Daily Painting

Albert Birkle
MADNESS (c. 1925)

ABHIJIT NASKAR
Neurosonnets: The Naskar Art of Neuroscience

When someone plays fast and loose with rights and freedom, their place is either in the jungle or in a mental institution, not in office. Fascism, fundamentalism and nationalism, these are the ultimate mental illness.

Trump Derangement Syndrome 101.

This dude literally paid to have "harder daddy" printed on his vehicle.

VLADIMIR NABOKOV
"Symbols and Signs"

For the fourth time in as many years, they were confronted with the problem of what birthday present to take to a young man who was incurably deranged in his mind. Desires he had none. Man-made objects were to him either hives of evil, vibrant with a malignant activity that he alone could perceive, or gross comforts for which no use could be found in his abstract world. After eliminating a number of articles that might offend him or frighten him (anything in the gadget line, for instance, was taboo), his parents chose a dainty and innocent trifle—a basket with ten different fruit jellies in ten little jars.

That Friday, their son’s birthday, everything went wrong. The subway train lost its life current between two stations and for a quarter of an hour they could hear nothing but the dutiful beating of their hearts and the rustling of newspapers. The bus they had to take next was late and kept them waiting a long time on a street corner, and when it did come, it was crammed with garrulous high-school children.

It began to rain as they walked up the brown path leading to the sanitarium. There they waited again, and instead of their boy, shuffling into the room, as he usually did (his poor face sullen, confused, ill-shaven, and blotched with acne), a nurse they knew and did not care for appeared at last and brightly explained that he had again attempted to take his life. He was all right, she said, but a visit from his parents might disturb him. The place was so miserably understaffed, and things got mislaid or mixed up so easily, that they decided not to leave their present in the office but to bring it to him next time they came.

Currently Watching

HOUR OF THE WOLF
[VARGTIMMEN]
Ingmar Bergman
Sweden, 1968

GRAEME GALTON

Forensic Aspects of Dissociative Identity Disorder

Some people with DID present their narratives of sadistic abuse in a quite matter-of-fact way, without perceptible affect. This may sometimes be done as a way of protecting themselves, and the listener, from the emotional impact of their experience. 

We have found that people describing trauma in a flat way, without feeling, are usually those who have been more chronically abused, while those with affect still have a sense of self that can observe the tragedy of betrayal and have feelings about it. In some cases, this deadpan presentation can also be the result of cult training and brainwashing. 

Unfortunately, when a patient describes a traumatic experience without showing any apparent emotion, it can make the listener doubt whether the patient is telling the truth.



Currently Watching

____________________

MÍA Y MOI

{Inexplicable English Title: Bringing Him Back]

Borja de la Vega

Spain, 2021

THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY

[SÅSOM I EN SPEGEL]

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Ingmar Bergman

Sweden, 1961

LAST NIGHT IN SOHO

Edgar Wright

UK, 2021

 

LUDO

Katrin Ottarsdóttir
Faroe Islands, 2014

GOT PARTS?
An Insider's Guide to Managing Life Successfully with Dissociative Identity Disorder

ATW

IMAGES

Robert Altman
USA, 1972

LAURA ANDERSON

It is ten o’clock in the morning and I am already overwhelmed by the idea of today. I’m trying, I’m trying. I keep walking around on the verge of tears chanting, ‘It’s okay. It’s okay,’ and taking big breaths. My goal is to stay safely in between self-analysis and self-destruction. I just feel like I’m draining people right now. There is only so much I can ask for while giving nothing back.

I think if I wear something I like and pull my hair back and take the dogs with me, though, I will feel confident enough to go to the store and buy some orange juice.