Rajendra 'Raj' PersaudFRCPsych (born 13 May 1963) is an English consultant psychiatrist, broadcaster and author of books about psychiatry. He is known for raising public awareness of psychiatric and mental health issues in the general media, has published five books and received numerous awards.
Persaud is the son of Trinidad-born author Lakshmi Persaud and Professor Bishnodat Persaud. He was educated at Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School and at University College London, where he read for his degrees in medicine and psychology, and wrote for the student newspaper Pi. In his first year at UCL he had to re-sit the examinations in anatomy, which he attributed later to availing himself too freely of the other educational opportunities there.[2] He told the British Medical Journal that this left him "traumatised" and he compensated by virtually taking up residence in the college library, eventually achieving at least three degrees, four diplomas and a membership examination, including:[3]
BSc Degree in Psychology with First Class Honours, Department of Psychology, University College London (1984)
He was a senior lecturer in psychiatry at the University of London and had a visiting professor role at Gresham College for Public Understanding of Psychiatry from 2004-2008[4]
Plagiarism and suspension
In 2008, Persaud was suspended from practising psychiatry for three months by the General Medical Council, having admitted being guilty of nine cases of plagiarism. He subsequently left his consultant position with the South London and Maudsley NHS trust.
His book From the Edge of the Couch contained material plagiarised from four academic articles written by nine authors. Four of his articles also contained plagiarised passages from an article and book by Thomas Blass, The Man Who Shocked the World. The case against him began after a complaint by the Church of Scientology.[5]
Persaud's media work has earned him a mixed reception. Francis Wheen, then a Guardian columnist, wrote that he is "paid a lot of money for stating the obvious". In contrast, Phil Hammond, a GP and journalist, applauded Persaud for his populist appeal, saying Persaud is a "good media communicator" for the psychiatric industry, albeit lacking the sophistication of the late Anthony Clare.[6][7]
