Category Archives: Remembering

Brain in your medieval pants

December 4, 2011 – 1:57 pm

In Leonardo da Vinci’s anatomical drawings, the penis is connected directly to the brain. A 1986 article “On the sexual intercourse drawings of Leonardo da Vinci” explains why this connection, still commonly proposed today (although mostly as a metaphor it must be said), was thought to be anatomical fact by the great master. “A brief […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Inside the Brain, Nonsense | Comments (1)

The rise and fall of ‘space madness’

November 7, 2011 – 10:51 pm

‘Space madness’ was a serious concern for psychiatrists involved in the early space programme. A new article in history of science journal Endeavour tracks the interest in this ‘dreaded disease that never was.’ Much to the surprise of NASA mental health professionals, those who volunteered to be astronauts were neither “suicidal deviants” nor troubled by […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Togetherness | Comments (7)

Chasing the dragon across the world

November 6, 2011 – 4:10 pm

A summary of a fascinating 1997 article on how the practice of consuming heroin by ‘chasing the dragon‘ – inhaling vapours after heating the drug on tin foil – spread across the world. Heroin smoking by ‘chasing the dragon’: origins and history Addiction. 1997 Jun;92(6):673-83; Strang J, Griffiths P, Gossop M. The history of heroin […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Togetherness | Comments (3)

I am yours for 2 coppers

November 4, 2011 – 8:15 pm

I’ve just found a wonderful 1973 study on the psychoanalysis of graffiti that discusses how unconscious desires might be expressed through public scrawlings. It has a completely charming table that compares graffiti from A.D. 79 Pompeii with 1960′s Los Angeles to demonstrate the similarity of themes across the centuries.     The author concludes that […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Graffiti, Hearing and Language | Comments (7)

Tea in Bellevue

November 1, 2011 – 7:32 pm

The entry to the historic Bellevue Hospital in New York City, famous for its psychiatric wards which have housed a long list of artists, writers, musicians and actors. As a result of treating so many of New York’s artistic community over the years, it has turned up in many works of art as a result. […]

By vaughanbell | Comments (3)

Nasal mummy exit

October 28, 2011 – 11:11 pm

A new study just published in the Journal of Comparative Human Biology takes an enthusiastic look at exactly how the Ancient Egyptians removed the brain from cadavers before they were mummified. You’ll be pleased to know that a variety of techniques were used over the millennia but unfortunately none make for particularly good dinner time […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Inside the Brain | Comments (2)

Ten years of the language gene that wasn’t

October 26, 2011 – 2:03 am

It’s now ten years since mutations in the FOXP2 gene were linked to language problems, which led to lots of overblown headlines about a ‘language gene’, which it isn’t. The actual science is no less interesting, however, and Discover Magazine has a fantastic article that looks back on the last decade since the gene’s discovery […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Hearing and Language | Comments (3)

The psychiatry of vegetarianism

October 19, 2011 – 1:51 am

A fascinating but unfortunately locked review article on the psychology of vegetarianism has this paragraph on how avoiding the pleasures of cooked flesh has been seen as a mental illness in times past. How vegetarians are seen has shifted radically over time. During the Inquisition, the Roman Catholic Church declared vegetarians to be heretics, and […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Togetherness | Comments (36)

Glitches in The Technology of Orgasm

October 17, 2011 – 5:36 pm

We’ve covered The Technology of Orgasm before, a hugely influential book arguing that 19th century doctors were using Victorian vibrators to cure ‘female hysteria’ through the induction of [serious look] ‘hysterical paroxysms’, but it seems that the main argument may not be as breathtaking as it first appears. Cory Silverberg discusses how historians of sex […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Theory, Togetherness | Comments (4)

A history of the mid-life crisis

October 5, 2011 – 12:07 am

Scientific American’s Bering in Mind has a fantastic article on how the concept of the mid-life crisis was invented and whether it has any evidence behind it beyond the occasional inadvisable pair of cycling shorts and sudden interest in cheesy sports cars. It turns out that the idea of the ‘mid-life crisis’ is surprisingly new […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Seeing | Comments (6)

The chaos behind a legendary portrait

September 28, 2011 – 1:43 am

I just found this fascinating account of how Vincent Van Gogh cut off his own ear while seemingly severely mentally ill, the event that led him to paint one of his most famous pictures. The account is apparently reconstructed from known events at the time but also has van Gogh’s own description of the event, […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Other People, Togetherness | Comments (10)

The birth of ‘synthetic marijuana’

September 25, 2011 – 4:30 pm

Addiction Inbox has an interview with pharmacologist David Kroll where he discusses the origin of the countless synthetic cannabinoids that have recently flooded the market as ‘legal highs’ and ‘incense’. You may know Kroll better as the author of the long-running top-notch pharmacology blog Terra Sigillata where he has been tracking the ‘synthetic marijuana’ story […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Integrating | Comments (3)

Twelfth century orgasmic brain heat

September 25, 2011 – 12:58 am

Hildegard of Bingen was a twelfth century nun, possibly with repressed lesbian desires, who had visions, was a proto-scientist, advised the Pope, composed music, and, er, wrote about the role of the brain in the female orgasm. BBC Radio 4′s Great Lives just had a fantastic programme about her where they read out her description […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Togetherness | Comments (13)

Shifting between the worlds of Carl Jung

September 15, 2011 – 5:43 pm

The New Atlantis has a wonderful article giving an in-depth biography of Carl Jung, perhaps one of the most interesting, infuriating and brilliant thinkers in the history of psychology. Variously a pioneering experimental psychologist, a depth-analyst, an asylum psychiatrist and a man submerged in his own psychosis, he had a massive influence on both our […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Other People, Theory | Comments (12)

A whiff of madness

September 11, 2011 – 11:26 pm

For a short time, the scientific community was excited about the smell of schizophrenia. In 1960, a curious article appeared in the Archives of General Psychiatry suggesting not only that people with schizophrenia had a distinctive smell, but that the odour could be experimentally verified. The paper by psychiatrists Kathleen Smith and Jacob Sines noted […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Integrating | Comments (28)

The spark of the cognitive revolution

September 4, 2011 – 1:09 am

Monitor on Psychology has a fascinating article on Otto Selz, a little known pioneer of the cognitive revolution who was decades ahead of the rest of psychology, before being captured and killed by the Nazis. He was so little known, in fact, that the majority of people have never heard of him. In fact, this […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Theory, Togetherness | Comments (4)
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