Science and Nature

Mysteries of Mental Illness

Mysteries of Mental Illness explores the story of mental illness in science and society. The four-part series traces the evolution of this complex topic from its earliest days to present times. It explores dramatic attempts across generations to unravel the mysteries of mental illness and gives voice to contemporary Americans across a spectrum of experiences.

Dr. Hooman Keshavarzi | Decolonizing Mental Health

4m 3s

Muslims don’t often seek mental healthcare because of the dearth of services that integrate faith-based concepts into treatment practices. Instead, they seek help from family members, clergymen - people who don’t have the formal training to provide them with adequate care. Dr Hooman Keshavarzi’s Khalil Center provides that much-needed oasis that is a confluence of psychiatry and the Islamic faith.

Episodes

  • New Frontiers: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    New Frontiers

    S2021 E4 - 54m

    Look at today’s most cutting-edge treatments for mental illness, and explore one of the most urgent fronts on the battle against mental illness: the fight for inclusion – a society more open to all kinds of minds and behavior, and free from stigma, based on the understanding that mental health exists on a spectrum.

  • The Rise and Fall of the Asylum: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    The Rise and Fall of the Asylum

    S2021 E3 - 54m

    Until a few decades ago, the United States relied on mass confinement in mental asylums, for the mentally ill, as well as extreme treatments, from lobotomy to coma therapy. Today, at Cook County Jail in Chicago, more than one-third of inmates have a mental health diagnosis. Meet the detainees whose lives hang in the balance and discover the harsh realities of care both in and out of jail.

  • Who’s Normal?: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Who’s Normal?

    S2021 E2 - 54m

    Learn how science and societal factors are deeply entwined with our ever-shifting definitions and diagnoses of mental health and illness. Follow the stories of Ryan Mains, an Iraq veteran struggling with PTSD, Mia Yamamoto, California’s first openly transgender lawyer, and Michael, a Harlem based pastor and healer living with depression.

  • Evil or Illness: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Evil or Illness

    S2021 E1 - 54m

    Treatment of mental illness over history has been trial and error and, today, doctors still search for answers. Follow the story of Cecilia McGough, who struggles with persistent hallucinations and delusions. Learn about Lorina Gutierrez's mysterious condition, referred to as 'Brain on Fire', and Virginia Fuchs, an Olympics-bound boxer living with OCD.

Extras + Features

  • Deep Brain Stimulation Surgery: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Deep Brain Stimulation Surgery

    2m 55s

    Matthew Rosenberg is having deep brain stimulation surgery to help his debilitating OCD condition. In three weeks he'll have another electrode implanted in the other side of his brain, followed by a separate surgery to put batteries in his chest to power the device. Will the groundbreaking surgery help him to manage his severe OCD? Initial signs are promising.

  • Cecilia's Story: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Cecilia's Story

    2m 34s

    Cecilia McGough has struggled with hallucinations since she was a little kid. Growing up in a religious community she hid what she was going through, fearing it was some kind of punishment. Even as a young adult, while making a name for herself in astrophysics, she couldn't escape the stigma of her illness, even in mental health settings.

  • A PTSD Diagnosis: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    A PTSD Diagnosis

    3m 29s

    Until recently, very little was known about PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). With new technologies, such as brain imaging, scientists have begun to search for trauma's biological fingerprints, and it's become clear that experience can produce physical changes in us. Advances in the biology of the disease, and in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, are helping many patients to cope with their PTSD.

  • My OCD World: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    My OCD World

    2m 25s

    Ginny Fuchs discovered boxing in college. She is now an Olympic boxer and rates in the top three in the world. Though she has the self-control to spar eight rounds, hit the bag for six rounds, and do a 30-minute run, she can't clean a countertop and wash her hands in less than two hours, due to her OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder). She is working to understand why.

  • Who's Normal?: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Who's Normal?

    1m 30s

    What is mental illness and who is normal? Definitions of these have been defined differently over the centuries, but the boundary between illness and sickness remains very fluid. There are no biological tests to diagnose mental illness, so societies decide what constitutes behavioral and social norms, and where the lines of deviance exist.

  • Ginny Fuchs and OCD: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Ginny Fuchs & OCD

    4m 15s

    Watch a clip in which Olympic boxer Ginny Fuchs shares a bit of what it's like to live with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) an illness characterized by anxiety, repetitive unwanted thoughts and compulsive behaviors. Diagnosed with the illness as a sixth-grader, Ginny hid her OCD for years in fear of being judged. Her OCD, unfortunately, has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Psychiatry and Homosexuality: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Psychiatry and Homosexuality

    4m 13s

    In the U.S., as recently as the early 1970's, homosexuals were considered mentally ill. Watch this clip, in which a board-certified psychiatrist, 'Dr. Anonymous', at a 1972 American Psychiatric Association conference, announces "I'm a homosexual, I am a psychiatrist." See how, over the decades, and as defined by the APA, the boundaries shifted between the so-called ill and the so-called healthy.

  • Hysteria: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Hysteria

    3m 59s

    How do the beliefs of the day shape the understanding of mental illness? This clip explores how biases, have formed the basis of many mental health diagnoses. Until late into the 20th century, for example, hysteria was a diagnosis given to any woman who didn't fit the archetypal female stereotype.

  • Episode 2 Preview: Who's Normal?: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Episode 2 Preview: Who's Normal?

    31s

    Episode 2 traces the dramatic fight in the second half of the 20th century to develop mental illness standards rooted in empirical science rather than dogma, including the evolution of the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual). Meet Ryan Mains, who struggles with PTSD, Mia Yamamoto, California’s first openly transgender lawyer, and Michael Walrond who lives with his own depressive disorder.

  • Schizophrenia and Stigma: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Schizophrenia and Stigma

    3m 14s

    Treating Schizophrenia early in a person's illness can increase the chances of success. Like many suffering from hallucinations, however, Cecilia McGough found that the stigma around her illness made it very difficult to talk about. After an incident put her in a psych ward for ten days, Cecilia gathered up the courage to open up about her illness using social media as a platform.

  • Episode 1 Preview: Evil Or Illness: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Episode 1 Preview: Evil Or Illness

    2m 25s

    For much of history, people living with schizophrenia, or many other illnesses, would have been seen as either a prophet or a devil. Episode 1 explores ancient conceptions of mental illness and the establishment of psychiatry with the rise of Sigmund Freud. This preview shows an Olympic boxer struggling with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

  • Ryan Mains and PTSD: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Ryan Mains & PTSD

    2m 29s

    Army Veteran Ryan Mains has struggled to accept his diagnosis of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), because of the stereotypes and the stigma that he saw as being associated with mental illness. But having been a medic on the front lines in Iraq, he had seen things that haunted him, and his every life became increasingly difficult as intrusive thoughts began to alter his behavior.

Schedule

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