Musicals and the envoicing of mental illness and madness: From Lady in the Dark to Man of La Mancha (and beyond)

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-223
Author(s):  
Raymond Knapp ◽  
Zelda Knapp
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mental Status ◽  
Television Series ◽  
Musical Expression ◽  
Difficult Time ◽  
La Mancha ◽  
The World ◽  
Anyone Can Whistle

Abstract Because musicals routinely position musical expression as an enabling form of madness, they can have a difficult time when they try to consider mental illness in thoughtful ways. This essay considers four prominent musicals that deal overtly with mental illness and/or madness to delineate these difficulties and show how musicals try to surmount them. The relatively few musical numbers in Lady in the Dark (1941) allow its protagonist Liza Elliott to both confront her mental block and give voice to her emancipation. In Anyone Can Whistle (1964), Hapgood's ambiguous mental status allows him to swing from absurdities to rebellion to the touchingly human, each phase differently opposing the insanities of the world. Quixote, in Man of La Mancha (1965), defies reality in favour of impossible dreams. And the songs of next to normal (2008) provide a panoply of escapes from the painful realities of the dysfunctional Goodman family, none of whom quite finds a way to a desired 'normal'. As these shows exemplify, mentally unstable women and men generally have different options in musicals: women (at least, Liza and Diana Goodman) are obliged to chart paths to mental wholeness, with decidedly mixed results, whereas men (at least, Hapgood and Quixote) are allowed to indulge their flights from reality as forms of romanticized idealism, becoming heroes and liberators in the process. next to normal exemplifies a renewed determination to take mental illness seriously in musicals, further advanced in the four-season television series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

COVID-19: The Unprecedented Malady-A Holistic Review

Coronaviruses ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 01 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viney Chawla ◽  
Pooja A Chawla
Keyword(s):  
Virus Disease ◽  
Drug Repurposing ◽  
Signs And Symptoms ◽  
Effective Vaccine ◽  
Runny Nose ◽  
Difficult Time ◽  
Holistic Review ◽  
The World ◽  
Spanish Flu ◽  
Corona Viruses

Background: Corona virus disease (COVID-19) is spreading rapidly at an unprecedented scale across continents and has emerged as the single biggest risk the world has faced in modern times. Some scientists are comparing it to Spanish flu that created havoc around a century ago. The fear of death by COVID-19 looms large at the world today. The disease has reached devastating proportions since its first reports in December 2019. Doctors are having a difficult time dealing with this challenge and the microbiologists are having sleepless nights to bring about an effective vaccine for this disease. Methods: A number of research and review articles have been exhaustively reviewed. The collected data was meticulously analysed and documented. Conclusion: This paper reviews the different types of corona viruses, the structure of SARS-CoV-2 responsible for COVID19, its transmission, virulence. Further, the article discusses the diagnosis, signs and symptoms like fever, breathlessness, cough, potential loss of taste or smell, sneezing, runny nose, fatigue, headache, sore throat and different treatment approaches including drug repurposing being tried by doctors around the globe that may come handy in the management of disease symptoms. The article describes the use of remdesivir, ribavarin, lopinavir, favipiravir, hydoxychloroquine, chloroquine, tocilizumab among others in treating COVID-19.

Unstoppable Decay and Relentless Hope: Study of Alterity in Popular Culture

2021 ◽  
pp. 56-76
Author(s):  
Adrien Ordonneau
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
The Uncanny ◽  
The World ◽  
The Way

Consequences of capitalism’s crises and their manifestations in arts have deeply modified the way we can approach mental health. As Mark Fisher pointed out in 2009 with his book Capitalist Realism, neoliberalism is using mental illness as a way to keep existing. The capacity to think a way out of alienation is deeply linked with arts and popular culture. The article proposes to study the uncanny dialogue between arts and politics in relationships to people, and mental health. The theoretical framework will show how arts are trying to build a way out of alienation, since 2009. The article will illustrate this research with the study of many artistic practices, including our own. The findings will show how the ambiguous and uncanny relationships with the world is used by artists as a way out of alienation, despite the difficulties occurring with mental health in time of crisis.

Don Quixote, Part I (1605)

2021 ◽  
pp. 86-117
Author(s):  
Edwin Williamson
Keyword(s):  
Don Quixote ◽  
Cultural Significance ◽  
Second Best ◽  
La Mancha ◽  
The World ◽  
Insight Into

When it first appeared in 1605, Cervantes’s great novel Don Quixote de la Mancha became an international sensation. This chapter follows the chronology of the plot in a critical manner providing the reader with important insight into why Don Quixote has become the second best-selling book of all time. Including the famous scenes of the windmill, the liquidation of Don Quixote’s library, the funeral of Grisóstomo and redemption of Marcela, Ginés de Pasamonte and the galley slaves, El curioso impertinente, the famous tale of Cardenio the star-crossed lover, and a commentary on the role of drama and novels of chivalry in society, Don Quixote, Part One sets the hero and his trusty country squire against the world at large. This chapter explores its deep cultural significance and answers the question of whether or not it is merely a ‘funny book’.

scholarly journals The World Health Organization's QualityRights materials for training, guidance and transformation: preventing coercion but marginalising psychiatry

2021 ◽  
Vol 218 (5) ◽  
pp. 240-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiona Hoare ◽  
Richard M. Duffy
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
World Health Organization ◽  
World Health ◽  
Involuntary Treatment ◽  
Training Material ◽  
The World ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Health Organization

SummaryThe World Health Organization has developed training material to support its QualityRights Initiative. These documents offer excellent strategies to limit coercion. However, the negative portrayal of psychiatry, the absolute prohibition on involuntary treatment and the apparent acceptance of the criminalisation of individuals with mental illness are causes for concern.

scholarly journals Aleksandr Karepin, the nephew of Fyodor Dostoevsky and the hero of his novels

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 156-160
Author(s):  
Maria A. Myakinchenko
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Healthy Person ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Fyodor Dostoevsky ◽  
The World ◽  
The Relationship

The article discusses aspects of the relationship between Fyodor Dostoevsky and his nephew Aleksandr Karepin as well as their reflection in the writer's work. The peculiarities of the nature and character of Aleksandr Karepin are briefly described; he was a very peculiar and not completely mentally healthy person, who served as the prototype for various, in fact, diametrically opposed in spiritual terms heroes – Pavel Trusotsky from “The Eternal Husband” and Prince Myshkin from the novel “The Idiot”. The article concludes that the use of different, sometimes opposite personality traits of the prototype when creating images of the heroes of the works was a feature of the creative method of Fyodor Dostoevsky. In addition, Aleksandr Karepin's mental illness and the oddities in his behaviour allowed the writer to think out in different ways and build not only the image of a hero with certain features of the prototype, but also the attitude of the world around him to this character, which in turn illustrates the diseases of society.

scholarly journals Drug-Drug Interaction between Psychiatric Medications and Experimental Treatments for Coronavirus Disease-19: A Mini-Review

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (T1) ◽  
pp. 216-228
Author(s):  
Hananeh Baradaran ◽  
Nazanin Gorgzadeh ◽  
Houman Seraj ◽  
Anahita Asadi ◽  
Danial Shamshirian ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Drug Interaction ◽  
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽  
Clinical Care ◽  
Mood Stabilizers ◽  
Care Staff ◽  
Experimental Drugs ◽  
The World ◽  
Sedative Hypnotics ◽  
Experimental Treatments

The pandemic of coronavirus disease (COVID)-2019 has been affected many people all around the world. Patients with mental disorders are not as safe as others; also, they might be more vulnerable in such situations. These patients take various medications, which can lead to numerous drug-drug interactions with experimental drugs uses against COVID-19. According to the potential critical interactions, we reviewed the reputable databases to find the interactions between main categories of psychiatric medications (e.g., antidepressants, anti-psychotics, sedative/hypnotics, and mood stabilizers) when used in concomitant with COVID-19 experimental agents (e.g., hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir/ritonavir, atazanavir, and chloroquine). We hope the list provided in this review helps the clinical care staff in treating patients with mental illness infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

scholarly journals When the Author Owns the World

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 959-978
Author(s):  
Steven D. Jamar ◽  
Christen B’anca Glenn
Keyword(s):  
Pop Culture ◽  
Fan Fiction ◽  
Television Series ◽  
The World ◽  
Original Works

Fan fiction is amateur writing that imaginatively reinvents a work in pop culture while maintaining the identifiable aspects of the preexisting work. Fans of various books, films, and television series write their own versions of the stories and post them online in fan fiction communities. Fan fiction as practiced today is a way for fans to creatively express themselves and become integrated into the story and world they love. The stories range from highly derivative works, where relatively few plot points are changed, to entirely new plot lines using the same world and characters of the original, underlying work. Some provide backstories about existing characters, and some are more in the nature of sequels. Some are quite original works more in the nature of “inspired by” than “derived from.”

scholarly journals Autism, schizofrenie, ADHD. Perspective convergente

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-72
Author(s):  
Bogdana MICLEA
Keyword(s):  
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Attention Deficit ◽  
Hyperactivity Disorder ◽  
The World ◽  
Partial Overlap ◽  
Over Time

Over time, continuous efforts have been made to clarify and circumscribe diagnoses of autism, schizophrenia, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The diagnostic split between the 3 disorders dominated psychiatry after the 80s, being still used and recognized as such by the diagnostic manuals. Recently a shift and flexibility of the psychiatric paradigm has been noticed. The categorical perspective on mental illness is gradually complemented by the dimensional one. In the last decade, research in the field of neuroscience and psychology has brought evidence in favor of a partial overlap between ADHD, autism and schizophrenia. The hypothesis of a partial overlap can also be supported by non-medical or psychological theorizations, related to common deficits of symbolic structuring of the psyche in achieving a coherent representation of the world and of one’s own person.

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