Quick Facts
Biography
Bruce G. Charlton is a British medical doctor and Visiting Professor of Theoretical Medicine at the University of Buckingham. Since 2001, he has been Reader in Evolutionary Psychiatry at Newcastle University. Charlton was editor of Medical Hypotheses from 2003 to 2010.
Biography
Charlton graduated with honours from the Newcastle Medical School in Newcastle upon Tyne, took a doctorate at the Medical Research Council Neuroendocrinology group, and did postgraduate training in psychiatry and public health. He has held university lectureships in physiology, anatomy, epidemiology, and psychology; and holds a master's degree in English Literature from Durham University in North East England.
From 2003 to 2010, Charlton was the solo-editor of the journal Medical Hypotheses, published by Elsevier. After HIV/AIDS denier Peter Duesberg published a paper in Medical Hypothesis arguing that “there is as yet no proof that HIV causes AIDS", the journal came under fire for its lack of peer review. The paper was withdrawn from the journal citing concerns over the paper's quality and “that [it] could potentially be damaging to global public health.” Elsevier consequently revamped the journal to introduce peer review, firing Charlton from his position as editor, due to his resistance of these changes.
Publications
Charlton has published a number of books, and maintains various blogs.
- with RS Downie, The making of a doctor: medical education in theory and practice (1993)
- Psychiatry and the Human Condition (2000; online copy)
- with Peter Andras, The Modernization Imperative (2003; online copy)
- Thought Prison: the fundamental nature of political correctness (2011; online copy)
- Not even trying: the corruption of real science (2012; online copy)
- Addicted to Distraction: Psychological consequences of the modern Mass Media (2014; online copy)
- with Edward Dutton, The Genius Famine: why we need geniuses, why they're dying out, and why we must rescue them 2016; online excerpts)
- Blogger.com profile; some of the "blogs" listed are in fact single books or essays.