BRAINLAND

In this podcast novelist and journalist Jon Stock discusses his latest book 'The Sleep Room: A very British Medical scandal', is a factual account of psychiatrist William Sargant (1907-88 ) that focusses particularly on Sargant's controversial 20 year 'sleep room' regimen for mental illness that combined continuous narcosis, high dose mixed antidepressants, major tranquillisers and ECT, sometimes extending over several months. We talk about Sargant's early life and the influence of his strict methodist father, who sparked an interest in conversion and, later in brainwashing, a subject that brought him to the attention of intelligence services at the height of the Cold War. We discuss his failure to get into general medicine and his determination to drag psychiatry, where he ended up, into mainstream physical medicine. Sargant's own mental illness episodes get a mention, and his lack of public acknowledgement of same; we outline the atmosphere of deference to senior medics in his period and his friendships in politics and intelligence, fertile ground for untried treatment experiments that also fed into his advice on interrogation techniques and protected him following accusations of sexal improprieties. A really interesting portrait of the man and his times.Participants:Jon Stock, novelist, journalist and historian. : https://williamsargant.com/ jsthrillers.comKen Barrett, visual artist, writer and retired neuropsychiatrist: http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.ukWillaim Sargant: https://williamsargant.com/index.php/about/Jon's Book 'The Sleep Room': https://williamsargant.com/Opening music: Prelude to the opera Brainland, composed by Stephen Brown. Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.ukPortrait sketch by KB Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode film critic/writer Matt Glasby and artist Barney Bodoano discuss their innovative book on horror movies 'The Book of Horror: The anatomy of fear in film'. After talking about their gateway into their horror obsession Matt takes us through his seven 'scare tactics', techniques used by film makers to evoke shock, dread, revulsion etc. including specifically filmic techniques such as 'dead space'. Barney talks about how he chose an evocative image to represent each film and his decision to use charcoal and chalk as his medium. Their book scores each of 37 films on each of the 7 parameters, summarises the plot and suggests similar movies. We discuss five films in some detail: Hitchcock's 'Psycho' (1960), the Italian classic 'Suspiria' (1977), Japanese trailblazer 'Ring' (1999), lockdown movie 'Host' (2020) and Matt's highest scoring film 'Hereditary' (2018), with a nod to a number of other movies. Lovely chat and an enjoyable book about a creepy subject.Participants:Matt Glasby writer, critic https://mattglasby.com/index.phpBarney Bodoano, artist and illustrator https://www.instagram.com/bbodoano?igsh=c3B4d3hsNnhrYXk1&utm_source=qrKen Barrett, visual artist, writer and retired neuropsychiatrist: http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.ukTheir 'Book of Horror: The anatomy of fear in film' : https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-book-of-horror/matt-glasby/barney-bodoano/9781836009399The movies we discuss: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7784604/?ref_=fn_t_1Dario Argento's 'Suspiria' from 1977: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076786/Hideo Nakata's 'Ring' from 1998: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0178868/?ref_=nm_knf_c_2Rob Savage's 'Host' from 2020: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12749596/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_host%25202020Ari Aster's 'Hereditary' from 2018: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7784604/The band Barney mentions at the end, 'Crumbling Ghost':Opening music: Prelude to the opera Brainland, composed by Stephen Brown. Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.ukSketch by KB (Barney is on the left) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1924 French poet Andre Breton wrote that ‘Surrealism is based on the belief in the omnipotence of dreams, in the undirected play of thought’. Surrealism grew out of the anarchistic DaDa movement triggered by the carnage of WW and was fueled by Freud's writing on the unconscious. Roland Penrose was a leading surrealist artist and also a key figure in bringing the movement to the UK in the 1930s and setting up the Institute of Contemporary Art. Photographer Lee Miller's work was also often surreal in composition and intention, including her accidental discovery of the 'solarisation' technique whilst working with Man Ray. In this episode, recorded at Farleys House and Gallery, their son and biographer Antony Penrose discusses his parent's lives and work. He outlines key events and recalls the many visitors during his childhood at Farleys, including leading figures in surrealism Man Ray and Max Ernst. We also discuss his parent's close relationship with Picasso and much else. Participants:Antony Penrose, author, photographer and director of the Lee Miller Archive and Penrose Collection https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antony_PenroseKen Barrett, visual artist, writer and retired neuropsychiatrist: http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.ukFarleys House and gallery: https://www.farleyshouseandgallery.co.uk/Antony's books:The Friendly Surrealist: https://www.farleyshouseandgallery.co.uk/product/roland-penrose-the-friendly-surrealist/'The Lives of Lee Miller https://www.farleyshouseandgallery.co.uk/product/the-lives-of-lee-miller/Tate Britain Lee Miller exhibition: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/lee-miller?utm_source=google&utm_medium=performance_max&utm_campaign=CAMP_lee-miller_conversion_pmax&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23123668076&gclid=Cj0KCQiAubrJBhCbARIsAHIdxD-asxTHY4Vut8eo1p2meDDW42wf7y2IjxkqJ0oDPm3qOECkrGpvGZ4aAn2zEALw_wcBAlso discussed:Man Ray, https://www.manray.net/Max Ernst, https://www.max-ernst.com/Also discussed: 'Visiting Picasso' by Elizabeth CowlingKen's Ernst inspired animation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFBYu2OKJi4Opening music: Prelude to the opera Brainland, composed by Stephen Brown. Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.ukSketch by KB. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this wide ranging conversation Mark Solms talks about his seminal research in the '80s on the effect of brain lesions on patient reports of dreaming. After a brief visit to Charcot and Wilbrand in the late 19th century, we discuss the research of Dement and colleagues in the 1950s, when it was discoverd that every 90 minutes or so during sleep our EEG is more like the awake state, with asociated rapid eye movments (REM). We discuss Jouvet's work in the '60s in which the origin of REM sleep was found to be in the brain stem the belief at the time that REM and dreaming were part of the same process, later disproved by the work of Mark and others who found it to be cortical. There's an interesting diversion into culture wars in the science community (where, in his early days, studying something as subjective as dreams was 'unthinkable') before moving on to somnambulism, the implications of all this for Freudian theory and concluding thoughts about current dream research including a quite incredible recent Japanese study. Great conversation with an enthusiastic communicator.Participants: Mark Solms, Professor, Department of Neuropsychology, University of Capetown, SA. https://neuroscience.uct.ac.za/contacts/mark-solmsKen Barrett, visual artist, writer and retired neuropsychiatrist: http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.ukMark's books 'The Hidden Spring': https://profilebooks.com/work/the-hidden-spring/'The Neuropsychology of dreams: https://www.karnacbooks.com/product/the-neuropsychology-of-dreams-a-clinico-anatomical-study/94585/?Opening and closing music: Prelude to the opera Brainland, composed by Stephen Brown. Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.ukSketch by KB. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joseph Beuys was a radical post-war German artist who worked in unusual media and in the 1970s developed the notion of ‘social sculpture’ based on the concept that everything is art and every aspect of life could be approached creatively. For episode 17 this season Hugh Rickards, a younger neuropsychiatric colleague from the English Midlands, read and discussed his essay 'The lost tribes of neuropsychiatry'. At the end of that Hugh asked if he could ask me about my experience of creating a neuropsychiatry service in the ‘80s and ‘early ‘90s, with the help of a lot of colleagues, in a National Health Service that didn’t know it needed one. When I left clinical practice I took a deep dive into contemporary art, discovered Joseph Beuys and realised that creative clinical work can also be viewed as a kind of art practice, a social sculpture'. We'd recorded that conversation and it is definitiely niche but, hey, this is Brainland...welcome to ‘neuropsychiatry after dark...'Participants: Hugh Rickards, Consultant and Honorary Professor of Neuropsychiatry, National Centre for Mental Health, Birmingham, UK. http//:www.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/clinical-sciences/Rickards-Hugh.aspxKen Barrett, visual artist, writer and retired neuropsychiatrist: http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.ukMore about Joseph Beuys and 'social sculpture': https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/s/social-sculptureOpening and closing music: Prelude to the opera Brainland, composed by Stephen Brown. Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.ukSketch by KB. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.