For this project I intend to explore the history of mental asylums, particularly in 1960. I analyse the patients of such mental institutes and compare them to people suffering from similar disabilities in modern day. From this research, I intend to produce a set of images and supporting text that work together to challenge the ideologies of psychology from the 1960's. In particular I will touch upon how people effected by these mental illnesses were treated by family, neighbours and the media. From first look into researching this theme I have already come across painter Richard Dadd, and the film 'Sybil' which should help me to begin further research.

I will use this blog to present my the my finding via Primary and Secondary research. I will also use it to conclude what I have found and how I will apply it to my practice.

Thursday, 16 January 2014

Mental Illness'

I thought it would be sensible in order to understand my research into mental patients to be able to understand the different sorts of mental disorders that someone could suffer from. In doing this I would have a clearer understanding of what I might be reading if I were able to gain access to the Kew Gardens Archive.




Dissociative Identity Disorder
  • Or more obviously know as multi-personality disorder.
  • Often has an association with memory loss as well as normal forgetfulness. 
  • Examples of where this has been explored in the media:
    • 'Sybil' (1970) is a film about a girl who's had a traumatising life leads to her developing 16 other personalities.
    • Cast: Sally Field as Sybil and Jessica Lange as Dr. Wilbur

Depersonalisation 
  • The sufferer believes they are living in a dream world, the feeling of watching oneself act whilst having no control over the situation. 
  • Found in those who suffer from anxiety and panic attacks. 
  • "Life is like a movie, unreal and hazy."
  • One way to describe the physical manifesto is to compare it to a film technique called the vertigo show or dolly zoom. In the shot the subject stays fixed whilst the surrounding background is pulled away providing a sense of vertigo or detachment. 
  • Cindy Sherman makes reference to this in her work. 

Psychotic Disorders/Depression
  • Schizophrenia
    • Where the sufferer will experience hallucinations of images or sounds that are not real and delusions which are false but the ill person accepts them as truth despite the contrary evidence. 
  • Capgras Syndrome
    • The illusion of doubles. 
    • A person's belief that an acquaintance or friend has been replaced bt an identical looking imposter. 
    • Often occurs in patients with other psychotic disorders such as Schizophrenia. But also with people suffering from Epilepsy, Dementia and after traumatic brain injuries. 
  • Cotard Syndrom "Walking Corpse Syndrom"
    • The sufferer believes that they are putrefying, have lost blood or internal organs or are already deceased and therefore do not exist. 

Todd Syndrome
  • Neurologic condition in which the sufferers sense of body image, space and/or time are distorted. 
  • Altered sense of velocity produced by the weird sense of size, perspective and time. 
  • Also know as Alice in Wonderland syndrome. 

No comments:

Post a Comment