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Desert Island Discs

Professor Sir Simon Wessely

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.413.7K Ratings

🗓️ 28 March 2021

⏱️ 38 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Professor Sir Simon Wessely is the first ever psychiatrist to be awarded a Regius professorship – an honour bestowed by the Queen. He is professor of psychological medicine at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London, and is also a consultant psychiatrist at King’s College Hospital and the Maudsley Hospital. Born in Sheffield to a father who had come to Britain on the Kindertransport, he started his research career working on unexplained symptoms and syndromes, leading progressive and sometimes controversial work on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Disagreement about whether the condition is physical or psychological continues to this day and although Simon’s studies helped develop a treatment programme, there is still no cure. Later he switched his attention to the military, exploring Gulf War Syndrome, PTSD, the risk and benefit of military service, social and psychological outcomes for ex-service personnel and historic aspects of war and psychiatry. In 1996 he established the Gulf War Illness Research Unit which subsequently became the King’s Centre for Military Health Research. He completed a term as president of the Royal Society of Medicine – the first psychiatrist to occupy the post - and in 2017 he led an independent review of the Mental Health Act. DISC ONE: Think by Aretha Franklin DISC TWO: String Quartet No. 1 (“From My Life”) in E minor (Allegro vivo appassionato) composed by Bedrich Smetana, performed by The Dante Quartet DISC THREE: Soave sia il vento, composed by Mozart, conducted by Karl Bohm, performed by Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, Walter Berry, Christa Ludwig and Philharmonia Orchestra DISC FOUR: How Long has This Been Going On? by Dexter Gordon and Lonette McKee DISC FIVE: The Room Where it Happens by Leslie Odom, Jr and Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton DISC SIX: France - La Marseillaise - Hymne national francais, composed by Claude Rouget de Lisle, performed by Ensemble du monde DISC SEVEN: Serenade No. 10 in B flat major, K. 361, "Gran Partita": Adagio, composed by Mozart, performed by German Wind Soloists DISC EIGHT: Tuxedo Junction by Jools Holland And His Rhythm And Blues Orchestra BOOK CHOICE: A Teach Yourself Russian book LUXURY ITEM: A Viennese cafe CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: How Long has This Been Going On? by Dexter Gordon and Lonette McKee Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Paula McGinley

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts

0:04.9

Hello, I'm Lauren LeVern and this is the Desert Island Disks Podcast.

0:08.8

Every week I ask my guests to choose the 8 tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take

0:13.3

with them if they were cast away to a desert island.

0:16.8

And for right reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.

0:21.2

I hope you enjoy listening.

0:45.5

My cast away this week is Professor Sussiman Wesley.

0:48.9

He's the first ever psychiatrist to be awarded a Regist's Professorship, a rare honour bestowed

0:53.9

by the Queen.

0:54.9

And over the course of his 30-year career, he's earned an international reputation for pioneering

1:00.1

research and public engagement.

1:02.4

Born in Sheffield, to a father who'd come to Britain in 1939 on the Kindertransport,

1:07.7

he says his passion for psychiatry is fired by its blend for biological, psychological

1:13.0

and social.

1:14.2

His contribution to his specialism includes plenty of each.

1:17.9

He's researched the No Man's Land between the brain and mind and led progressive and

1:22.0

some might say controversial work on chronic fatigue syndrome.

1:25.4

He's also explored the way military life shapes people.

1:28.8

He was even knighthood for his work in this area, which includes studies of Gulf War syndrome,

1:33.4

compiling a history of shell shock and founding what is now the King's Centre for Military

1:37.8

Health Research.

1:39.7

More recently, he completed a term as President of the Royal Society of Medicine, the first

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