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Responding to you

Here is an end of course video message from Susan which has been posted on YouTube. We thank you again for your participation and engagement.

In dialogue with Steve

We have been delighted to read your comments in Week 5, which raised many important issues and concerns around tracing origins. We have recorded Steve’s responses to some particularly interesting …

In dialogue with Susan

During the course of Week 3, we compiled your comments, issues and concerns, and Susan recorded some responses. Please find Susan’s responses to some of the discussions from this week …

In dialogue with Steve

We have been delighted to read your comments in Week 1, which raised many important issues and concerns. We have recorded Steve’s responses to some particularly interesting questions, which we …

An insider view

This week we’ve approached some difficult issues in the Medical Humanities, namely the insider view of mental illness, what it’s like to subjectively experience episodes of mental illness. We’ve looked …

Art speaks to and from silence

Continuing my conversation with artists Finuala and Sean, we talked about using art to bring public attention to difficult and hidden areas of mental illness. I found it fascinating how …

In dialogue about mental illness

I wanted to know why Finuala and Sean decided to use poetry and music to understand and talk about mental illness. We went on to talk about the insider-outsider view …

Experiences of mental illness through music

Sean Baumann is a senior specialist psychiatrist in UCT’s Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health. He has long been frustrated by misrepresentations of mental illness, and in attempting to move …

Seeing and living with dementia

Finuala Dowling has written poems about her mother’s mental illness. Using poetry Finuala conveys what it is like to see and live with her mother’s mind being altered by dementia. …

Issues of children’s voices

In this week we consider the need for a better understanding of how children experience chronic illness in institutional settings. We have invited three guests who listen to the stories …

How the course works

Each week we explore a theme related to the life course through the lens of the medical humanities. Our aim is to understand how different perspectives – from the arts, …