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Listen to the full programme, as featured on Radio Netherlands. (29.00) External links: |
In Stigma, a series of four programmes, we look at four mental or neurological conditions which over the years have been stigmatised: manic depression, Tourette's sydrome, synaesthesia and schizophrenia.
But rather than hide their condition, many of the people featured in these programmes use their creativity to expose their unusual mental landscape.
Part 1: Touched by fire
Produced by Dheera Sujan
Madness and genius have often been linked. Literature has made much of those gifted ones, whose muses walked on the wild side. And studies show that there is a greatly increased rate of depression, manic-depressive illness (bi-polar disorder) and suicide in eminent writers and artists.
Kay Redfield Jamison, Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, is one of the world's leading experts on manic-depressive illness and herself suffers from it. She believes that there is indeed something to the theory that people who have experienced the highs of mania and the depths of depression have an insight into the human condition not readily available to everyone.
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Produced by Natalie Kestecher of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
"The words I want sweat,
moan, bleed, spit, get down,
and do not give birth immaculately."
Emma Morgan
Until recently, little was known about this unusual neurological disorder that compels people to make strange noises, utterances and movements, otherwise known as ‘tics'.
In Betwitched, people with Tourette's Syndrome talk about living with tics as well as some of the disorders associated with Tourette's such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Attention Deficit Disorder. Betwitched also features poetry, writing and performance by people with Tourette's.
| Listen to the full programme, as featured on Radio Netherlands. (29.30) External links: |
Produced by Michele Ernsting
"The letter A is a combination of crimson and titanium white mixed to a middle value pink. My letter B is the colour of a black sheep in England on an overcast day. The letter C is the colour of Caribbean waters in the shallows and Z is like the colour of beautiful light ale." - Carol Steen.
Literally synaesthesia means "a crossing of the senses". In practice synaesthetes may see colours when they hear music, or experience taste when they are touched. Letters and numbers have individual colours and words can appear as paintings.
For a long time is was thought that synaesthetes were fabricating their experiences, but recent neurological studies show that they do in fact perceive things like music or words with several senses. In Short Circuit, people with synaesthesia talk about the difficulties of explaining what they see, hear and taste. We also hear from two aritists who use their work to translate the complex landcaspe of their minds.
| Listen to the full programme, as featured on Radio Netherlands. (29.31) External links: |
Produced by Joanne Marcinek and Lea Redfern of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
This program is an exploration in sound of the experience of schizophrenia. It examines the historical, spiritual and cultural attitudes to experiences, which within twenty-first century western thinking, are described as schizophrenic.
The program travels from the moment of an individual's diagnosis of schizophrenia, through personal accounts, and shamanic initiations, to the visions of 14th Century Mystic and Theologian, Julian of Norwich. Through these and the insights gained during psychosis, we end with a reframing of the perception of schizophrenia as mental illness.
Tags: manic depression, s sydrome, synaesthesia and schizophrenia, Tourette'