Schonell, had nominated him to prepare the University of Queensland submission on child welfare legislation. With John Keats they examined the Aboriginal legislation to see how it would be affected by the changes. The result was that they petitioned the Attorney-General and brought about major change in, not one, but two pieces of Queensland legislation.

Through his professional life of over 40 years, Professor McElwain was a devoted and accomplished teacher. His clear lucid style matched with his academic integrity and scholarship made him one of psychology's greatest exponents. He was equally committed to promoting Aboriginal and cross-cultural studies. Thomis (1985:396), in highlighting the achievement of the University of Queensland, reported that `McElwain and Sheehan in psychology, have ... reached new heights in their respective fields and brought distinction to the university through their achievements'. He was appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia in the Queen's Birthday list 1981 for services to psychology.

Donald McElwain married Marie LeRoy in Perth in 1939. She was a distinguished artist and they had a son, Sean, and a daughter, Suzanne. Marie died in 1983. In 1986 he married a fellow psychologist, Dr Madge Horan, who survives him.

He was an imposing man but of gentle disposition and never possessive or territorial. He was impressive. In a recollection of the early period of the Australian Council for Educational Research, Moore (2000:18) describes a perceived demarcation dispute: `Beneath him (the psychiatrist Ashburner) the psychologists initiate radical selection methods under Captain McElwain. At ACER the Major is referred to as the "office boy", McElwain is referred to as "God".'

There will never be another psychologist quite like Don McElwain. Universities have changed and no longer value the great generalists and integrators. The place of great teachers and scholars is not recognised unless they are also great publishers. During his academic career the climate was receptive to new ideas and he unselfishly devoted himself to the values of a university life that rejoiced in the success of colleagues and students.

When he died in the early hours of Monday 26 June at the age of 85, a chapter closed in the history of academic and professional psychology in Australia.

REFERENCES

Anon. 1974 Honorary Fellowship, Australian Psychologist 9, 81-2.

Fowler, H.L. 1940 Report on Psychological Tests on the Natives in the North of Western Australia, Australian Journal of Science 2, 124-7.

Kearney, G.E. and D.W. McElwain 1970 The Queensland Test Manual: A Manual for Use with Assessment of General Cognitive Capacity under Conditions of Reduced Communication, Australian Council for Educational Research, Melbourne.

Moore, D. 2000 Memoirs of Psychology 1943-6, A Continuation of Memoirs 1939-1943, The ACER, InPsych 22(4), 8-20.

Sinclair, A. 1957 Field and Clinical Survey Report of the Mental Health of the Idigenes of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea, Government Printer, Port Moresby.

Thomas, L. 1976 The Most Noble Art of Them All: The Selected Writings of Laurie Thomas, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane.

Thomis, M.I. 1986 A Place of Light Liberty and Learning: The University of Queensland's First Seventy-Five Years, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF D.W. MCELWAIN

McElwain, D.W. 1944 The Scope of Mental Testing, Medical Journal of Australia 126, 573-5.

-- 1944 Some Considerations in Selecting the Army Test Battery, Bulletin of Industrial Psychology and Personnel Practice 2, 1.

-- 1945 Psychology: Wartime Lessons for Post-war Industry, Institute of Industrial Management, Melbourne (28pp).

-- 1949 The Use of Films in Teaching Psychology. In N.H. Rosenthal (ed.), Films in Instruction, Robertson & Mullens, Melbourne, 44-8.

-- 1949 The Establishment of Norms for Heights and Weights of Infant and Pre-school Children in the City of Melbourne, Melbourne City Council, Melbourne (48pp).

-- 1949 The Application of Psychological Methods in the Armed Forces of Australia. In F. Baumgarten (ed.), Progres de la Psychotechnique 1939-1945, A. Francke, Berne, 72-83.

-- 1950 A Review of Psychology in Australia, Journal of Occupational Psychology 24, 141.

McElwain, D.W. and A. Lubin 1950 A Note on the Notion of Psychological Significance, Australian Journal of Psychology 2, 43-51.

McElwain, D.W. 1951 A Suggested Method of Combining Criterion Groups, Australian Journal of Psychology 3, 47-54.

-- 1955 A Near Century of Psychology in Melbourne, unpublished ms (Psychology Part III Final Lecture 1955), Department of Psychology, University of Melbourne, October (39pp).

McElwain, D.W. and D.M. Griffiths 1957 Report on the Possibility of Using Psychological Procedures as an Aid to Recruitment in the Pacific Island Regiment, unpublished report for Department of Army, Headquarters Northern Command, Brisbane.

McElwain, D.W. 1960 The Psychological Imperative, Australian Journal of Psychology 12, 40-57.

-- 1963 Report to the Government of India on an Aptitude Programme for the Selection of Trainees for Industrial Training Institutions, International Labour Office, Geneva.

Oeser, O.A. and D.W. McElwain 1963 Notes on Psychological Research. In W.E.H. Stanner and H. Shells (eds), Australian Aboriginal Studies: A Symposium of Papers Presented at the 1961 Research Conference (Canberra, ACT), Oxford University Press, Melbourne (for the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies), 346-52.

McElwain, D.W. 1966 Transcript of Talk ... to the Executive Committee of the Australian Pre-school Association, May 1966, Special Schools Bulletin 3(4), 12-15.

-- 1966 The Cognitive Abilities of Aborigines, University of Queensland, unpublished paper delivered to second general meeting of AIAS (42pp).

-- 1967 Cognitive Factors in Counselling and Selection, Report SPC/TMS/T16, South Pacific Commission: Technical meeting on the selection and assessment of pupils for promotion or vocational guidance, Goroko, 1967.

-- 1967 Studies of Some Aspects of the Cognitive Ability of Aboriginal Children, unpublished paper delivered to research seminar on education for Aborigines, Monash University, Centre for Research into Aboriginal Affairs, (18 leaves).

Kearney, G.E. and D.W. McElwain 1967 The Queensland Test Manual: A Manual for Use with Assessment of General Cognitive Capacity under Conditions of Reduced Communication, unpublished ms, Department of Psychology, University of Queensland.

McElwain, D.W. 1968 Some Aspects of the Cognitive Ability of Aboriginal Children, Special Schools Bulletin 5(1), 1-14.

-- 1970 Problems of Aboriginal Education. In In-service Conference on the Education of Aborigines ... Report, 13-20.

-- 1970 Report, Professorial Board, Committee Appointed to Investigate Examining Procedures (rev. ed.), University of Queensland, St Lucia (iv, 132pp).

Kearney, G.E. and D.W. McElwain 1970 Queensland Test Handbook: A Test of General Cognitive Ability Designed for Use under Conditions of Reduced Communication, Australian Council for Educational Research, Hawthorn (181pp).

-- 1970 The Queensland Test: A TV Training Videotape (two versions), University of Queensland Television Unit, Brisbane.

McElwain, D.W. 1973 Remarks on Testing in the Pacific. In L.J. Cronbach and P.J.D. Drenth (eds), Mental Tests and Cultural Adaptation. Papers Presented at a Conference held in Istanbul on July 19-23, 1971 under the Sponsorship of the NATO Advisory Group on Human Factors and the Turkish Scientific and Technical Research Council, Mouton, The Hague, 211-15.

McElwain, D.W. and G.E. Kearney 1973 Report to the Public Service Board on the Selection of Non-standard Populations for the Australian Public Service, unpublished report.

Bianchi, G.N., D.W. McElwain and J. Cawte 1973 The Dispensary Syndrome: Origins of Bodily Preoccupation and Sick Role Behaviour. In G.E. Kearney, P.R. deLacey and G.R. Davidson (eds), The Psychology of Aboriginal Australians, John Wiley & Sons, Sydney, 341-51 [originally published as `The Dispensary Syndrome in Australian Aborigines: Origins of Their Bodily Preoccupation and Sick Role Behaviour' in British Journal of Medical Psychology 43, 375-82 (1970)].

McElwain, D.W. and G.E. Kearney. 1973 Intellectual Development. In G.E. Kearney, P.R. deLacey and G.R. Davidson (eds), The Psychology of Aboriginal Australians, John Wiley & Sons, Sydney, 43-56.

Kearney, G.E. and D.W. McElwain 1975 Psychological Research in Aboriginal Australia [Review of Australian psychological studies], Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies Newsletter 4, 27-55 (also as a separate publication).

-- 1975 Survey of Psychological Research in Aboriginal Australia: for the Psychology Panel [the Psychology Advisory Committee], Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (49 leaves).

McElwain, D.W. 1976 Problems of Problem Solving. In Kearney and McElwain (eds), Aboriginal Cognition: Retrospect and Prospect, 133-41.

Kearney, G.E. and D.W. McElwain (eds) 1976 Aboriginal Cognition: Retrospect and Prospect, Proceedings of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies Conference on Cognition, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, and Humanities Press, New Jersey.

Kearney, G.E. and D.W. McElwain 1976 Introduction. In Kearney and McElwain (eds), Aboriginal Cognition, 1-15.

Callan, V.J. and D.W. McElwain 1980 General Considerations in the Research with Ethnic Minorities, Australian Psychologist 15, 181-7.

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