"I would emphasise that psychiatry has important links with all arts, especially opera and literature. Understanding 'bizarre' behaviour of human beings through the arts is an effective way to integrate psychodynamic understanding."
- Dr Estela Welldon
Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist in Psychotherapy, The Portman Clinic (Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust), London
(e-Interview from The Psychiatrist 36:3, March 2012.)
About the editor:
Femi Oyebode is Professor and Head of Department of Psychiatry, University of Birmingham. He has published widely on the relationship between literature and psychiatry. His research interests include descriptive psychopathology and delusional misidentification syndromes. He is also a poet and literary critic.
Quote from the author: "Theatre is one of the greatest achievements of the human spirit. It combines storytelling with the concrete expression and enactment of the action. It uses language, music, dance, dress, props, and lighting to create an illusion and to influence the emotional life of the audience. It is singularly the most exacting and thrilling of the arts. Mental life is its source and its nourishment." - Femi Oyebode