The Snake Pit: Mixing Marx with Freud in Hollywood.

In 1948, the motion picture The Snake Pit was released to popular and critical acclaim. Directed by Anatole Litvak, the film told of the mental illness and recovery of one patient, who survived overcrowding and understaffing and was treated by a neo-Freudian psychiatrist known as Dr. Kik. It was based on a novel of the same title by Mary Jane Ward, who had been treated at Rockland State Hospital in New York. Building upon exposés of horrid hospital conditions in the press, The Snake Pit helped motivate reforms in the treatment of the mentally ill. Via unpublished correspondence and drafts of the film's screenplay, this article explores the populist and antifascist themes in The Snake Pit, which came from the director, screenwriters, and the politics of the immediate post-WWII era. It also describes the case history of Mary Jane Ward and her treatment by Gerard Chrzanowski, the real "Dr. Kik." (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Margiad Evans (1909-1958): A writer's epileptic experiences and their reflections in her work.

Margiad Evans, in the period 1930-1950, an acclaimed English writer, developed convulsive seizures at age 41 and died at age 50 from the tumor that had caused them. In her book "A Ray of Darkness", she describes in profound analytic detail her seizure experiences, especially the isolated auras that had preceded her first convulsion by many years. Their ultimate strangeness echoed a long-standing fascination by the indescribable, which is a recurrent theme in her literary work. Another aspect of her poetry, a focus on the experience of the moment that cannot be retained is likewise reminiscent of the volatility of her aura experiences. Of three texts that are presently being published posthumously, one ("The Nightingale Silenced") is a fragmentary continuation of her epileptic experience. She considered that she still had a lot to describe, contributing the inside of the "outside inside story" of epilepsy, clues on which neurology could work to obtain a deeper understanding. To have a focal motor seizure feels like being invaded by an alien force. An urge to run and heautoscopy are other recorded symptoms. Evans documents the experience of a long-lasting, predominantly nonconvulsive status epilepticus merging into aura continua where her earlier aura experiences appear transformed into a quasipsychotic state. But even in the account of "this appalling, this hellish condition", she is careful to maintain her high literary standards. Together, the two reports on her disease seem to represent the only comprehensive inside case history of epilepsy, a most valuable legacy.

Epilepsy, literature and linguistics: spotlighting subjective symptoms.

Literature can offer a wealth of information about epilepsy: from complex narratives to children's picture books, it can help broaden people's understanding, show what it is like to live with epilepsy and provide a medium to which people with epilepsy (PWE) can relate. The latter being particularly important in such cases where seizure experiences are highly subjective, such as those associated with 'focal seizures', a common seizure type, which are known for their variable and hard-to-describe symptoms, causing complications with diagnosis as many of the symptoms overlap with those of other psychological health conditions.Literature, however, has more to offer than acting as a source for demystifying epilepsy. On a disciplinary level, literature is surrounded by different frameworks for linguistic analysis which, importantly, are also applicable to real-life discourse. In particular, the well-established discipline, cognitive stylistics, provides ample theory for analysing the different facets of literature, from narratological and storyworld level, to the intricacies of characterisation revealing the structure behind the presentation of fictional characters' experiences, attitudes and personalities. Such methods have the potential to transform and decode complex, subjective experiences into manageable pieces of information. This, then, holds great potential for shedding light on the experiences of real-life seizure narratives to the extent that the identified seizure's linguistic 'profiles' can be used to aid real-life situations. Therefore, the present study calls to attention the potential evoked through the convergence between literature, linguistic analysis, fictional characters, PWE and seizure narratives. Extrapolating the qualities of these converging strands can enrich our understanding of the seizure experience, as well as bring to awareness the areas of risk that surround aspects of the diagnosis process.

Fiction-reading for good or ill: eating disorders, interpretation and the case for creative bibliotherapy research.

Compared with self-help bibliotherapy, little is known about the efficacy of creative bibliotherapy or the mechanisms of its possible efficacy for eating disorders or any other mental health condition. It is clear, however, that fiction is widely used informally as a therapeutic or antitherapeutic tool and that it has considerable potential in both directions, with a possibly significant distinction between the effects of reading fiction about eating disorders (which may-contrary to theoretical predictions-be broadly negative in effect) or one's preferred genre of other fiction (which may be broadly positive). Research on creative bibliotherapy, especially systematic experimental research, is lacking and requires a medical humanities approach, drawing on knowledge and methods from psychology and cognitive literary studies as well as clinical disciplines to expand our understanding of how the dynamic processes of interpretation mediate between textual structures and characteristics of mental health and illness.

When Fathering Fails: Violence, Narcissism, and the Father Function in Ancient Tales and Clinical Analysis.

Manifestations of failures in both symbolic and actual flesh-and-blood fathering reveal the inescapable role played by the father's unconscious transmissions in the ever present triadic matrix. Perelberg's crucial distinction between the murdered narcissistic father and the dead symbolic father suggests the problematic internalizations that fail to uphold the paternal law required for oedipal resolution. Three father-child narratives derived from classical literature and mythology are presented in order to elucidate significant unconscious paternal fantasies pertaining to lethal rivalry and neglect of the child's otherness. These narratives suggest how the father's insufficient management of rivalrous, envious, and murderously aggressive impulses-as well as narcissistic needs that fail to take into account the child's alterity-combine with the child's intrapsychic propensities to constrict triangular space and restrict development. Consequently, unavoidable father-child rivalries, absences, neglect, and desires often make it vital to recover the "missing" paternal function in analytic space. A clinical example illustrates the impact of this absence on the analyst's countertransference.

Early intervention for incipient insanity: early notions from the 19th century English literature.

AIM: Early intervention programmes in mental illnesses started to bloom in the 1990s, and many programmes have been established worldwide during the past twenty years. However, the concept of early intervention has emerged during the 19th century but it did not make much impact on practice. The aim of this review is to identify the difficulties appeared during that period of time which could provide insight into the modern development of early intervention initiatives. METHODS: A narrative review which focused on English literature about early intervention for insanity during the 19th century was undertaken. RESULTS: Clinicians during the 19th century recognized that treatment would be the most effective at the early stage of the mental illness and they had emphasized the importance of early intervention. However, because of a number of factors, such as the limited roles of asylums, lack of knowledge about mental disorder and the lack of effective treatment, the idea of early intervention did not make impact in clinical service during that period of time. CONCLUSION: During the past two hundred years, understanding towards mental illness has advanced and more effective treatments, such as the use of anti-psychotic medications, have been developed. Reflecting on the past experience and difficulties might shed light on the development of today early intervention in mental disorder.