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In this festive episode Ken reads 'Manhandling the Brain', his essay on the origins of mid-20th century psychosurgery, an attempt to understand how, for over 20 years, so many people thought it such a good idea to damage the brains of the severely mentally ill and the lessons that can be learned.
Participants:
Ken Barrett, visual artist, writer and retired neuropsychiatrist: http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk
Full text of the essay with bibliography and references are here, preceded by an essay on the early days of the EEG and more: http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk/writing/
Bibliography top picks in bold)
Moniz E (1935), Tentatives operatoires dans le traitement de certaines psychoses, Masson, Paris.
Freeman W, Watts JW & Hunt T (1942) Psychosurgery: Intelligence, emotion and social behavior following prefrontal lobotomy for mental disorders. Springfield, Thomas.
Board of Control (1947), Pre-frontal Leucotomy in 1000 Cases, HMSO.
Shutts D (1982), Lobotomy: Resort to the Knife, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York.
Rylander G ( 1948), Personality Analysis Before and After Frontal Lobotomy, in The Frontal Lobes , John F Fulton et al Eds., pp691-705. Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore.
Vallenstein ES (1986), Great and Desperate Cures: The Rise and Decline of Psychosurgery and Other Radical treatments for Mental Illness, Basic Books Inc..
Pressman JD, Last Resort: Psychosurgery and the Limits of Medicine, Cambridge University Press, 1998.
El-Hai J (2005), The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness, John Wiley & Sons.
Howard Dully and Charles Fleming, Messing with my Head: The shocking true story of my lobotomy, Vermilion, 2007.
Kotowicz Z (2012), Psychosurgery: the Birth of a New Scientific Paradigm, Centre for Philosophy of Science, University of Lisbon.
Raz M (2013), The Lobotomy Letters: The Making of American Psychosurgery , University of Rochester Press.
Ferone G & Vincent J-D (2011), Bienvenue en Transhumanie: sur l’homme de demain, Editions Grasset & Fasquelle, Paris.
Todes DP (2014), Ivan Pavlov: A Russian Life in Science, Oxford University Press.
Papers:
Hutton E L (1941), Early Results of Prefrontal Leucotomy, Lancet, July 5, 3-12.
Hutton E L (1942), The Investigation of Personality in Patients treated by Prefrontal Leucotomy, Journal of Mental Science, 371, 275-281.
Golla F L,(1943), The Range and Technique of Prefrontal Leucotomy, Journal of Mental Science, 89; 189-191.
Opening music: Prelude to the opera Brainland, composed by Stephen Brown.
For comment or to share your own essay Ken can be contacted at kenb@kenbarrettstudio.co.uk
Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk
Festive wax model (of Walter Freeman) by KB
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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.php
Barney Bodoano, artist and illustrator https://www.instagram.com/bbodoano?igsh=c3B4d3hsNnhrYXk1&utm_source=qr
Ken Barrett, visual artist, writer and retired neuropsychiatrist: http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk
Their 'Book of Horror: The anatomy of fear in film' : https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-book-of-horror/matt-glasby/barney-bodoano/9781836009399
The movies we discuss: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7784604/?ref_=fn_t_1
Dario 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_2
Rob Savage's 'Host' from 2020: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12749596/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_host%25202020
Ari 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.uk
Sketch by KB (Barney is on the left)
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Austin Lim's book 'Horror and the Brain' uses work from the horror and science fiction genres as a way into discussing a neuroscience and a range of related stories. We discuss why on earth so many people inflict the feelings provoked by horror fiction on themselves ans talk about a range of brain structures that play a role in fear, emotion and attachment behaviour (with a diversion into love, oxytocin and prairie voles). We talk about the amygdala, insula and the pathways that include them and the systems triggered by disgust and the uncanny, moving from the real story of a mass shooting to various films and stories, including Jordan Peele's 'Get Out' and 'Us', Gondry's ' Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein'. Brain mapper Wilder Penfield leads us into a closing horror story (real if you happen to be a mouse) about Toxoplasmosis. Great chat with an excellent communicator.
Participants:
Austin Lim, Associate Teaching Professor, Department of Neuroscience, De Paul University, Chicago. https://csh.depaul.edu/faculty-staff/faculty-a-z/Pages/neuroscience/sean-austin-lim.aspx
Ken Barrett, visual artist, writer and retired neuropsychiatrist: http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk
Austin's book 'Horror on the Brain': https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Horror-on-the-Brain/Austin-Lim/9781493084791
The 'uncanny valley': https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Horror-on-the-Brain/Austin-Lim/9781493084791
More on oxytocin: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666497621000813
Opening music: Prelude to the opera Brainland, composed by Stephen Brown.
Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk
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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_Penrose
Ken Barrett, visual artist, writer and retired neuropsychiatrist: http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk
Farleys 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_wcB
Also discussed:
Man Ray, https://www.manray.net/
Max Ernst, https://www.max-ernst.com/
Also discussed: 'Visiting Picasso' by Elizabeth Cowling
Ken's Ernst inspired animation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFBYu2OKJi4
Opening music: Prelude to the opera Brainland, composed by Stephen Brown.
Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk
Sketch by KB.
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Frank Burke is a leading film scholar with a long interest in Italian director Federico Fellini (1920-1993). Few artists were more obsessed with their dreams than Fellini. In this conversation we talk about his early interest in puppets and circus, and his jobs, before moving into film, as an illustrator and caracaturist. Drawing was always an important part of his preparation for movies but he also kept a graphic, drawn dream diary in the '60s and '70s, at the suggestion of Jungian analyst Ernst Bernhard. We discuss his interest in the work of another analyst, James Hillman who leaned more to the mystical and symbolic, and explore the recurring themes in those diaries (published postumously). Films in which dreams feature large are also discussed - we mention several but we focus on four including the feted 'Eight and a half'( 1963) and the vilified 'City of Women' (1980). To close Frank suggests movies that listeners new to Fellini may watch as an as a way into his work (depending on their interests and state of intoxication).
Participants:
Frank Burke, Independent film scholar and Professor Emeritus, Department of Film and Media, Queen’s University, Ontario, Canada. https://www.queensu.ca/filmandmedia/people-search/frank-burke
Ken Barrett, visual artist, writer and retired neuropsychiatrist: http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk
More on Federico Fellini: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federico_Fellini
Some films discussed:
Eight and a Half: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056801/
Juliet of the spirits: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059229/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_6_nm_2_in_0_q_%2520%2520Juliet%2520of%2520the%2520spirits
City of Women: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080539/
More on James Hillman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_HillmanParticipant:
More on Carlos Castaneda: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Castaneda
'CAPOLAVORO! Masterworks of Italian Cinema' podcast: https://shows.acast.com/capolavoro-masterworks-of-italian-cinema/episodes/68c9445da8e1b0e4bfd2ee12
Opening music: Prelude to the opera Brainland, composed by Stephen Brown.
Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk
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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 cnetury, 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 thoughtsabout current dream research including a quite incredible 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-solms
Ken Barrett, visual artist, writer and retired neuropsychiatrist: http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk
Mark'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.uk
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In this podcast we discuss the music called plainchant or plainsong - what it is, how did it arise and what effect does it have? We discuss the modal nature of the music, possible links to earlier Jewish intoning and the importance of resonance in recording. Bernard describes his research project in which subjects record their responses, relating to memory, emotion and transcendence. Three short extracts of the recordings he used are included in the podcast and fuller versions can be accessed through the links below. Some results are included before a diversion into philosopher Vladimir Jankélévitch and and quantum time. To conclude, Bernard talks about ways in which his research could be developed, not least the involvement of brain investigation. For a readable thesis on an under researched subject check out the link below .
Participants:
Bernard Salter, retired Anglican priest, organist and post-doctoral scholar.
Ken Barrett, visual artist, writer and retired neuropsychiatrist: http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk
Bernard's dissertation is here: https://etheses.dur.ac.uk/15491/
Vladimir Jankélévitch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Jank%C3%A9l%C3%A9vitch
A full version of plainchant sample A: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvfjgSvq6KA
The full album 'Chant' by monks of Sana Domingo di Silo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3T8V-IM4Xk
A full version of plainchant sample C: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZFaZWi2uSI
If you prefer female voices try this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn6gXCW_quc
Opening music: Prelude to the opera Brainland, composed by Stephen Brown.
Closing music: Introit for Christmas Day, from the album 'Chant' by monks of Sana Domingo di Silo, Spain.
Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk
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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.aspx
Ken Barrett, visual artist, writer and retired neuropsychiatrist: http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk
More about Joseph Beuys and 'social sculpture': https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/s/social-sculpture
Opening and closing music: Prelude to the opera Brainland, composed by Stephen Brown.
Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk
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In this podcast Kimberly Campanello, a poet, novelist and academic, talks frankly about her early onset Parkinson's disease and how this lead her to pursue her Italian roots in Puglia. On a visit there, to her great grandmother's village, she literally discovered Dante's 'Comedia', which she is currently 'reversioning' - a method that involves processing the original Italian, a range of translations and commentaries, plus her life experience, coloured by her condition. She discussed making creative use of the effects of Parkinson's and the beneficial effects of her writing on her motor function, similar to the benefits of walking on irregular surfaces. We discuss the recent remarkable finding that, not only does PD influence movement, but also use of language, and especially verbs (see the link to the paper below). Along the way Kimberly reads one of her poems based on a canto from Dante and extracts from her published and recently finished novel. We end with a reading from her current poetry collection. This is 'Brainland'! Grreat conversation.
Participants:
Kimberly Campanello, Poet, novelist and Professor of Poetry, University of Leeds. https://www.kimberlycampanello.com/
Ken Barrett, artist, writer and retired neuropsychiatrist. http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk/
Kimberly’s published canti from her Dante versioning:
https://www.stillpointldn.com/articles/kimberly-campanello-two-cantos-from-this-knot/
https://www.pamenarpress.com/post/kimberly-campanello
https://blackboxmanifold.sites.sheffield.ac.uk/
https://www.poetryireland.ie/publications/poetry-ireland-review/back-issues/issue-144
The books discussed [Use the Words You Have (novel) & An Interesting Detail (poetry collection)]:
https://somesuch.co/shop/use-the-words-you-have-by-kimberly-campanello
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/interesting-detail-9781526690616/
Kimberly's recent and really interesting Parkinson's disease inspired poem 'Moving Nowhere Here' is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzRJTZ2lHgU
Read Paradoxical Kinesia (short prose): https://checkout.somesuch.co/products/somesuch-stories-7
A paper on Parkinson's disease and use of language: file:///Users/kenbarrett/Downloads/Words_in_motion_Motor-language_coupling_in_Parkins-1.pd
Opening and closing music: Prelude to 'Brainland', the opera by Stephen Brown.
Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk
Follow us us on Instagram:#brainlandcollective #brainlandthepodcast
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The Burden Neurological Institute (and Hospital) opened its' doors in 1939 and closed in 2000. In this wide ranging conversation, Jonathan Bird and Ken Barrett, neuropsychiatric alumni, chew the fat about the history of 'The Burden', the research home of Grey Walter who featured in the last Brainland episode. We discuss the unusual origin, Frederick Golla, the first director, the impact of the war, a wide range of characters who worked there and the work they did. A bit niche? Absolutely, but hey, that's Brainland!
Participants:
Jonathan Bird, Retired Consultant Neuropsychiatrist, Bristol.
Ken Barrett, artist, writer and retired neuropsychiatrist. .http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk/
Opening and closing music: Prelude to 'Brainland', the opera by Stephen Brown.
Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk
Follow us us on Instagram:#brainlandcollective #brainlandthepodcast
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Grey Walter was an important figure in mid-20th century neurophysiology and cybernetics and this episode brings together professors of history of science and AI to discuss his life and work. We talk about his early personal and academic life, moving on to his work as a pioneer of the clinical applications of the EEG, particularly at the Burden Neurological Institute in Bristol. After setting the scene, we discuss his creation of the earliest EEG frequency analyser and brain mapper (the toposcope) before moving onto his influential book 'The Living Brain' and, in Cornelius's phrase, the 'vital abstraction' paradigm . We discuss his creation of a simple robot, in the late 1940s, the reason why he is revered in cybernetics circles, and later his experiments on brain computer interfacing. We touch on his controvertial personal life, a possible reason why he was never invited to become a Royal Society member, before talking about his legacy. A great conversation about an important figure form 20th century brain science.
Participants:
Cornelius Borck, Professor and Director of the Institute for History of Medicine and Science Studies, Lübeck University, Germany. https://www.imgwf.uni-luebeck.de/
Phil Husbands, Emeritus Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Sussex ( https://profiles.sussex.ac.uk/p1334-phil-husbands/about)
Ken Barrett, artist, writer and retired neuropsychiatrist. .http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk/
More on William Grey Walter: https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/people/ap28659/walter-william-grey
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Grey_Walter
His robotic tortoises: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLULRlmXkKo
His book 'The Living Brain': https://wwnorton.com/books/The-Living-Brain/
Grey Walter's novel 'Further Outlook' (published as 'The curve of the snowflake' in the US): https://openlibrary.org/books/OL6200854M/The_curve_of_the_snowflake.
Ken's recent paper on the first forensic use of the EEG: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bjpsych-bulletin/article/first-appearance-of-eeg-evidence-in-a-uk-court-of-law-a-cautionary-tale/9D97D5564586762599DBA680D61C994D
Music: Stephen Brown’s prologue to the opera 'Brainland'
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Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk
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In this conversation philospher Raymond Tallis talks about his new book 'Circling Around Explicitness: The heart of human being'. Ray's book opens with a quote from German philosopher Friedrich Schelling ‘Uniquely within us nature opens her eyes and sees that she exists.’ What follows is an exploration of the meaning of 'thatness', his attempt to, in his words, 'eff the uneffed'. Our circling alights on a number of thinkers who he believes oversimplify misrepresent being, how 'the blob and the brain' become 'the bloke' . Donald Hoffman, Phillip K. Dick and Martin Buber get a mention, not all favourable, as does the 'autocidal tendency in contemproary philosophy', as we work through the four section of his book. To close he reads the closing paragraphs and gives us a peek at what is coming next. Great conversation.
Participants:
Raymond Tallis, philosopher and former professor of geriatric medicine, http://www.raymondtallis.co.uk/pages/home.html
Ken Barrett, visual artist, writer and retired neuropsychiatrist: http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk
Ray's book:https://cup.columbia.edu/book/circling-round-explicitness/9781788217903/
Opening and closing music: Prelude to the opera Brainland, composed by Stephen Brown.
Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk
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Earlier this season we recorded an episode on poetry and neuroscience in which Eugen Wassiliwitzki pointed out that in German the grammar produces many more internal rhymes and rhythms. This is perhaps even more true of Italian. The leading Italian poet of the last century is probably Nobel Prize winner Eugenio Montale. Jonathan Galassi has been reading, researching and translating Montale for decades. In this podcast he talks about Montale's background, influences, politics, religion and love-life. Jonathan reads one of his most famous poems in Italian and in his translation and one of his own from his collection 'North Street'. We touch on his antipathy for fellow poet and film director Pasolini before concluding with a brief discussion of Italian poetry after Montale.
Participants:
Jonathan Galassi, poet, novelist, translator and publisher. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Galassi
Ken Barrett, visual artist, writer and retired neuropsychiatrist: http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk
Jonathan's translations of Montale: http://www.everymanslibrary.co.uk/pocket-poets-author.aspx?letter=m&search=&firstname=Eugenio&surname=Montale
The poem Jonathan reads, 'In limine' read in Italian by Montale: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6-JXcllsIw
A sung version of the Montale poem 'Meriggiare pallido e assorto':https://open.spotify.com/artist/61zXi10WbO8ZCyCy9CyW0n?si=Upq_coi3TVq1TdOwR1sT-A
Examples of Jonathan's own poetry: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/jonathan-galassi
Opening and closing music: Prelude to the opera Brainland, composed by Stephen Brown.
Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk
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How can current thinking in psychology and neuroscience, about how we make decisions, inform our understanding of moral questions and make for a better society? That question is central to David Redish's book 'Changing How We Choose'. In this podcast David defines neuroeconomics and explains why applying science and engineering models to moral questions is useful, 'engineering' relating to applying what is learned from science to the real world situations. He talks through 'deliberative', 'procedura'l and 'instinctual' decision making systems, underpinned by different neural structures. He explains two key games that help inform his discipline, the 'prisoner's dilemma' and the 'assurance game' with real world examples. David also explains 'asabiya', an Arabic term that denotes an important concept relating to collaboration. We conclude with a discussion of how the optimistic tone of his book, and this approach, stands up to the world as it has evolved since his book was released in 2022.
Participants:
A David Redish, Distinguished McKnight University Professor, Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota. https://med.umn.edu/bio/david-redish
Ken Barrett, visual artist, writer and retired neuropsychiatrist: http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk
David's book, 'Changing How We Choose: The new science of morality': https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262047364/changing-how-we-choose/
An episode of 'Golden Balls', a game show discussed: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=golden+balls+split+or+steal+100+000
'The prisoner's dilemma' briefly explained: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdITTDl5coE
Opening and closing music: Prelude to the opera Brainland, composed by Stephen Brown.
Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk
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In this specially extended episode of the podcast we speak with Jonathan Dove, one of the most performed contemporary opera/classical composers working today. He talks about his first steps in music, making up tunes on the piano well before taking formal lessons, his organ playing in church, often improvising, and the great contribution of London schools' music provision to his education. Jonathan tells us of his years he worked as an accompanist and arranger, particularly for operas, before focussing on composing in his late '20s. He shares aspects of his composition practice, including creating a mood or affective tone before adding tunes. There are diversions into Karl Marx's chaotic home life (the subject of a comic opera), Covid and the climate crisis, the latter a subject that has helped fuel several compositions, including his most recent community opera, 'Uprising'. We conclude by talking about the works currently on Jonathan's desk desk. An extraordinary look into a successful composer's mind and creative practice.
Participants:
Jonathan Dove, composer, https://www.jonathandove.com/
Ken Barrett, visual artist, writer and retired neuropsychiatrist: http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk
Andy Platman, writer, musicophile, retired physician.
Some of the pieces discussed:
Uprising:
https://www.jonathandove.com/news/new-community-opera-uprising
Pinocchio:
https://www.jonathandove.com/the-adventures-of-pinocchio.html
Tobias and the angel:
https://www.jonathandove.com/tobias-and-the-angel.html
Marx in London:
https://www.jonathandove.com/marx-in-london.html
Gaia Theory:
https://www.wisemusicclassical.com/work/68312/Gaia-Theory--Jonathan-Dove/
'On the streets and iin the sky' string quartet:
https://open.spotify.com/album/0yXaKLDTOx5BWvy6NbpKb3?si=O0Wgu3epScG0xVDMwTWx9A
Opening and closing music: Prelude to the opera Brainland, composed by Stephen Brown.
Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk
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In this podcast we talk about the way Freud has been depicted in the movies, particularly the 1962 John Houston film 'Freud: The Secret Passion'. Ian discusses Houston's complicated relationship with the star, Montgomery Clift, Sartre's early involvement working on the script, the film's 'film noir' feel, Jerry Goldsmith's music, with a detour into avant garde composers work on horror films. Ian characteries the film as a big game movie about the unconscious and we go on to discuss the 2011 David Cronenberg film 'A Dangerous Method' about Freud's rift with Jung, and the struggle of Jung's patient and subsequent lover to forger her own career in psychoanalysis. This leads to the 2023 film Freud's last session that incldues Freud's daughter Anna, an imagined conversation with CS Lewis, which lead to a conversation about Atenborough's film about Lewis, 'Shadowlands. To conclude, we discuss three movies inspired by ideas from psychoanalysis, 'Secrets of the Soul' (Pabst, 1926), Spellbound (1945) and particularly 'Under Capricorm' (1948), the latter two from Hitchcock. Ian discusses Freud's unwillingness to advise on movies, before concluding with a consideration of Fellini's use of his dreams as a source of movies. Great conversation.
Participants:
Ian Christie, Professor of Film and Media History, Birckbeck, University of London. www.ianchristie.org
Ken Barrett, visual artist, writer and retired neuropsychiatrist: http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk
The movies:
Freud: The Secret Passion(1962): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055998/
A Dangerous Method(2011):https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1571222/
Freud's Last Session (2023): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt20420628/?ref_=fn_all_ttl_1
Under Capricorn (1948): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042004/?ref_=fn_all_ttl_1
The Dali designed Spellbound dream sequence from 'Spelbound': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ITPLLIcPSM
GW Pabst's 'Secrets of the Soul' (1926): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYoXy3bYD1k
The Italian movie podcast mentioned: 'Capolavoro!: https://open.acast.com/networks/6452b6516dd22500113dc7d2/shows/67ab6f20c6f97f89d80e2d26/episodes/681cbfbe5acb8b715f1b5b17
Brainland the pdocast website: https://shows.acast.com/brainland
Opening and closing music: Prelude to the opera Brainland, composed by Stephen Brown.
Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk
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Finnish film director Pia Tikka began studying the psychology and later the neuroscience of film making 25 years ago and is currently studying the experience and process of cinematographers and film editors.she talks about how writings of Soviet film maker and theorist Sergei Eisenstein has been particularly influential, particularly following his later interactions with neuropsychologist Luria, Gestalt psychologists and developmental psychologist Vigotsky. Pia talks about her concept of 'enactive cinema' and describes her current five year project studying cinematographers and film editors using microphenomenological and other methods. We also talk about the importance of narrative and the way stories work on us. After the main podcast I asked pia to talk about a contemporary multimedia art project invovling multi screen projection modified by psychophysical readings taken from the viewer, followed by a little more discussion of Eisenstein so stay listening for that...
Participants:
Pia Tikka, Research Professor, CINEMATIC MINDS, Baltic Film, Media, Arts and Communication School (BFM)
Centre of Excellence in Media Innovation and Digital Culture (MEDIT) Tallinn University, Estonia.
Ken Barrett, visual artist, writer and retired neuropsychiatrist: http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk
To learn more about microphenomenolgy: https://www.microphenomenology.com/home
Opening and closing music: Prelude to the opera Brainland, composed by Stephen Brown.
Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk
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In this podcast, Emily talks about how she came to write 'While the music lasts', her very personal account of her response to the death of her father, one of the key inspirations for her career choice. Her book documents how for several months after his death she avoided music as it made her angry and how eventually her musicologist training helped her navigate that period. This included an in depth look at the musical Boulanger sisters, the younger of whom died at 24. Emily talks about her father and their relationship and how going through his overloaded music stand (he was a guitarist) and creating the Spotify playlist that accompanies the book, was another way to adjust to his absence and bring him to mind. We briefly detour into grief dogs and the male bias over centuries of classical music and music academia before talking about Emily's trip to Cadiz, a journey her father suggested making with her, a week before he died. She made the trip alone and stayed a friend who was also grieving - a postive conclusion to her story..
Participants:
Emily MacGregor, musicologist and cultural historian, broadcaster; Research Fellow in Music, King's College London; Classical music Editor-at-large, Faber andd Faber. https://emilymacgregor.co.uk/
Ken Barrett, visual artist, writer and retired neuropsychiatrist: http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk
Emily's book: https://www.welbooks.co.uk/shop/p/while-the-music-lasts-a-memoir-of-music-grief-and-joy-by-emily-macgregor
Emily's playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3FV5NJxh2jgQ9JcgYt4pqG?si=4c710734a5e14446
Opening and closing music: Prelude to the opera Brainland, composed by Stephen Brown.
Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk
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Mark Solms is a clinical neuropsychologist, neuroscientist and psychoanalyst. In this wide-ranging conversation Marks talks about his career path and the influence of a brain injury in family member when Mark was a child. Mark talks about Freud's pre-psychoanalytic work as a neuroscientist and neurologist and his own ongoing retranslation of Freud's neuroscientific writing. We discuss Mark's discovery of the brain lesions that supress dreams (not those relating to REM sleep) and how this lead to his interest in the affective rather than cognitive nature of consciousness. We discuss the work of Panksepp and Damasio and Mark outlines the computational neuroscience model and the way Karl Friston is applying this before mapping all this on Freud's original model of mind.
Participants:
Mark Solms, Professor, Department of Neuropsychology, University of Capetown, SA. https://neuroscience.uct.ac.za/contacts/mark-solms
Ken Barrett, visual artist, writer and retired neuropsychiatrist: http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk
Mark's book 'The Hidden Spring': https://profilebooks.com/work/the-hidden-spring/
RE-ANIMATING
Opening and closing music: Prelude to the opera Brainland, composed by Stephen Brown.
Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk
Sketch by KB.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this podcast Hugh Rickards reads his unpublished essay, 'The Lost Tribes of Neuropsychiatry', raising a number of interesting issues relating to neuropsychiatric services in the UK, and their lack. We chew over some of the issues raised including causes for the abandonment of poeple with chronic mental disorders arising directly from brain disease or damage, and whether the still small discipline of neuropsychiatry has facilitated this. Hugh talks about the historic shift away from the brain in psychiatric nurse training and how some centres are revertng to joint RMN/RN courses. Ken talks about the origins of the still thriving comprehensive neuropsychiatry service in North Staffordshire and Hugh also sketch some solutions. An interesting format this, so if anyone else has an essay that might be in our wheelhouse do get in touch.
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.aspx
Ken Barrett, visual artist, writer and retired neuropsychiatrist: http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk
Opening and closing music: Prelude to the opera Brainland, composed by Stephen Brown.
Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk
Sketch by KB.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.