British Psychologist’s Paper Retracted Because of Author’s Racism, Not Failure to Declare Interests

Explanations offered for an extraordinarily rapid retraction ignore author’s use of the paper to excoriate a prominent non-white psychiatrist for being critical of racism in UK mental health

UK psychologist Peter Kinderman is the corresponding author of a paper in the Journal of Mental Health that is getting lots of unwanted publicity. Retraction Watch called attention to its recent retraction, and what it tells us invites further probing into what really went on.

I examined the retracted paper with a forensic eye, in ways the authors and editor probably would not appreciate. In this Substack article, I will be presenting evidence that I found persuasive that the real reason is the author’s racism. Otherwise, why couldn’t the paper be resubmitted with an apology and a disclosure? I will show how the offense the paper provides is not fixable.

Kinderman used the article as a bully pulpit for condemning a respected UK psychiatrist by name as a hate-monger without the psychiatrist being able to defend his reputation.

The Journal of Mental Health is not an appropriate platform for this sort of thing and so the publisher took quick action to retract the paper and end what could …