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MEDICAL DOCTOR | PSYCHIATRIST | AUTHOR | SPEAKER |
Dr George Blair-West is a medical doctor who specializes in psychiatry. His research, writing and speaking career began with landmark scientific publications on suicide and depression that resulted in an honorary appointment as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland and in his life-time admission to the New York Academy of Sciences in 1998.
Twenty-five years ago, he published his first book ‘Weight Loss for Food Lovers: Understanding Our Minds and Why We Sabotage Our Weight Loss’. The first book on the psychology of weight loss, it became a best-seller in Australia with two editions and was translated into Dutch and Chinese. He has trained hundreds of psychologists, dietitians and doctors in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom in applying restraint theory to weight management. A children’s book on developing healthy eating followed.
Reflecting his study of existential philosophical and psychotherapeutic teachings, in 2013 he published the historical novel The Way of the Quest on finding one’s meaning and purpose. It garnered awards in each of the three international competitions, of the time, that had an ‘inspirational fiction’ category.
With the success of his 2017 TED talk on preventing divorce, he was taken on by the international publishing house Hachette who published How to make the biggest decision of your life. This led to an invitation for his second TED talk in 2022 on how romantic love contributes to divorce and why we need to redefine our concept of Love.
Dr Blair-West provided expert legal opinion in the landmark case where, for the first time, Dissociative Identity Disorder was used as the basis for criminal prosecution, as opposed to the basis for defence. In 2022 he went on to publish The Girl in the Green Dress with his ex-patient, Jeni Haynes, detailing this remarkable story of resilience and justice that resulted in her father receiving a life sentence.
Twenty years ago, Dr Blair-West began researching what he calls Unconscious Lateral Intelligence after noticing a pattern throughout history in the way highly complex problems were resolved by great thinkers through unconscious processing i.e. while the person was not actually thinking about the problem. Resolution typically involved a paradigm shift redolent of Edward de Bono’s conceptualisation of lateral thinking. This will be the subject of his next book.
Dr Blair-West is married to his wife of 37 years, Penny, who is a clinical psychologist. They have two adult children and reside in Brisbane Australia. He is a car enthusiast tragic and is the president of the local 'Car Nutz' club.
Twenty-five years ago, he published his first book ‘Weight Loss for Food Lovers: Understanding Our Minds and Why We Sabotage Our Weight Loss’. The first book on the psychology of weight loss, it became a best-seller in Australia with two editions and was translated into Dutch and Chinese. He has trained hundreds of psychologists, dietitians and doctors in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom in applying restraint theory to weight management. A children’s book on developing healthy eating followed.
Reflecting his study of existential philosophical and psychotherapeutic teachings, in 2013 he published the historical novel The Way of the Quest on finding one’s meaning and purpose. It garnered awards in each of the three international competitions, of the time, that had an ‘inspirational fiction’ category.
With the success of his 2017 TED talk on preventing divorce, he was taken on by the international publishing house Hachette who published How to make the biggest decision of your life. This led to an invitation for his second TED talk in 2022 on how romantic love contributes to divorce and why we need to redefine our concept of Love.
Dr Blair-West provided expert legal opinion in the landmark case where, for the first time, Dissociative Identity Disorder was used as the basis for criminal prosecution, as opposed to the basis for defence. In 2022 he went on to publish The Girl in the Green Dress with his ex-patient, Jeni Haynes, detailing this remarkable story of resilience and justice that resulted in her father receiving a life sentence.
Twenty years ago, Dr Blair-West began researching what he calls Unconscious Lateral Intelligence after noticing a pattern throughout history in the way highly complex problems were resolved by great thinkers through unconscious processing i.e. while the person was not actually thinking about the problem. Resolution typically involved a paradigm shift redolent of Edward de Bono’s conceptualisation of lateral thinking. This will be the subject of his next book.
Dr Blair-West is married to his wife of 37 years, Penny, who is a clinical psychologist. They have two adult children and reside in Brisbane Australia. He is a car enthusiast tragic and is the president of the local 'Car Nutz' club.