MetaFilter posts tagged with mentalillness

All the world will be your enemy, Prince of a Thousand enemies. And when they catch you, they will kill you.

humannaire — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:49:45 -0800

This past Tuesday, China executed Briton Akmal Shaikh for heroin smuggling, the first foreigner to be executed in China since Italian Antonio Riva was put to death in 1951. Shaikh's family, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and U.N. officials all had asked for clemency based on the fact the 53-year old, father-of-three Shaikh was a mentally ill person who believed he was a pop star on a mission for world peace and had been duped into being an unwitting drug mule. Nonetheless, regardless of international outcry, Shaikh was put to death. The outcry continues. A music video has been created for Shaikh's music single, Come Little Rabbit.

"Just stick this in your crazy hole and we'll unlock the sanity!"

ShawnStruck — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:04:41 -0800

6 Mental Illness Myths Hollywood Wants You to Believe . A smart, funny take on some of the most common Hollywood movie tropes about mental illness.

Psychiatric Tales

Artw — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 10:17:31 -0800

Schizophrenia, a story from Darryl Cunningham's forthcoming Psychiatric Tales.

It's 200 degrees in Calalini...

infinitywaltz — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 07:18:11 -0800

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. Brutal, unflinching, and often angry, he describes his family's difficulties obtaining help from insurance, the lack of state services, family members who are unable or unwilling to understand, the need for mental health parity, and a seldom-discussed issue common to parents of children with mental illness: multiple investigations from the Department of Children and Family Services (including a visit provoked by out of state anti-psychiatry advocates who reported him as an abuser after reading the blog). Some of his most compelling and unsparing writing, however, is directed at himself, his own family history of mental illness, and his own struggles with anger and depression.

Fun shooting mentally ill people in straightjackets

XMLicious — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 05:00:04 -0800

Madness Combat Defense, an evolution of the tower defense game.

Thin ICE

Pope Guilty — Thu, 21 May 2009 13:37:19 -0800

"ICE does not keep records on cases in which detainees claim to be US citizens. If larger trends are consistent with the pattern in Hartzler's caseload, since 2004 ICE has held between 3,500 and 10,000 US citizens in detention facilities and deported about half. US citizens are a small percentage of ICE detentions for this period, which totaled around 1 million, but in absolute terms the figure is staggering. "

Male mental illness in History

Kattullus — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 09:37:26 -0800

No matter their approach, the typical French physician who accepted the notion of male hysteria continued to think that its victims were in some way sexually abnormal: "Thus, despite Charcot's innovative work, the male victim of hysteria in late-nineteenth century French medical imagination was still frequently envisioned as an effeminate heterosexual, an overt homosexual, or a physical or emotional hermaphrodite." If not different sexually, male hysterics were said to be different in other ways, such as race or nationality, among whom African, African-American, south Asian, Arab, or Eastern European Jewish men predominated. Outside of France, other methods of denial appeared, such as the suggestion that male hysteria was restricted to Frenchmen. The medical literature of the time is full of evasions and denials and contradictions of the truths that Charcot had quite obviously demonstrated.

- Macho Misery, an extensive and interesting review of Hysterical Men: The Hidden History of Male Nervous Illness. Hysterical Men is by Professor Mark S. Micale and the review is by surgeon Sherwin B. Nuland who gave this interesting TEDTalk on electroshock therapy.

Why does everybody hate me?

hadjiboy — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:55:59 -0800

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) Related articles on Schizophrenia. Schizophrenia.com Discussion Board More videos on Schizophrenia.

Breakdown

GuyZero — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:05:15 -0800

Breakdown. First-hand accounts of the impact and stigma of mental illness. Moving subject matter presented in a way that updates traditional newspaper reporting.

Just in case...

sondrialiac — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 11:13:14 -0800

Suppose you have a problem with your thinking, your mood, or your relationships. Come in, sit down, and let the internet help. Meet MoodGym and its newer sister site, e-couch. Of course, you could probably use a real shrink, too. Find one online-personal style, complete with pictures and information about specialties, qualifications, cost, and treatment preferences. You might be prescribed psychoactive medications, aka crazymeds. Did you know that "Lexapro gets rave reviews from the Panic/Anxiety community"? Well, you do now. And to keep it all straight and monitor your progress, PatientsLikeMe will keep track of just about everything about you, Big Brother-style. Don't remember how you felt two days ago? It certainly does. Good luck--and don't lose hope.

Mental Illness Might Be Caused By Microbes

amyms — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 23:05:11 -0800

Are you batshitinsane? Viruses and/or bacteria may be the cause.

Coming Home

hadjiboy — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 06:57:28 -0800

Homeless people are just too lazy to work, aren't they? Besides, they panhandle to get by, so what's the big deal? What does it mean to be homeless [previously] anyway? How do people find themselves in these sorts of situations, and why can't they get out of them? How do they feel about it? And are there any alternatives that we can supply them with?

Three Years. Fifteen Suicides.

rollbiz — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 18:55:44 -0800

Prison and the Mentally Ill in Massachusetts: The Globe reports on the pitfalls and consequences of using a retribution-based correctional system on the criminally insane in MA, as inmates in the state kill themselves at triple the national rate. Part I. Part II. Part III (in tomorrow's Globe). Photos of the system's most troubled. Last words of some disturbed inmates. As solitary confinement and other traditional forms of correction continue to be used on the most vulnerable in the prison population, one must wonder: Is the problem funding (PDF), understanding, or a combination of these and other forces? What is the solution?

Who was Opal Whiteley?

dersins — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 11:06:42 -0800

In 1918, at the age of 20, Oregonian Opal Whiteley published "The Fairyland Around Us" (contains full text & pictures), a nature book for children. Two years later, her diary (also contains full text and pictures) was published and became one of the best-selling books in the world. She died in a British mental hospital in 1992. More.

Wain's World: How the Artist Went Insane When the Cat Got His Brain

jonp72 — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 12:37:04 -0800

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.

What science can, and can't, tell us about the insanity defense.

Sticherbeast — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 17:06:03 -0800

'You Can't See Why on an fMRI.' Brian Doherty explores the vagaries of the insanity defense, centering on the sad cases of Andrea Yates and Eric Clark.

About psychopaths.

five fresh fish — Mon, 28 May 2007 16:07:32 -0800

Are these people qualitatively different from us? "I would think yes," says Hare. "Do they form a discrete taxon or category? I would say probably -- the evidence is suggesting that.

Psychopaths. They form about 1% of the population. They enjoy the excitement of power. Some choice bits from Hare's book. The obligatory Bush link, but, hey, it's got the test sections and the sad truth is that we do have some psychopaths in positions of power, though probably not the Presidency. [Gosh this is getting long] It turns out there's a biological basis for it. Here's the DSM description and some detailed analysis/description (gosh, I identify with some of those traits!) And here's some AskMe fodder, "Are You Involved With A Psychopath?" And because of that lust for power... well, it could well be your boss.

No Laughing Matter

Joey Michaels — Mon, 14 May 2007 14:28:31 -0800

Rosato was arrested after repeatedly complaining to police that his wife and their infant daughter had been replaced by imposters. Tony Rosato, former Saturday Night Live (81-82) and SCTV cast member, has been in jail in Canada for two years without as trial. He has been diagnosed with Capgras syndrome.

The Icarus Project

serazin — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 20:31:54 -0800

The space between brilliance and madness

Mind Games.

Sticherbeast — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 18:23:48 -0800

Mind Games. "She speaks about her situation calmly, occasionally laughing at her own predicament and her struggle with what she originally thought was mental illness....Like Girard, Naylor describes what she calls "street theater" -- incidents that might be dismissed by others as coincidental, but which Naylor believes were set up. She noticed suspicious cars driving by her isolated vacation home. On an airplane, fellow passengers mimicked her every movement -- like mimes on a street." Link goes to a Washington Post story - reg. may be required.

The Metaphysics of Quality

malaprohibita — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 09:03:05 -0800

Korea, the Beats, Quality, and Mental Illness: A fantastic interview with Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance's Robert Pirsig.

Sir Malcolm Arnold - 1921-2006

persona non grata — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 22:21:03 -0800

R.I.P. Sir Malcom Arnold

You Feel What You Eat

Gyan — Sun, 15 Jan 2006 21:38:08 -0800

Feeding Minds - the impact of food on mental health

I'm Mental For Kirkbride

KevinSkomsvold — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 10:03:01 -0800

Kirkbride Buildings. Once state-of-the-art mental healthcare facilities, Kirkbride buildings have long been relics of an obsolete therapeutic method known as Moral Treatment. These massive structures were conceived as ideal sanctuaries for the mentally ill in the latter half of the nineteenth century. AKA:The Kirkbride Plan. [more stuff inside]

You are all diseased!

mystyk — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 18:56:58 -0800

The list is impressive. According to psychiatrists, society suffers from a number of mental disorders. Asperger Syndrome. ADHD. OCD. Bi-Polar Disorder. PTSD. Anorexia. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many here that the average person could probably find at least 3-4 in their immediate family. Perhaps all these ills are the real pandora's box, although Borderline Personality maks the others seem mild.

So the question is, what's your dysfunction?