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Philosopher of Psychiatry & Historian of Autism  Home   

About Me

In early 2008 I was diagnosed as autistic (specifically Asperger's syndrome). At the time I was in the second year of a part time masters
in History and Philosophy of Science at Leeds University. Upon finishing the masters I started researching autism and formulating a PhD
proposal. Having a masters in History and Philosophy of Science and having just being diagnosed as autistic made me ideally placed to
apply for a PhD in History of Autism and Philosophy of Psychiatry.

I am interested in advocacy for both autism and psychiatric issues more generally, having both personally experienced and known many
others who have experienced extreme levels of intolerance. Additionally, psychiatric issues can cause immense problems to quality of life 
and functioning; society should care for such people where appropriate. Though I have had some immensely bad experience from psychiatric
professionals I have also had some extremely positive experiences and have very much overall benefited from our current medical and welfare
institutions when in times of need.

Outside my academic interests, I love reading fiction, especially fiction which explore the inner parts of the psyche (Dostevesky, Conrad, Roth,
Ballard). Used to have a great interest in 1960s to 1975 science fiction (Ursula Le Guin, Philip K Dick, J.G. Ballard, Kurt Vonnegut, etc). I am a purple-white belt in Shotokan karate. I have very diverse musical tastes, including  techno, ambient, classical, post-rock, post-punk, post-metal, drum & bass, psytrance as well as more well known music. My bandcamp gives an indication of what I am currently listening to: https://bandcamp.com/Samsonov. I virtually never watch TV, including iplayer/ITVplayer, netflix, etc.  

I am a vegan, primarily for ethical reasons. Becoming vegan is, in my experience, very easy. PETA are a good source of advice on becoming vegan.

I am a member of the Labour party, you can join here:

I make monthly donates to four charities:

There are many different charities you could donate to. If you do not already do so and if you are not facing poverty then it might be worthwhile considering
if you should donate to one of them.