"There are galaxies within the human mind, and madness wants to risk everything for the daring flight, reckless and beautiful and crazed. Everyone knows Icarus fell.But I love him for the fact that he dared to fly. Mania unfurls the invitation to fly too high, too near the sun..." Tristimania is a stark and lyrical account of the psyche in crisis. It tells the story of a devastating year–long episode of manic depression, culminating in a long solo pilgrimage across Spain. The book is rare in recording the experience of mania and shows how the condition is at once terrifying and also profoundly creative, both tricking and treating the psyche. In exploring its literary influence, Griffiths looks at Shakespeare's work, and examines the Trickster role, tracing its mercuriality through the character of Mercury. An intimate, raw journey, the book illuminates something of the universal human spirit.

A stark, lyrical and personal account of the psyche in crisis from the bestselling author of Wild and Kith "I want to describe it for those who have never experienced it but who perhaps know someone with it. If this book can befriend just one person in that terrifying loneliness, it will be worth writing." Tristimania tells the story of a devastating year-long episode of manic depression, culminating in a long solo pilgrimage across Spain. Recording the experience of mania as has rarely been done before, Jay Griffiths shows how the condition is at once terrifying and also profoundly creative, both tricking and treating the psyche. An intimate and raw journey of mental health and recovery, Tristimania illuminates something of the universal human spirit. 'Profoundly poetic. A glimpse of madness from inside the eye of the storm' Observer

French historian Alexis de Tocqueville observed that the conflict between the ideals of individualism and community defines American culture. In this groundbreaking new work, anthropologist Charles Nuckolls discovers that every culture consists of such paradoxes, thus making culture a problem that cannot be solved. He does, however, find much creative tension in these unresolvable opposites. Nuckolls presents three fascinating case studies that demonstrate how values often are expressed in the organization of social roles. First he treats the Micronesian Ifaluks’ opposition between cooperation and self-gratification by examining the nature versus nurture debate. Nuckolls then shifts to the values of community and individual adventure by looking at the conflicts in the identities of public figures in Oklahoma. Finally, he investigates the cultural significance in the diagnostic system and practices of psychiatry in the United States. Nuckolls asserts that psychiatry treats genders differently, assigning dependence to women and independence to men and, in some cases, diagnoses the extreme forms of these values as disorders. Nuckolls elaborates on the theory of culture that he introduced in his previous book, The Cultural Dialectics of Knowledge and Desire, which proposed that the desire to resolve conflicts is central to cultural knowledge. In Culture: A Problem that Cannot Be Solved, Nuckolls restores the neglected social science concept of values, which addresses both knowledge and motivation. As a result, he brings together cognition and psychoanalysis, as well as sociology and psychology, in his study of cultural processes.

The Flight of Events, the second book of a Psychopathology of Melancholia Series, after Manie, mélancolie et facteurs blancs (Beauchesne, Paris, 2009), is a work on altruistic anguishes in manic-depressive suicides. In this book, German Arce Ross has chosen to focus on the psychological processes that occur prior to the act of suicide, rather than on the act itself. We can detect these processes in a subject during the period between the decision to commit suicide and the passage to the act. In the consideration of certain moments preceding a suicidal or criminal act, in the case of critical episodes that are non-delusional, non-hallucinated and non-acted but sometimes assimilated to psychotic or twilight moments — where we locate in particular a discontinuity or a radical rupture, albeit momentary, with the Other —, we can observe that there are things, facts, or events, that happen to the subject without any form of control over them whatsoever. In these uncontrolled intersubjective events, what the subject suffers from is a tendency to undergo the acts that he himself makes others perform. During this flight of events, it is not entirely true that the subject flees the events of his life; it is rather the events that flee.

Spanning 24 centuries, this anthology collects over 30 pieces of Western writing about melancholy and related conditions. It unravels an ongoing conversation across centuries and continents as thinkers interpret, respond, and build on each other's work.

Depression is amorphous. It defies easy generalization, and eludes medical and legal categories. Is it part of the self, or its predator? Can a sufferer be held responsible for their actions? This edited collection provides a holistic study of a protean illness. If the law is to regulate the lives of those who suffer from depression, it is vital that lawyers understand the condition. Drawing upon a wide-ranging expertise, this volume looks at depression from four viewpoints: that of the sufferer, the clinician, the ethicist, and the lawyer. Topics covered include the cultural history of depression; causes, epidemiology, and diagnosis; the autonomy debate; criminal responsibility; public health law; depression in the workplace; depression and children; and assisted suicide. First-hand accounts from sufferers are followed by contributions from clinicians who say what depression is, outline its demography and therapeutic options, and indicate the legal and ethical problems that trouble them the most. The essays then go on to explore legal and ethical questions in depth. This collection is essential reading for lawyers seeking a broader understanding of depression, and non-lawyers seeking an insight into the difficulty law has engaging with the condition.

In the past few decades, awareness of bipolar disorder has significantly increased, but understanding of the condition remains vague for most of the general public. Though the term itself is relatively recent, the condition has affected individuals for centuries—and no more profoundly than in the arts. The historical connections among manic depression and such fields as literature, music, and painting have been previously documented. However, the impact of bipolar disorder on movie makers and its depiction on the screen has yet to be thoroughly examined. In The Bipolar Express: Manic Depression and the Movies, David Coleman provides an in-depth examination of the entwined natures of mood disorders and moviemaking. In this volume, Colemanlooks at the writers, directors, and actors who have faced the mood swings and behavior that are hallmarks of this condition—from Greta Garbo and Orson Welles to Marilyn Monroe and Jonathan Winters. In addition to recognizing the cinematic contributions of manic depressive filmmakers, the author also looks at movies that have portrayed bipolar disorder—with varying degrees of accuracy—including Citizen Kane, Rebel without a Cause, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Hannah and Her Sisters, The Aviator, and Silver Linings Playbook. From early silents of the twentieth century through critically acclaimed films of today, this book compares depictions of mood swings on screen with clinical examples of actual manic depression, carefully distinguishing real from stereotypical portrayals. This fascinating study is augmented by a concise filmography of more than 400 feature-length films from around the world with themes or characters relating to manic depressive illness. Though aimed at film fans and anyone interested in manic depression, mental illness, or related medical studies, this book will also prove valuable to medical and mental health professionals.

In this book, James Boon ranges through history and around the globe in a series of provocative reflections on the limitations, attractions, and ambiguities of cultural interpretation. The book reflects the unusual keyword of its title, extra-vagance, a term Thoreau used to refer to thought that skirts traditional boundaries. Boon follows Thoreau's lead by broaching subjects as diverse as Balinese ritual, Montaigne, Chaucer, Tarzan, Perry Mason, opera, and the ideas of Jacques Derrida, Ruth Benedict, Kenneth Burke, and Mary Douglas. He makes creative and often playful leaps among eclectic texts and rituals that do not hold single, fixed meanings, but numerous, changing, and exceedingly specific ones. Boon opens by exploring links between ritual and reading, focusing on commentaries about the seclusion of menstruating women in Native American culture, trance dances in Bali, and circumcision (or lack of it) in contrasting religions. He considers the ironies of "first-person ethnography" by telling stories from his own fieldwork, reflecting on ethnological museums, and making seriocomic connections between Mark Twain and Marcel Mauss. In expansive discussions that touch on Manhattan and Sri Lanka, the Louvre and the "World of Coca-Cola" museum, willfully obscure academic theory and shamelessly commercial show business, Boon underlines the inadequacies of simple ideologies and pat generalizations. The book is a profound and eloquent exploration of cultural comparison by one of America's most original and innovative anthropologists.