In 2003 and again in 2009, Director Andy Glynne, with Mosaic Films and BBC4 created Animated Minds, a series of animated documentaries to express the subjective experiences of various kinds of mental health disorders. [more inside]
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur on Oct 22, 2011 - 5 comments

The epidemic of mental illness plaguing the Americans and the overmedication of psychiatric patients are in part artifacts of the diagnostic method. [more inside]
posted by hat_eater on Jun 22, 2011 - 50 comments

Is the contemporary epidemic of mental illness fueled by useless or even harmful anti-depressants and other psychoactive drugs? A review of books by Irving Kirsch, Robert Whitaker, and Daniel Carlat, notes that per Kirsch, "[a]n active placebo is one that itself produces side effects...there was no difference between the antidepressant and the active placebo" (new research claims very severe cases are different). Whitaker argues that psychoactive drugs may actively "disturb neurotransmitter function" and cause mental illnesses which a mounting cascade of drugs are then needed to manage. (previously, previously)
posted by shivohum on Jun 6, 2011 - 113 comments

New research hints that schizophrenia and other mental illness may be caused by "endogenous retroviruses" stored in our DNA and activated by common infections such as CMV, toxoplamosis, or the flu
posted by T.D. Strange on Nov 12, 2010 - 98 comments

THE DOWNSIDE OF HIGH (trailer) tells the stories of three young people from British Columbia who believe – along with their doctors – that their mental illness was triggered by marijuana use. [more inside]
posted by KokuRyu on Jan 27, 2010 - 167 comments

Schizophrenia, a story from Darryl Cunningham's forthcoming Psychiatric Tales.
posted by Artw on Sep 24, 2009 - 30 comments

Only six years old, January Schofield is severely schizophrenic, actively hallucinating and violent. An LA Times article in June and a follow-up in July describe her parents' attempts to get help for her. Her father also has a blog. [more inside]
posted by infinitywaltz on Aug 26, 2009 - 123 comments

Imagine if you were the only person on earth; if no one else could understand you except yourself. No matter how hard you tried, you could never make contact with the outside world, not for long at least. This is the life of a Schizophrenic. Here, in a simulation created to understand what a typical trip to the pharmacy is for a patient suffering from Schizophrenia [previously], you will experience for a few minutes what life is all about for people afflicted with this disease. (via) [more inside]
posted by hadjiboy on Sep 11, 2008 - 53 comments

Louis Wain became one of the most famous British illustrators of the late Victorian and Edwardian era after trying to cheer up his wife Emily by drawing portraits of their pet cat, Peter. In addition to publishing a popular children's book about kittens, he was a founder of the U.K's National Cat Club who was instrumental in promoting the Cat Fancy movement, which encouraged Britons of all classes to view cats as lovable pets instead of household pests. Unfortunately, after Wain's wife Emily died of breast cancer, Wain gradually went mad due to psychosis and late onset schizophrenia, ending up in London's notorious Bethlehem Hospital (the etymological origin for the word bedlam). While at Bedlam, Wain continued to draw, but his cat portraits transformed into pure geometric abstraction and psychedelic fractals, but some see harbingers of madness in cryptically titled works, such as Early Indian Irish and The Fire of the Mind Agitates the Atmosphere. For more insight on Wain, check out this 1896 interview and this short film dramatizing the progression of Wain's schizophrenia through his art.
posted by jonp72 on Aug 12, 2007 - 25 comments

A LEVER TO MOVE THE MIND The project is fascinating, even though it is still in the rudimentary graphics stage. As someone who works with people with mental illness this interested me, how about the rest of you? What am I talking about? A way to model what schizophrenia is like.
posted by edgeways on Sep 12, 2004 - 9 comments

... and the doctor says, I can clearly see you're nuts.
A PRODIGY IN MANY FIELDS. Perhaps I rank historically among the 50 or 100 most intelligent and talented people in the most fields ever.
And so begins the best resume ever.
posted by patrickje on Nov 5, 2002 - 59 comments

"I've been hit with ultrasonic bullets and ultrasonic lasers that can penetrate the human skull. A good name for the ultrasonic bullets and ultrasonic lasers that can penetrate the skull are 'Skull Penetrating Ultrasonic Bullets' and 'Skull Penetrating Ultrasonic Lasers'."

I thought I was up on my conspiracy theories, but a student of mine dug up this long testimonial by a guy who claims to have been targeted by UltraSonics, a "secret police force," after installing a booming sound system in his car. Supposedly the UltraSonics use "extremely advanced surveillance, harassment, and non-lethal weapons technology" to corral neighborhood undesirables into mental hospitals. (As would follow, both pharmaceutical companies and the Department of Housing and Urban Development are identified as co-conspirators.)
posted by jbushnell on Mar 4, 2001 - 7 comments