by Rafiq Lockhat
On the news the other day they were discussing the suicide of a teenager when the announcer said suicide is now the second biggest cause of teen deaths in South Africa. Disturbing as this is, it did not surprise me. In 1986, when I was a psychology intern, I worked at...
by Rafiq Lockhat
Last week I wrote about psychologist Erik Erikson’s theory of “life crises” and his interest in how our interactions with our environment shape our personality. We explored the first three of his eight stages of psychosocial development. This week I...
by Rafiq Lockhat
I saw a patient a last week who is a competent, attractive, professional woman of 31. She has been living with her 29-year-old boyfriend for the past two years. They have a baby of six months and have been going out for five years. She came to see me because she is...
by Rafiq Lockhat
I consulted with a 65-year-old woman some time ago. For 42 years she had been involved in a relationship with a man she described as “beautiful”. He had died from colon cancer a few weeks prior to her seeing me. She was lonely and missing him terribly. I...
by Rafiq Lockhat
I saw a 16-year-old last week who was referred because of a fairly sudden drop in his grades at school. As our session progressed, he spoke of his fears regarding his mother’s impending second marriage. She was about to marry a man who had been married before...
by Rafiq Lockhat
Last week I watched Carte Blanche, which was both riveting and disturbing. It concerned the murders of Brett Golding and Richard Bloom. At some point, the investigative journalist ended up in Manenberg, on the Cape Flats, which is notorious for its violence, drugs and...