Poetry in Psychiatry

BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization has identified a chronic shortage of psychiatrists worldwide whereas the demand for mental health services is on the rise. Indeed mental health problems are projected to be a leading cause of morbidity by 2020 according to the Global Burden of Disease study. Bhugra et al, under the auspices of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the World Psychiatry Association, spearheaded an international study across 22 countries and identified myriad factors that can influence career choices at pre-medical school, medical school and postgraduate levels...

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The attractiveness of the human body has always been an important issue in the fields of sociology, psychology, and psychiatry and also in the field of dermatology. In psychodermatology, one often discovers how all these fields intermingle to produce elaborate situations and extreme human difficulties. Perfect skin is widely adored in literature, poetry, and biblical texts, as well as in advertisements, movies, and television. Because in most societies the face is the body part that is visible, imperfections of the skin are also visible; therefore, its flawed appearance bears the potential to become a source of misery to some...

OBJECTIVES: To reflect upon the factors that might motivate one to undertake a career in psychiatry from the personal perspective of a current registrar in training. CONCLUSIONS: The reasons for choosing a career path in psychiatry are complex, and relate to an individual doctor's life experience, training experiences and own value system. Dissatisfaction with the traditional "medical model" of illness may be a contributing factor, with a perception that psychiatry may embrace the biopsychosocial model of illness more fully...

BACKGROUND: Recently, a new communication method was introduced in nursing homes for people with dementia. This so-called Veder Method, developed by professional actors with former educational background in care,combines proven effective emotion-oriented care methods, like reminiscence,with theatrical stimuli like songs and poetry. The method is applied during theatre shows and living room theatre activities. In this exploratory study the surplus value of a living room theatre activity according to the Veder method compared to a reminiscence group activity was evaluated...

One of the most important Dutch psychiatrists in the interwar period was H.C. Rümke (1893-1967). With his eclectic interest in psychiatric approaches such as both psychoanalysis and phenomenology, Rümke is most well known for his remarkable diagnostic and therapeutic skills. The life and work of Rümke has been studied in detail, most notably by the Dutch historian Jacob Van Belzen. Despite this extensive research, in this paper it is stated that a relevant aspect of Rümke's work has been largely disregarded--namely his profound interest in and use of poetry and literature...

OBJECTIVE: To explore the life and contributions of Reginald Spencer Ellery (1897-1955), one of the most eminent psychiatrists in Australia between the wars. CONCLUSIONS: Ellery pioneered malariotherapy and psychoanalysis, mixed with leading intellectuals, including Max Harris, John and Sunday Reed, was a member of the Communist Party, wrote poetry and published widely on a wide range of topics. Ellery was talented, innovative, driven and highly energetic, managing a range of activities aside from his work without difficulty...

Sexual variation has been reported across cultures for millennia. Sexual variation deals with those facets of sexual behavior which are not necessarily pathological. It is any given culture that defines what is abnormal and what is deviant. In scriptures, literature and poetry in India same sex love has been described and explained in a number of ways. In this paper we highlight homosexual behavior and the role of hijras in the Indian society, among other variations. These are not mental illnesses and these individuals are not mentally ill...

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to explore the effect of a poetry writing program for people who had experienced a serious illness. METHOD: For this study we randomly assigned 28 volunteer participants with a history of serious illness, usually cancer, to one of two poetry writing workshops. Each group met weekly for 2 hours for 8 weeks. The second group was wait-listed to enable comparison between the two groups. We used the Kessler-10, a measure of wellbeing, before and after the workshops and also interviewed the participants at these times...

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Child- and adolescent psychiatry is a good field for the application of creative and playful therapies. Bibliotherapy and expressive writing are two examples of them. The effectiveness of both, for different types of disorders, has been proved in many studies. Up until today it was unknown just how prevalent these therapies are within child and adolescent psychiatry in the german speaking countries. The following article summarizes the results of a survey conducted in 122 child and adolescence psychiatric clinics in Germany, Austria and Switzerland to gain more information about their use...

The British Journal of Psychiatry is an independent mainstream general psychiatric journal that competes reasonably well with others in the field. It does so by keeping a healthy balance between the demands of its readers, its contributors and the need for good science. It publishes an eclectic mix of original articles, reviews, editorials, reappraisals, comment, opinion and extras, the latter including poetry, short summaries, literature and psychiatry, and a touch of humour. These contributions are not always in keeping with the harsh requirements of the impact factor, but we judge that this makes for a better all-round journal that advances psychiatry in all its manifold aspects and is anything but dull...

In 1991, when it was revealed that the psychiatrist Martin Orne had released tapes of his therapy sessions with Anne Sexton to her biographer, mental health professionals expressed concern and outrage. Those who actually listen to the controversial tapes would be curious to find a debate between Sexton and Orne about mental illness, creativity, and therapeutic process. To what extent did Sexton's creative accomplishments point to aspects of her psychiatric progress that might otherwise have been overlooked? While Sexton asserted her achievements and sought affirmation from her psychiatrist, Orne persistently responded by stating that the poetry is not as important as the person...

This essay examines the nature of being an expert witness as a psychiatrist or a psychologist. The critiques of the psychiatrist as expert in the criminal justice systems produced by Michel Foucault, and Robert Musil provide a starting point for this study. Today's mental health experts working in the criminal justice field have an increasing burden of responsibility as a result of their wider role, and potentially greater power to harm. This requires an awareness of the dangers of misusing that power in part from misunderstanding its source...

Giuseppe Pasta was a pioneer of psychological support in physical disease. Born in Bergamo, Italy, he was a cousin of the physician Andrea Pasta who was a pupil of Giovanni Battista Morgagni. Giuseppe's cultural and clinical resources were the teachings of Francesco Redi's medical school in Tuscany. This paper discusses the courage and philosophical tolerance of disease and the etiquette of the physician.

Attention is drawn to the oral tradition in poetry and some ways in which it differs from written, literary poetry. Some of these differences mirror differences between the oral communication typical of a psychiatric ward nursing handover and the writing-based communication styles of psychiatrists. In particular, the oral tradition tends to involve an interactive and participatory style, stewardship (rather than authorship) of the message, a less linear approach to time and valuing the use of familiar formulae...

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this paper is to examine the scientific and cognitive role of metaphor and the use of metaphor in the conceptualization of depression as an example of mental illness. CONCLUSIONS: Metaphors from the creative arts have been used to support existing psychiatric diagnostic concepts. The existing concepts are themselves built on embedded metaphors now treated as literal facts. The choice of metaphor dictates not only the description of the condition but also its treatment and research...

To identify and explore cultural dynamics influencing the psychiatric care of immigrant Somalis in the USA, we reviewed demographic data from Minnesota Departments of Human Services, and interviewed health professionals, exploring community perceptions of medical/psychiatric needs, cultural characteristics, barriers to care, and potential solutions. An informal survey of 37 members of the Mayo Clinic Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, to determine caregiver perceptions of care of Somali patients, cited language barriers (74%), and cultural misperceptions (68%) as the most frequent obstacles...

OBJECTIVE: Trace the medical-legal involvement of the 19th century clinical neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot. BACKGROUND: The two major neurologic concerns of the 1800s that involved legal questions were topics of particular academic interest to Charcot: post-traumatic neurologic syndromes and the behavioral consequences of hysteria and hypnotism. Although Charcot's medical views influenced several nonmedical fields, including art, poetry, and drama, his impact on medical-legal issues has not been examined...

The paper draws our attention to the Indian poet and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore's notion of psychoanalysis. Focusing on the period between 1926 and his death in 1941, during which Tagore had not only met Freud but had also spoken to several persons on psychoanalysis, the author has unearthed a mass of archival material, primarily in Bengali, and translated most of it into English for the first time, in order to show how Tagore's opinion regarding Freudian thought gradually changed from severe criticism and a near complete rejection to appreciation, especially of its good use in literature and literary criticism...