An article via Julian - The Americanization of Mental Illness

I am blessed to have a man who is also a researcher by trade, and keen to share new and interesting things he finds out there in the webosphere with me. And i'm happy to pass them around. Julian's interests are delightfully varied. You'll find in the blog roll a link to a recipe blog he unearthed recently with some smashing recipes (whilst not being a foodie, I love the intimacy and practicality of this blog). And in sharp contrast, below is a link to an article from the New York Times on the americanisation of mental illness.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/magazine/10psyche-t.html?pagewanted=all

We approach ideas around the psyche of human beings from very different angles. Being a magical realist, ideas such as magical thinking are very interesting and perhaps inherent to the emergence of magical realism as a genre, although not always. Madness is often depicted as a privileged category in MR writing, suggesting a connection to unseen forces. Obviously, as a researcher in mental health, this idea is potentially dangerous as far as Julian and his cohorts are concerned. Having someone to discuss and debate these ideas with has been a great benefit to my life. This article appeals on a number of levels that expand far beyond discussions of mental illness per se.