For reasons he's still trying to fully work out, Darach Murphy is someone who likes to understand and figure out stuff. As a youngfella, Darach watched certain sporting moves and practiced them endlessly trying to understand and replicate them. Later he worked in construction where – using the same passion/ obsession – he became a self-taught carpenter, electrician and plumber (of sorts). In 2004, Darach’s younger brother ended up in a Victorian style mental health asylum. This had a profoundly shocking effect on him which, in part, led Darach to embark on an undergraduate Psychology degree course in the desire to understand his brother’s ‘treatment’ and the mind in general. One thing led to another and over the next 10 years Darach continued this passion to understand the mind – his own included – leading to a PhD journey that focused on ‘men’s groups’ (deeply masculine spaces, where men seem to feel empowered to speak freely about their deepest fears, troubles etc.). Darach was a practicing member of such men’s groups and found huge learning and healing in them and, from an intellectual point of view, came to understand that ‘mental health’ is far from an individual phenomenon and instead is profoundly social and gendered.
