Europe needs to get real on defence; Britain needs to get real on Europe
13 February 2025
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12 December 2009
3 minute(s) read
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when mental illness is seen in the same way as physical illness then perhaps the proper resources and investment will be made by governments…until then mental illness will be the Cinderella of medicine.. i applaud your efforts Alastair for putting your undoubted communication skills to work in this area…As to art and creativity, over 40 years ago, as a volunteer, i was giving photography lessons to Broadmoor inmates, it was astonishing what some of these people produced…
(You see we get on so much better when you leave your political baggage at home…!)
There is definitely a close link between creativity and people who maybe live a little near the edge for their own good (or, I am aware, their own choices.) I agree that there should be lots of this kind of thing in our public spaces
Stuart Semple’s work is superb and the prices on there now very reasonable. All part of the Nancyboy series
This is the kind of thing that will fall to the back of the queue as public spending gets tighter and tighter but it is the kind of thing that delivers big results for small investment
While I greatly admire the works of Mervyn Peake, to take the example which springs to my mind, I fear that some work by the disturbed is not of much value to anyone looking at or reading it.
Depression is not an automatic entree to creativity, but all sorts of work, including the arts, can help those who are afflicted.
Some of the most remarkable work I have seen was by a disabled painter who died at the age of 4. He loved to paint.
I helped make a film some years ago about my own experience of mental health in the first Mad for Arts series made by the Community Channel. Unfortunately, I’ve lost my copy of the film and they seem to have done so also – but it was a creative experience which taught me a lot about myself and what I had been through. I think it allowed me to realise that the trigger for my illness – the Iraq War – was part of a wider set of circumstances and conditions.
My obsession with what others had supposedly done to me had clouded my ability to perceive a more complex reality.
Perhaps it is fair to say that mental ill health does not automatically confer wisdom or make someone interesting – but all of us, whether mentally ill or well, are surely interesting people in some way or another. The challenge is to identify what each of us can usefully share. With the help of sympathetic communication professionals, all of us can have some story worth telling.
I too admire your work Alastair in the field of mental ill health. Bearing witness to experiences some feel ashamed of and others believe should be kept beyond their ken is most honourable. I recognised myself in “Cracking Up” and wished I had been eloquent enough to tell my story as effectively as you have been able to tell yours.
Keep up the good work.
Hate to bring us back to politics…I am very grateful that I had my breakdown under a Labour government and a properly resourced NHS which is willing to continue my prescription for a medication that works very effectively.
Under the Tories I’d have been wandering the streets untreated for days and quite probably be dead by now.
Instead I’ve been paying my taxes and helping look after aged parents keeping them from being a burden on the state.
Politics and folks’ mental health are not unrelated.
All the best!