Senator Andrew Bartlett
Monday, May 02, 2005
 
Rene Rivkin

Well known former stockbroker, Rene Rivkin, has been found dead, with the News Ltd papers reporting it as a suicide.

I know very little of Rene Rivkins character, beyond seeing the fascinating interview he did with Andrew Denton on ABC TVs 'Enough Rope' a couple of years ago. Having not studied the evidence from his trial, I have no reason to doubt he was guilty of the offence of insider trading for which he was convicted. However, I do know that evidence presented for his sentencing recorded that he had a history of psychiatric illness, including a first report of severe depression 1981-82.

Perhaps this event will make clear to those who suggested he was faking mental illness to avoid serving his periodic jail sentence that depression can be an extremely serious ailment. Smartarse jokes about depression may be funny if you aren't suffering from it, but they also reinforce the public perception that it isn't a real illness and therefore doesn't need to be taken seriously. I still recall Philip Ruddock saying in an interview that "I'm not sure that everybody would regard depression as being a mental illness". (SBS, 8/5/03)

Perhaps this event will serve to demonstrate that depression can be just as big a killer as cancer (a point I explored briefly in a post last month after the suicide of another public figure) . Hopefully we might see fewer knee-jerk assumptions that it's not a real illness or that people are just faking it. Whilst I'm engaging in wishful thinking, maybe there will be also be a simultaneous growth in understanding that, just like cancer, people can have depression and still be highly effective at what they do.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Monday, May 02, 2005 Permalink
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