Dr Raj Persaud is a consultant psychiatrist and broadcaster, well-known for raising public awareness of psychiatric and mental health issues in the media. He was for some time the resident psychiatrist on the well-known daytime television programme This Morning with Richard and Judy.
Raj is also the author of several books, including The Motivated Mind, which explores the needs we all have and how ‘success’ and ‘achievement’ fit in with our overall fulfilment. It was on this topic of ‘Motivation’ that Raj came in to talk to parents of Brampton students earlier this month.
His talk explored the scale of responsibility, ranging from those who are ‘Internal’, taking responsibility for their fate and viewing their failures as a consequence of their own effort and ability, to the ‘External’, those who assume that success is thwarted by forces beyond their control. The resultant abdication of responsibility for our actions is the dangerous allure of the latter attitude. Raj considered the consequences of the growing tendency for us to lean towards the “External” mindset, and the negative effect this can have on students in particular.
Raj is convinced that we need to help students become more ‘Internal’, to help them take ownership of their actions and the outcomes, allowing them to learn from their mistakes and review how they could improve in the future. This, he believes, is the key to academic success.
Raj has written several pieces in the press about taking responsibility for one’s own actions and here’s a link to one of them.
