Celebrity Psychings

Yea Or Nay: Weekly Round Up At Celebrity Psychings?

By Alicia Sparks
December 24, 2008

Britney Spears Performs On ABC's

Back when I wrote Mental Health Notes, I used to do a weekly feature called “Saturday Sanity.” Basically, it was a round up of all the interesting mental health goings-on that I ran into each week but didn’t have the time to dedicate an entire post to.

I don’t know if I’ll start something similar here at Celebrity Psychings, but I did think today - Christmas Eve - would be a good time to share some of the articles, events, etc. I’ve bookmarked over the past few days. You know, to give you some interesting things to browse through over the holiday season, and me a chance to delay carpal tunnel just a bit longer.

And who knows? If you like it, maybe it could become a weekly thing.

In book news, Norah Vincent’s Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost and Found in the Loony Bin is scheduled to hit stores in late December. Vincent is a female author who, after spending a year and a half living as a man (which provided the material for her bestselling Self-Made Man), commits herself to three different mental health institutions not only to find treatment for her depression but to also gain new material that takes a look at America’s mental health care system.

Too, the New York Times has posted a review of Jonathan Engel’s American Therapy: The Rise of Psychotherapy in the United States, and Blogcritics Magazine is singing the praises of Edith Edwards and her book The Ghosts Of Turtle Nest (which seems to include a ghost with a mental illness - hmm…).

As for movies, A Christmas Tale, a small holiday film dealing with the physical and mental health problems of one family, has been getting varied reviews. Rolling Stone loved it, while USA Today did not. The New York Times provides a clip for you to check out.

Focus on mainstream celebrities is once again on Britney Spears, this time for her use of elephants in her music video for “Circus.” This only caught my attention because GayWired.com presented the story as “Britney Beats Mental Illness… And Elephants?” which, to me, was just grasping at straws for a clever headline. Oh, and DigitalJournal.com touches on Britney’s appearances over the past year and hopes she truly has had enough mental health care; it’s actually a pretty decent article and didn’t tick me off once.

And, in the category of regular people doing big things, Marc Kullman, a business professional from Memphis who had to sell his business after being diagnosed with bipolar disorder, helped found the National Bipolar Foundation last year and recently starred in a public service announcement for the foundation to help promote the foundation and point out the danger of stigma.

So, what do you think? Yay or nay for this weekly feature? Any specific category related to mental health in the media you’d like to see in it? Let me know!

In the meantime, enjoy your holiday!


Related Posts

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Comments to
“Yea Or Nay: Weekly Round Up At Celebrity Psychings?”

Great idea. I think authors of new books in a sense are celebrities so I’d like to see a little blurb on new books that come out sort of like you’ve done here.

I see a blog niche as more of an umbrella over different related bits rather than a box you can never leave :)

So far I’ve been subscribed a few days only and I like what I read!

I think it’s a great idea and would love to see such a feature!

Ask a Question or Post a Comment:

 


Recent Comments
  • warwick: why no more and i did not even know till i went to itunes and then to here could u do one more just to say...
  • Sandra Kiume: A video podcast is a great idea. I maintain the vlog Channel N and could help promote it there.
  • Malcolm Gorman: It was a comprehensive roundup of interesting psyche news. Keep it going!
  • 314159pi: good job! i am glad these are here. if you want to grab listeners you will need to tag these podcasts so...
  • Em: Great job! The program was nicely put together. Thank you for your work. It’s also so exciting watch the...