The Brush, the Pen, and Recovery

A documentary about a group of artists who have schizophrenia working out of Cottage Studio, an art studio program for mental health consumers in Hamilton, ON. People discuss their past and present experiences with schizophrenia, and how creating art improves their lives. Art professionals from a nearby commercial gallery join the studio to mount an exhibit. Finally, the artists reflect on what recovery, and art, means to them. “Painting makes me feel like I don’t have to hide,” says one. Click here or on the image above to view the video.

Psychopia

A short student documentary about Vancouver author and artist Sandra Yuen MacKay. She has schizoaffective disorder and asserts, “Despite having a mental illness, I thrive on life.” In this video she and her family talk about her art, advocacy and public speaking, why she wrote a memoir, and the ultimate message that recovery is possible.

Facing Psychosis

A collective of people who’ve had psychosis made this excellent short documentary on what psychosis is, what it’s like to experience, and how to cope with it.

[Image by AMagill.]

The Agencies Method and Cooperative Games

Dr. John Forbes Nash Jr. (probably the world’s most successful person with a diagnosis of schizophrenia) at the Nobel Laureate Meetings at Lindau, 2nd Meeting in Economic Sciences, explaining his prize-winning economic theories.

Hearing Our Voices: A Participatory Research

Being involved in designing and carrying out an academic participatory research project on housing for people with severe psychiatric challenges. Research team members also reveal their personal experiences and symptoms of schizophrenia, and talk about the group program The Unsung Heroes. Includes video of the Making Our Voices Heard presentation, a powerful theatrical reading from their research findings [PDF script]. Lots more info at a luxe project web site with a photo essay, graphic novel (!), script & performances, travelling exhibit, publications and more. “Back when we started, I never thought we would get that far. I never thought that it would be such a difference, you know, of yeah, we’ve discovered these facts. We’ve discovered that homelessness is a universal problem, and that it doesn’t have to be, and if we have the political will we can make a difference, and that if we lend our voices and our expertise and our experiences, we can put it into a format to make our voices heard.” — Candace Watson.

Watch Mad But Glad [Part 2]

Mad But Glad

Very good UK documentary following Nick van Bloss, a pianist who has Tourette’s syndrome and thrives by using the instrument to channel creative energy and manage his condition. Delves into classic questions about the link between creativity and madness (and dopamine), with animated brain scans and comparisons to some creative correlates of autism, mania, and Parkinson’s. Part 1, and part 2.

The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness

Elyn Saks is an Associate Dean and Professor of of Law, Psychology, Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. And she’s a person who has schizophrenia. Although she was not expected to be able to function independently, and had severe challenges, she does lead a successful, independent life. She hid the mental illness throughout her life until she came out with a memoir in 2007. In this talk she reads passages as well as sharing amusing side stories and slides. Read an accompanying interview and book reviews here.

Schizophrenic Man Terrifies Kids at Party

Usually I relegate PSAs to the sidebar, but this one is so good it needs more attention. An anti-stigma message with a very clever twist. This video, like all the PSAs (public service announcements) in my collection, is great for sharing in your blog, Facebook or MySpace profile, and anywhere you can paste embed code or links: help spread the word and fight mental health stigma and discrimination.

EDIT – also check out this talk by Austin Mardon, a person with schizophrenia who shares the effects of stigma on his life.

[Image by elisfanclub.]

Stigma is the silence after the thunder

Dr. Austin Mardon, a geographer and member of the Order of Canada, on stigma he’s experienced as a person who has schizophrenia. Discrimination from professional and personal sources, including family. His stories aren’t about the level of support Kay Redfield Jamison described in yesterday’s video about coming out, but he has had success too, and this is an amusing as well as tragic talk. Q&A follows. See a symposium summary video here and all the talks from the Stigma in Mental Health and Addiction Symposium and Roundtable here.

The Neurocritic shares two epic, provocative posts.

Is CBT Worthless? “A meta-analysis of published studies on cognitive behavioral therapy concluded that this method of psychotherapy is not helpful for those with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and any improvements seen in major depression are rather small. Articles to rebut this claim are currently in preparation.”

• Video: if CBT is worthless for treating schizophrenia, ACT does have worth. Mary Ann Test details the history of the Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) model. (00:29:18).

Myth of the Depression Gene. “Another meta-analysis found that a variant of the serotonin transporter gene is not linked to an increased risk of depression after all, either alone or in combination with stressful life events. However, no one really thinks that depression is caused by a single gene, so this finding doesn’t negate the possibility of a genetic contribution to major depression.”

• Video: in Catalyst: Nature Nurture a reporter is tested for a potential depression gene (00:10:35).

Mo Costandi of Neurophilosophy sends two posts. Enhanced attention and self-monitoring are among the Brain Mechanisms of Hypnotic Paralysis.

• Video: The far less serious Hypnosis Party Tricks #1 by Wendi Friesen (00:05:31).

Mo also writes about a neuroimaging study on correlates of thinking about past and future, in Mental time travel.

• Video: Memory Map is a vintage art video exploring time and memory perception (00:03:00).

The group blog Brain Blogger had two submissions. First, a well-researched blog post about preventing depression in youth at risk of developing it: Prevention of Adolescent Depression by Jennifer Gibson, PharmD.

• Video: More Than Sad: Teen Depression, a good educational video produced by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (00:26:00).

The Brain Blogger post Marijuana Withdrawal Syndrome sampled comments from users left at Dirk Hanson’s blog Addiction Inbox.

• Video: Going through marijuana withdrawal: Day 5. In which a vlogger describes his symptoms (00:02:23).

The forward-looking Brain Stimulant blog tells us that researchers plan to model the drosophila brain, and outlines some challenges in Virtual Fly Brain Computer Model.

• Video: Low-res animation of the Blue Brain Project, simulating 10,000 neurons in a rat’s neocortical column (00:00:40).

Kylie Sturgess of PodBlack answers a reader question with etymology and history in Ask PodBlack – ‘What Does Supernatural Mean?’. She’s set up a new Twitter account so you can ask a question too.

• Video: a clip from a mockumentary on the supernatural, Look Around You: Ghosts! (00:09:03).

Art Kilner of AK’s Rambling Thoughts explains his submissions: “These continue my discussion in Nerve Cells and Glial Cells: Redefining the Foundation of Intelligence, which was already featured in Scientia Pro Publica. While somewhat technical, IMO they discuss very important points and will be welcome to anybody interested in the brain’s function(s).”

Monoamine neuroreceptors in Drugs, Receptors, and the Brain. ”Less technical than my usual, but it makes an important point.”

• Video: Glutamatergic Agents for Schizophrenia: Looking Beyond Dopamine, a lecture on newer directions in psychopharmacology research (00:58:20).

Glial membranes and more, in Beyond the Synapse.

• Video extra: The NIH brings us Neuron-glia interactions : their mechanisms and their roles in development and disease, a lecture by Gabriel Corfas (00:50:03).

The Analog Axon. Self-explanatory.

• Video: Claws of Axon is not self-explanatory (00:10:09).

Sharp Brains champions Public Libraries as Community-Based Health Clubs for the Brain in a nice article. An update features more resources, including the newly published book Sharp Brains Guide to Brain Fitness.

• Video: New Strategies for Cognitive Vitality and Brain Health, a lecture at UCLA’s Psychiatry Grand Rounds by Gary W. Small, M.D. (00:57:14).

Faith Martin, writing for Highlight HEALTH: “A recent study shows that group programmes and self-directed programmes have remarkably different effects with respect to outcome.” Tackling Heart Disease Together or Alone: The Behavioural Science of Self-Management.

• Video: Learn coping skills in Health Matters: Stress and Pain Management with Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (00:28:00), and in another video with Steve Hickman, Managing the Role of Stress in Our Lives. Struggling With What It Is (00:58:00).

In Providentia, Romeo Vitelli shares “a strange story about a brain pioneer [Emmanuel Swedenborg] who may have become his own case study.” The Visionary.

• Video: a 1716 Swedenborg hovercraft design (00:00:14).

The August edition will be hosted by Neuronarrative, then Encephalon returns to a biweekly schedule in the fall. Follow Encephalon via email or RSS feed (thanks Highlight HEALTH). Now on Twitter too: @encephalon_ Please send submissions to encephalon.host@gmail.com.