All in the Mind Read Online Free

from the cleats on his pedals, but failed to maintain his balance and fell into the road, his friend falling on top of him a few nanoseconds later. The second cyclist was not wearing a helmet and his head hit the tarmac hard as he fell.
    David looked around to see if anyone had witnessed what the Clerkenwell magistrate would subsequently call ‘this mindless act’. A part of his mind was telling him to turn and run. Instead he walked over to the two men, started to help them up, and once he had done so, confessed he had thrown the can which had been responsible for their fall. ‘I’m really very sorry. Here, let me help you.’
    The helmeted cyclist appeared not to be hurt at all, though he was rubbing his hip and moving his neck and shoulder to check for strains. The second man had a large graze across the side of his head through which blood was beginning to seep. There was real hurt and anger in his voice as he railed at David. ‘What on earth were you thinking of? You could have killed us. Imagine if a car or a bus had been overtaking us as we fell into the road. Bang, dead.’
    ‘I’m sorry,’ said David. ‘I really am.’
    ‘Is that it? Is that all you can say?’
    ‘The problem is that I’m quite ill.’
    It was the first time he had ever said it in those terms and they knew immediately what he meant.
    ‘Care-in-the-community job, are we?’ said the helmeted man in a tone that was surprisingly friendly. Even his angry, bleeding companion seemed to soften just a little. They were clearly disarmed by David’s confession, his apology, and now this statement about his mental health.
    ‘Hadn’t you better call an ambulance for your friend?’ asked David. ‘Or the police?’
    His lawyer would later cite this as a set of circumstances amounting to a ‘cry for help’, which would lead to David escaping with a small fine provided he agreed to undergo psychiatric treatment. And so Professor Sturrock entered his life. He didn’t feel substantially better. But he felt a little better, some of the time, and he was sure this was in large part down to the Professor. It made him even more determined to make his appointment today.
    David spooned the tea bag from his fourth mug of tea, squeezed out the last drops and placed it carefully on the saucer. He had another half-hour before he was due up there on the sixth floor. ‘You can do it,’ he whispered to himself. Professor Sturrock had such faith in him – he owed it to him. As he stirred the sugar into his tea, he remembered the scribbled note the Professor had put on his homework just before Christmas last year – ‘
Low self-esteem is not the same as humility. You may think that you are less important than others, but what I think you are is humble. And humility is a fine quality
.’ He was pretty sure he was going to turn up now.

3
    Matthew Noble QC had taken Friday morning off work in preparation for the ordeal of his first ever encounter with a psychiatrist, but the time was dragging. As he sat in the kitchen nursing his cup of coffee, his wife Celia insisted on reading out the latest piece of research on sex addiction she had found on the Internet. He thought the whole thing ridiculous, but Celia had been adamant he should get help, and he didn’t feel he was in a position to argue. She had caught him out cheating on her, twice in fairly rapid succession. He knew he had left her feeling hurt and humiliated on both occasions, but she was clear that, despite everything, she didn’t want to lose her marriage. They had recently celebrated their silver wedding, and whatever it was that had led him into his infidelities, he still felt something for her. She knew everything there was to know about him: what he liked to eat, what clothes he liked to wear, his little routines. The idea of living without her horrified him. Partly, he acknowledged, it was a question of self-image. There was something a bit sad and loserish about colleagues he knew whose