Psychiatrist in the Chair The Official Biography of Anthony Clare

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I can picture him clearly, but I can only remember one thing that he said to me. He said it to me so often I am not surprised it was something I could never forget. What he said was this: ‘Keep that Latin accurate.’ He said it whenever he spoke to me – without fail.

The research shows that people who are best protected against certain physical diseases — cancer and heart disease, for example — in addition to doing all the other things they should do, are likely to be part of a community of some kind, are likely to be socially involved. This was gripping radio: elegant, erudite, entertaining. It helped that Clare was clearly impressed by Geller and that Geller could bend keys with his mind. But the real magic came from Clare’s openness to Geller’s performance and persona, Clare’s willingness to express his bafflement at what he saw, and Clare’s endless curiosity about people – not only about people who could bend spoons with their minds, but about everyone whom Clare encountered in his media and medical careers. The programme started in 1982, when Clare felt that the time had come for a new series, on the basis that the public was now more knowledgeable about psychology, relationships, emotions and human behaviour. Greater openness about people’s inner lives meant that – in effect – the unconscious had shrunk since the time of Freud. His oratorical skills would lead to him becoming a persuasive advocate for psychiatry and his patients at a time when they needed him and would still. He also became an accomplished broadcaster, and I remember him popping up regularly on The Late Late Show in the nineteen-seventies and eighties when there was very little discussion about mental health in the public square. Anthony Clare and his wife Jane in Sardinia, December 2003. It was Clare who persuaded me that psychiatry was worthwhile after all. On the surface it was an exposition of the arguments that were convulsing the intellectual community - but underneath it was a firm statement that psychiatry was not quite so damned as Laing and [Thomas] Szasz would have us believe. And it was a damn good read.I can go skint in a day. I can be finished like that. If a scandal comes up or something like that or the people go off you, you’re finished. I’d much rather go skint with a brand new Rolls Royce in the garage than one that’s eight years old that I love, because I’ll get more for it. Caroline Richmond, Guardian obituary (includes additional section on his hosting of the After Dark television programme), 31 October 2007 And, finally, if you want to be happy… Be Happy. Act it, play the part, put on a happy face. Start thinking diff erently. ‘Choose to be optimistic,’ says the Dalai Lama. ‘It feels better.’ Behind the professional good samaritan there was a man of ruthless willpower, intelligent enough to become a member of Mensa. It was as if the scale of his charitable efforts was an expression of his enormous desire to be seen to have achieved something.

The interview appears in a book by BBC Radio 4 psychiatrist, the late Anthony Clare, which brings together a number of interviews from the radio series In The Psychiatrists Chair. Clare commented that in psychoanalysis, "the allegedly 'free' communications of the patient are strongly influenced by the values and expectations of the analyst". He continued: A recent study found an interesting link between time spent commuting and satisfaction with life. Perhaps not surprisingly, those who spent an hour or more on their journey to work were found to be signifi cantly less happy than those who did not commute. If you are feeling negative, simply say to yourself: ‘I am going to be positive,’ and that, in itself, can trigger a change in how you feel. That’s it. And it works. It really does, I’m happy to say. Throughout the interview Savile refuses to open up about his feelings and goes to great pains to claim he has no skeletons in his closet: “I mean I don’t go away from here and indulge in some wild fetishes or wild weirdo things or anything like that.So what, then, is happiness? Well, as you might have gathered by now, having friends can make you very happy. I have lots of friends. The Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, President Obama and Jesus all regard themselves as intimates of mine. Sex can also make you happy: I like to have a great deal of sex. Preferably in front of a mirror with rows of my favourite teddy bears lined up to applaud me. However, my very good friend Ann Widdecombe says she is very happy not having sex. What we can agree on, though, is that anyone having sex with Ann is likely to be very unhappy.