Past Programs
Medical Procedures - 2003
Pox on the Brain
31/08/2003
Syphilis has been described as 'the disease that dare not speak its name'. Is this because it's so often been mistaken for other diseases, including measles, toxoplasmosis, manic-depression and schizophrenia? Or is it the case that this sneaky STD is the skeleton in the closet of some of our most famous writers, musicians and politicians - many of whom are thought to have created their greatest works under sufferance with syphilis? This week, All In The Mind explores the history, the cures and the people of this remerging disease. So pass the mercury-laced chocolates as Sue Clark investigates the plight of 'pox on the brain'.
Psycho-prosthetics: Can a Prosthesis every really become a part of you? (repeat)
06/07/2003
What does it feel like to lose a part of you? Is part of your essential psychological self lost as well? And can a prosthetic limb ever replace that? This week a repeat of a popular program about the pioneering field of psycho-prosthetics - the psychology of adapting to a prosthesis. Powerfully candid stories of life after limb loss, and the love/hate relationship with a synthetic limb that just isn't your own.
An Aneurysm in the Family?
04/05/2003
The ticking time bomb that is an aneurysm. They can burst with very little warning and having one can be like living on a precipice. Surgery has its risks and life after a ruptured aneurysm brings all sorts of challenges. Only 1 in 10,000 of us are likely to experience one of these little beasts, usually in our brain. But in some extraordinary cases they run in the family across generations - mum, daughter, aunt, son - and an international study is trying to find out why this is. Sue Clark reports.
Summer Series 5: The Legacy of the Lobotomy
26/01/2003
The program explores the difficult legacy of the lobotomy. In the 1940's and 50's over 40,000 lobotomies were performed on Americans with the hope of curing sick and mad souls. Psychosurgery, operating on the brain to alleviate symptoms of extreme mental illness, has a controversial history. But things are very different today.
Summer Series 3: Body Dysmorphic Disorder and Cosmetic "Surgery of the Psyche"
12/01/2003
We've all whinged about the way we look on occasion - a smaller nose, a tighter tummy perhaps? But for people with Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) this anxiety is constant, and they'll go to devastating lengths to change or mask the way they look. Even more disturbing is that some people with BDD are having repeated cosmetic surgery when they shouldn't even be getting a look in. This week, the stories of people with BDD and their quest for "surgery of the psyche".
