All in the Mind
All In The Mind is Radio National's weekly foray into the mental universe, the mind, brain and behaviour - everything from addiction to artificial intelligence.
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2007-11-24 Brain Surgery - Live on the Wireless! (Part 1 of 2)
Don your gown and mask, and prepare yourself. Natasha Mitchell takes you into the operating theatre of leading neurosurgeon Professor Jeffrey Rosenfeld at the Alfred Hospital, and inside the head of Kia, his patient, as she has an arteriovenous malformation extracted from her frontal lobes. A repeat ...
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2007-11-17 The political brain
As Australians stand in front of the cardboard voting booth next week what?s going on in our minds? In choosing the future direction of the nation -- do we weigh up policies and promises with a rational mind, or are we emoting with our pencils? And new research has sent the left and right of the sci ...
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2007-11-17 The Political Brain
As Australians stand in front of the cardboard voting booth next week what?s going on in our minds? In choosing the future direction of the nation --- do we weigh up policies and promises with a rational mind, or are we emoting with our pencils? And - new research has sent the left and right of th ...
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2007-11-10 Dr Mindfulness: science and the meditation boom
Quiten your mind. Attend to the moment. Mindfulness based meditation is being touted as beneficial for any number of afflictions - from anxiety to asthma; social phobia to psoriasis. But what is it, and how can science scrutinize subjective states of mind? Three scientists at high powered institutio ...
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2007-11-03 Mind meets matter: stress, schizophrenia, immunity and heart disease
Are we really more vulnerable to colds when we're stressed? Does depression increase your risk of heart disease? Could a bad bout of the flu during pregnancy cause schizophrenia in your child? Science has long struggled with the question of whether states of mind influence the body, and vice versa. ...
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2007-10-27 The Stuff of Thought with Steven Pinker
Why do we often avoid speaking our mind? Does swearing have an evolutionary function? What do linguistic taboos do to your brain? How are new words born? Acclaimed author of The Language Instinct and How the Mind Works, Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker is a self confessed verbivore. To him languag ...
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2007-10-20 Art in the Asylum: orphans of the art world? Part 2 of 2 (The Prinzhorn Collection)
Germany?s extraordinary Prinzhorn collection of art was drawn from 19th and 20th century asylums. Psychiatrist Hans Prinzhorn was on a quest to find a `more authentic? art, made by minds liberated from the constraints of rationality. Avant-garde artists turned to the works for inspiration, but the c ...
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2007-10-13 Art in the Asylum: orphans of the art world? Part 1 of 2 (The Cunningham Dax Collection...
Germany and Australia are home to two of the largest collections of art by psychiatric patients gathered from old asylums - the Prinzhorn and Cunningham Dax collections. The Nazis exploited the European works in their horrifying campaign against `degenerate? art. But what are the ethics of displayin ...
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2007-10-13 Art in the Asylum: orphans of the art world? - Part 1 of 2
Germany and Australia are home to two of the largest collections of art by psychiatric patients gathered from old asylums - the Prinzhorn and Cunningham Dax collections. The Nazis exploited the European works in their horrifying campaign against `degenerate? art. But what are the ethics of displayin ...
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2007-10-06 Burma: 'I resist in my Mind only'
Medical anthropologist Monique Skidmore has conducted field work in Burma for over a decade, carefully probing the ways the State manipulates the emotional life of the Burmese, and the psychological strategies they adopt to survive under a military regime. Fear threads through every conversation a ...
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2007-09-29 Therapy Goes Digital: Is the Internet good for your head?
The Internet is celebrated and castigated in equal measure - but is it good for your mental health? Are you compelled to check your email morning, night and day? Some believe Internet Addiction Disorder is a very real and growing concern. Others aren?t at all convinced it exists. Also, the rise of p ...
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2007-09-22 The psychological power of forgiveness in South Africa
Psychologist Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela was on South Africa?s historic Truth and Reconciliation Commission, chairing many of its tortuous public hearings about atrocities committed in the apartheid era. In an unprecedented dialogue she met with one of apartheid's most abhorrent killers, in jail, to exp ...
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2007-09-15 Carer Couples: when a partner has a mental illness
SUMMARY: Lover or carer? Partner or dependent? This week, when a partner is afflicted with a severe mental illness, how is the relationship redefined? Do they feel like the body & soul you first fell in love with? Two couples - Lana and Paul, Gerard and Brendon - share their trials and triumphs of c ...
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2007-09-08 Bird brains: Smarter than the Average...
SUMMARY: Bird brains don't deserve the bad rap they get. Like us, songbirds are among the only animals that can learn new and complex vocal skills. Mental time travel isn't beyond them, and even mastering grammar-like patterns could be part of their cognitive repertoire! This week, three top bird b ...
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2007-09-01 The Nature of Fear debate: 2007 Australian Science Festival
SUMMARY: From terrorist threats to bushfire anxiety, the rise of panic disorders to political game play are we living in an era of fear? A world leader in psychopath research; a personality psychologist, top political scientists; and author of The Chemical Weapons Taboo join Natasha Mitchell to tak ...
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2007-08-25 Mind games: coma calamities and delusional deliberations
SUMMARY: Where does the Self go when it is battered and bruised beyond recognition? Traumatized after head injury; altered through autism; deconstructed by delusion? TV columnist Ruth Ritchie and neuropsychologist Dr Paul Broks join Natasha Mitchell to navigate the wilderness from very different per ...
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2007-08-18 Addiction: Dis-ease over diseased brains
SUMMARY: Your brain hijacked - possessed by a chronic, relapsing brain disease. Scientists now view addiction as a disease, not a behavioural problem. Brain circuits involved in reward and pleasure, planning and control are dramatically changed. The priority is medical treatment, not shame and blame ...
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2007-08-11 81 Words: the inside story of psychiatry and homosexuality (Part 2 of 2)
SUMMARY: Being gay was considered a mental disorder by psychiatry until 1973 when the battle lines were drawn. In this final episode, reporter Alix Spiegel continues the gripping story that spurred a radical rethink. Its the story of a closeted cartel of powerful, gay psychiatrists; of confronta ...
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2007-08-04 81 Words: the inside story of psychiatry and homosexuality [Part 1 of 2]
SUMMARY: Homosexuality was once labelled a mental disease by psychiatry. But in 1973 the challenge came from within. The American Psychiatric Association had a change of heart. And with the tweak of the 81-word definition of sexual deviance in its own diagnostic manual, lives were reclaimed, and va ...
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2007-07-28 When Good People Turn Bad – Philip Zimbardo in conversation
SUMMARY: In 1971, 23 American college students lives were changed by the now notorious Stanford Prison Experiment. For the eminent psychologist responsible, Philip Zimbardo, the parallels to the atrocities at Abu Ghraib are palpable. In an exclusive Australian interview, he joins Natasha Mitchell, ...
All in the Mind
