We Had to Tell Doctors to Read To Understand Us

While it doesn't make sense to me that 'highly educated' MDs needed to be told to read good literature, I guess I'm glad that they are. Look for an MD in a book club near you. Or, be brave and give a doctor a book!

"The humanities can remind them that they're dealing with very complicated, whole individuals with their own needs and opinions," said Elizabeth Sinclair, coordinator of the Maine Humanities Council's literature and medicine program.

Scalpel, stethoscope, Tolstoy: Doctors embrace literature as tool to connect with patients - latimes.com

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Looking for Photos of Agnes's Jacket

Disappointed that there are not photographs of Agnes Richter's jacket in Gail Hornstein's book, I searched the web and found this lovely blog entry:

The Lulu Bird: art inspiration: agnes richter.

Here are photos of the jacket that Lizzie took when she visited the Prinzhorn collection in Germany. Thank you Lizzie. (I really like her blog, too, about art therapy, not all that different from poetry therapy, or whatever else we call the intersection of art, madness, healing, and personal journey.)

Music and the Brain

There is so much amazing work in the world. At the Institute for Music and Brain Science a wide variety of people study music and the brain from different perspectives. Hearing Healing & Helping Through Music is their motto. What could be better! I love their logo, too. So 'brainy'. Even their url: brainmusic. I always knew my brain had its own songs to sing, if I could only figure out how to hear them. (And, no, this is not the same as the ringing in my ears.)

The Center for Arts, Science and Technology at Stanford is hosting a talk this month with a speaker from the brainmusic people. Of course their url is brainwaves! I hope they don't mind my reposting their information here. Nobody knows about my blog anyway, so nobody will even see it! But, hey, nobody, try and go. I'll see you there.

February 8, 2010 - 5:30 PM

"Neurobiological Foundations for the Theory of Harmony in Western Tonal Music"

Mark Tramo MD, Ph.D.
Director, The Institute for Music & Brain Science
Associate Professor of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Adjunct Professor of Music, Herb Alpert School of Music at UCLA
Faculty Fellow, Harvard University Mind Brain & Behavior Interfaculty Initiative
Research Affiliate, M.I.T. Research Laboratory of Electronics
ASCAP/NARAS
www.BrainMusic.org

March 1, 2010 - 5:30 PM

"Music, Memories, and the Brain"

A talk exploring music-evoked autobiographical memories and associated emotions

Petr Janata, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, UC Davis Psychology Department Center for Mind and Brain

Music-evoked autobiographical memories and associated emotions are poignant examples of how music engages the brain. Janata binds music theory, cognitive psychology, and computational modeling to generate intuitive animations of music moving about in tonal space (the system of major and minor keys). He then shows how the unique tonal movements of individual excerpts of popular music can be used in conjunction with neuroimaging experiments to identify brain networks that support the experiencing of memories and emotions evoked by the music.

Outsider Art

As I'm reading Agnes's Jacket, I'm learning all about art work created by people in institutions for the insane. This story will take several posts. The photos are astonishing. I hope to see some of these exhibits in person some day.

According to Wikipedia (I'm too tired to do my own research tonight) "A defining moment was the publication of Bildnerei der Geisteskranken (Artistry of the mentally ill) in 1922, by Dr Hans Prinzhorn." Here are some images I copied from the Prinzhorn Collection's website.

According to the website, "The core collection comprises approximately 5000 pieces of art created by approx. 450 patients of psychiatric institutions. These pieces comprise mostly drawings, water colors, writings, like letters, notes, drafts of books and exercise books, which were often self-manufactured, as well as oil paintings, material manual work, collages and 70 wooden sculptures." What a wealth.