Nise: The Heart of Madness

Nise: The Heart of Madness (Portuguese- Nise: O Coração da Loucura)  Commentary Nise da Silveira was born in Brazil in 1905. She was a lot of things – the only female student of her graduating class in medical school, a student of Carl Jung and a pioneer of occupational therapy in Psychiatry. In this film, Nise: Read More …

A change of heart

A doctor’s visit, Anton Chekhov (1898) ‘I have palpitations of the heart’ she said, ‘It was so awful all night….I almost died of fright! Do give me something.’ ‘I will, I will; don’t worry yourself.’ Korolyov examined her and shrugged his shoulders. ‘The heart is all right’, he said; ‘it’s all going on satisfactorily; everything Read More …

Give me back my love – Orfeo’s doomed quest

Commentary All of us, doctors or health workers or patients, will suffer loss in our lives. That loss may be disappointment in an examination or a relationship, loss of faith in an ideal, or most seriously, loss through death of someone whom we love. Grief constitutes the suffering that always accompanies and follows loss. In Read More …

Why I thought I’d killed my baby

Sally Wilson: My postpartum psychosis.  Grateful for ECT. Nina McCallig: grateful for being sectioned. I saw a midwife take Ella away, I believed they were taking her to be resuscitated because I’d harmed her. I was convinced that because I’d hurt my baby I had died and was now living in the ‘after life’, a Read More …