Aaina Singh (Overall Bonus) The PBS documentary I chose to watch for this blog post is titled “Living with Bipolar Disorder” (see link attached below) and it’s a conversation between American screenwriter & director Paul Dalio – who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and clinical psychologist Dr. Jeffrey Borenstein, MD for a television series called Healthy Minds. I chose to watch it initially out of sheer curiosity about what goes on in the mind of a person with Bipolar disorder but it actually ended up raising some intriguing questions in my mind about the perception of the disorder and its relationship with creativity and artistic ability. The conversation between Borenstein and Dalio started off with them talking about his movie Touched with Fire, which is a story about two people with bipolar who fall in love with each other at a medical care facility. Borenstein asked Dalio what he felt about making a movie so gravely connected with his own life and experie...

Ananya Sood Remedial for Quiz 7/ Overall Grade In this article by Lisa Conti, the author explores and understands the relationship between Nicotine and Schizophrenia. According to her, drugs like nicotine show the hope of alleviating cognitive impairment caused by the onset of schizophrenia. To give a background of the disorder, some of the major symptoms of Schizophrenia include delusion, hallucination, and cognitive impairment. Even though symptoms vary from patient to patient, there are other common symptoms, such as social isolation, thought disorder, anger, paranoia etc.  The  Scientific American  author observed that about 85% patients with diagnosed schizophrenia and symptoms of schizophrenia resort of smoking cigarettes at various stages in their disorder. According to these patients, smoking cigarettes helps reduce cognitive impairment. But is that really possible?  Scientists over time have observed therapeutic effe...

By Ragini Chatterjee   (Overall Grade Remedial) A case study on Scarlett O' Hara from ‘Gone with The Wind’   Scarlett O' Hara has to be one of the most vivacious character, on print. With her southern Belle ‘ Fiddle de dees ’, bright green eyes and sharp tongue, she is hard to forget. After having seen the movie multiple times from age 13, I was fascinated by her personality. Her antics, at times cruel, bought the story to life. Her obsession with Ashley, her multiple marriages, her cunning mind and relentless spirt were always entertaining from the perspective of the viewer. However, years later as I look back, I can’t help but recognize patterns of behavior that may resonate with some personality disorder. From the beginning of the movie, Scarlett has to be the centre of attention . At the Wilkes Party, in her attempts to drive Ashley jealous, she flirts with every man in sight- Starting with Charles Hamilton, Frank Kennedy, the Tarleton twins, she promis...

Vedika Jogani Remedial for overall STILL ALICE Still Alice is a film based on the book by Lisa Genova titled the same. This movie casts Julianna Moore  as Alice Howland.  Baldwin plays her husband, John, and Kristen Stewart, Kate Bosworth and Hunter Parrish   play her children, Lydia, Anna and Tom. The movie focuses around the life of Alice Howland, a professor of linguistics at Columbia University. After her 50 th birthday she has been diagnosed with early onset familial Alzheimer’s disease. The movie unveils the complexities and difficulties of the life of a patient with Alzheimer’s. Shortly after her 50 th birthday while giving a lecture at UCLA, Alice finds herself unable to remember certain words. Once back home she gets lost on her jog, in a neighbourhood which is so familiar to her. After realising she is having memory impairment problems she decides to see a neurologist regarding her condition. Once being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Ali...

By Ragini Chatterjee (Overall Grade Remedial)                                                                    The Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 outlines rights that definitely improve the judicial status of the mentally ill. The Act starts with defining certain terms that are found later, throughout the act. The act adheres to international standards with the aim of securing the rights of people with mental illness in accordance with the   United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), as stated in the first three paragraphs. The Act has replaced the previous 1937 Act. In this review of the Act, I shall start by ...