A Child in Time: Deep Purple and a Classical Gas

One of the things about being in love with the best person in the world is having to share the TV time. Whilst young J and I have similar tastes, it doesn’t always extend to our viewing choices. For example, I could watch ‘Come Dine With Me’ and ‘Four In A Bed’ every day. If I do, J retires to our music room and plays her piano, listens to music or reads one of her classic books. But we do occasionally watch the same TV programme. Last week it was a catch up version of the Netflix hit ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ – Episode Five really resonated.

It was the music in the soundtrack that caught my attention; part way through there was a slightly jazzed up version of ‘Classical Gas’. Older readers of this blog will perhaps remember this instrumental, young viewers have a listen (and watch this version played with consummate skill by Gabriella Quevedo) here. It was an instrumental piece written and first performed by the US guitarist Mason Williams in 1968. Personally, I think Gabriella’s version is far superior. There was another reason for the music catching my attention. Way back in 1976, I was on a student nurse placement at a day centre that specialised in psychodynamic interventions. It was one of the best placements of my nurse education. One year into my pre-registration education and training programme I fell in love with psychotherapy. 

Sadly, I never got to qualify as a psychotherapist. However, I did use psychotherapeutic approaches in my work as a mental health nurse, and much psychoanalytical theory underpinned many of my publications. I was aided in this regard by my long time writing collaborator, Professor Sue McAndrew, who is qualified. But I digress. On that placement I met a young man in his early 20s, who I shall call Ralph. He was withdrawn, angry and very difficult to engage with and smoked incessantly. He had long nicotine-stained fingers. Amazingly now looking back, at the time many mental health nurses smoked and one way of engaging with patients was to have a cigarette together. I was one of those nurses.

Ok, I cannot resist another slight digression. Many years ago, I would show extracts from the 1948 film ‘The Snake Pit’ to nursing students in Finland. These were Finnish students undertaking their entire nursing degree using only the English language. They were very bright, enthusiastic and a real pleasure to be with. It was a great film to take extracts from to show the cultural changes that have happened in both how we treat and care for people who experience mental health problems and societal attitudes to mental health and wellbeing. It’s still possible to buy a DVD of the film from Amazon. Almost all the healthcare professionals in the film smoked.   

OK, lets get back to the day centre in Swansea. I used to run a folk club in my spare time, and one day I brought in one of my guitars (the second one along in this picture). Upon Ralph’s arrival, he asked if he could play it. I said yes and after spending a bit of time tuning the guitar he started to play. Now I have been fortunate to hear live the supremacy of the Rolling Stones, the arrogance of Oasis, the stupidity of Clapton, the rock n’ roll of Chris Rea, the melancholy of Leonard Cohen, the surrealism of David Bowie, the lyricism of Bob Dylan and the creativity of Mark Knopfler, but in that moment they were all surpassed by Ralph – like Gabriella Quevedo, he played the guitar with supreme skill but also with an almost humble casualness.

He told me he had learnt to play in school. Playing music was one way he could escape into himself and away from the realities of his home life. I never found out what the realities of his home life were, and back then I would not have had the skills or knowledge to be able to respond therapeutically in any event. However, my interest in understanding the impact childhood abuse (in all its various forms) might have as the child becomes an adult was very much stimulated by that placement, and eventually Prof Sue and I did quite a lot of our research around child sexual abuse (CSA). Even with a great deal more awareness of the vulnerability of many children and young people, still today, one in five adults aged 18-74 have experienced at least one form of child abuse (emotional abuse, physical and/or sexual abuse) before the age of 16. That is a staggering 8.5 million people. Of these, some 3.1 million were victims of CSA before the age of 16, with a much higher prevalence rate for females than males. You can find out more here.

Last Friday was #PurpleWinter, an annual social media awareness-raising campaign that asks people to wear something purple and share photos of themselves in support of the need to spot, and stop CSA wherever this might occur. The campaign was started by the former football player David Lean, who played for Preston North End est. 1875. He was sexually abused by his trainer, Barry Bennell. What is important about raising awareness through the #PurpleWinter campaign was that David Lean didn’t report his abuse until he was an adult and then the authorities didn’t believe him or take action.  Which, I would argue, in itself is almost a form of abuse.

So, if a child does approach us and starts to talk about how they might have been abused, we should let the child tell their story in their own way and at their own pace. We should remain calm and demonstrate we are listening and believe what the child is saying. This can be difficult as the natural inclination will be to ask lots of questions. Above all we should find a way of reassuring and supporting the child, but absolutely report what has been disclosed. Early safeguarding intervention will always be better than dealing with mental health problems further down the line. As I write this blog, I wonder what became of Ralph and whether like the beautiful music he was able to play, he was able to find that inner peace also. I hope so. Me, despite many years of practice, I still cannot play Classical Gas all the way through.