Fighting the Stigma of Mental Illness

We have a couple of great websites to recommend. Lucy Winer’s award-winning documentary Kings Park: Stories from an American Mental Institution is, Dr. Sacks says, “a brave, compelling look at the life of a state mental hospital and those whose lives it has touched. . . . A brilliant exploration of a difficult and complex issue.”

We also invite you to explore a new website called The Hot Stove Project, created by Dr. Lois Oppenheim and Dr. Alice Maher. Dedicated to encouraging discussion about different mental conditions from varied perspectives, the project incorporates a wide range of resources, including a short documentary, “How to Touch a Hot Stove: Thought and Behavioral Differences in a Society of Norms.”

The film, narrated by John Turturro, features interviews with Temple Grandin, Elyn Saks, Joanne Greenberg, Eric Kandel, Charles Marmar, Oliver Sacks, and Alice Flaherty, among others. (You can also see an extended version of Dr. Sacks’s interview here.)

If you like either of these, please share!  If you know of a school, hospital or organization that would be interested in hosting a screening and discussion  please email Hot Stove at [email protected] or Kings Park at [email protected]. Together, we can make a difference.

Happy spring!

PS: If you missed Dr. Sacks’s recent essay “The Mental Life of Plants and Worms, Among Others,” subscribers can find it in the New York Review of Books, April 24 issue or online.