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MEDICAL DOCTOR | PSYCHIATRIST | AUTHOR | SPEAKER |
Dr Blair-West gave up general psychiatry 25 years ago to just sub-specialise in three areas: trauma therapy, couples therapy and existential psychotherapy. (He realised he had to make the change when he kept forgetting to follow up on any medications that he had prescribed - realising he was a lawsuit waiting to happen. He found himself much more interested in understanding how the human mind worked and dealt with various challenges.)
His research career began in the mid-1990s with scientific publications on suicide in major depression which revised the then accepted suicide risk from 15% down to 3.4% (see research page). Based on the new research into restraint theory, he then wrote the world’s first book on the psychology and self-sabotage of weight loss, which was sold in all the English-speaking countries and was translated into Dutch and Chinese with an invited presentation at the International Congress on Obesity in 2006. 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.
After his 2017 TED talk on preventing divorce exceeded four million views, 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 and the Lamborghini Club of Australia VP for Queensland.
His research career began in the mid-1990s with scientific publications on suicide in major depression which revised the then accepted suicide risk from 15% down to 3.4% (see research page). Based on the new research into restraint theory, he then wrote the world’s first book on the psychology and self-sabotage of weight loss, which was sold in all the English-speaking countries and was translated into Dutch and Chinese with an invited presentation at the International Congress on Obesity in 2006. 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.
After his 2017 TED talk on preventing divorce exceeded four million views, 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 and the Lamborghini Club of Australia VP for Queensland.