All In The Mind

Emotions are complex reactions that engage our bodies and minds and anger is one of our most commonly felt emotions. Each day, be it at home, work or school, we may find the deeds of others maddening. To respond to these often minor irritations with a 'blind fury' can be destructive, but more tempered feelings of annoyance may fuel productive change. Anger is the emotion that can motivate us to act against perceived injustices but it can also provoke fear and violence. We explore the 'good, the bad and the ugly' of our angry selves.

For centuries western philosophers proclaimed emotions the enemy of rational thought. It was believed that emotions stymied cool-headed thinking. But over the last twenty years a quiet scientific and philosophical revolution has taken place. Instead of being the font of irrationality, emotions are now routinely viewed as integral to intelligent action. But uncertainty still surrounds the emotions. So what can contemporary science and philosophy tell us about our emotional selves? Over four weeks the emotional brain is explored. The series gets underway with sexual desire.

Shakespeare wrote of Julius Caesar's 'falling sickness'. Epilepsy was a mystery then and remains an enigmatic condition. It affects around 400,000 Australians and is typified by seizures and commonly a temporary loss of consciousness during the seizure. For centuries it has been associated with prophets, mystics and witchcraft. Most famously the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky believed epilepsy deepened his religious beliefs and gave him intense feelings of joy or 'ecstatic auras'. More recently, studies have recorded that a small minority of epileptics do develop a powerful religious faith, seemingly as a result of their condition. Professor Michael Trimble, from the Institute of Neurology in London, and Professor Bryan Kies from Groote Schuur Hospital in South Africa discuss the continuing challenges and puzzles of epilepsy.

Dementia is commonly regarded as a cruel and relentlessly progressive disorder -where, over time, a person is stripped of their unique skills and identity. But recently clinicians have noted not only deficits in dementia patients, but that other cognitive skills remain intact - and can even become accentuated. Remarkably a number of patients with dementia develop new artistic abilities. According to neurologist Bruce Miller, from the Memory and Aging Centre in California, the maintenance and even growth of artistic skills in dementia patients offers insight into creativity and brain plasticity. Bruce and Professor John Hodges, from the University of Cambridge, consider what we know about dementia and its impact on personality and ability.

Nambucca Heads is a beautiful seaside town on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales. But despite the tranquil environment, figures for postnatal depression in new mothers appear, at first glance, to be astronomical. Early research suggests half of new mothers suffer postnatal depression – five times the rate of their city sisters. The possible reasons for this includes the 15 per cent unemployment rate, poverty, limited medical help and a claustrophobic and watchful social environment. Liz Keen investigates the incidence, diagnosis and treatment of postnatal depression in Nambucca.

The 20th century gave us many things, including democracy and modernism. But from these developments there grew specific types of mental illness – and we now have an increasing number of people suffering from narcissism and borderline personality disorder, according to Dr Theodore Millon – known as the grandfather of personality theory.

The writers Mary Gilmore and Arthur Conan Doyle and pianist Roger Woodward had at least one thing in common - a shared belief in the paranormal. But beyond personal anecdotes, there is no evidence to suggest that the paranormal actually exists. Yet the mystical intrigues and as science cannot give definitive statements on the nature of our minds or the possible limits of consciousness, an unfettered fascination with the psychic persists. Psychiatrist Dr Diane Powell and computer scientist Dr Ken Hennacy speculate that quantum theory should be explored in relation to human consciousness. They even suggest that quantum mechanics may account for autistic savants and the psychic. Dr Peter Slezak dismisses such suggestions as unwarranted speculation.

Last night you went to a party. The music and food were excellent – it was a great night out. But there's a problem. People tell you you're in hospital and that there was no party. But you remember it, so how can your memory be wrong? Welcome to the world of confabulation – the unintentional retrieval of false memories and false perceptions. People who confabulate experience their false memories as true. It's a rare and enigmatic condition. Dr Martha Turner and Dr Katerina Fotopoulou disentangle some of the confabulation puzzle.

The majority of asylum seekers held in Australia's immigration detention centres are men. Detention centres impose severe restrictions and for men long-term incarceration can be devastating. Aamer Sultan is a doctor and refugee and he believes the three years he spent in detention changed the core of his identity. The director of the NSW Institute of Psychiatry, Dr Louise Newman, assists some of those critically disturbed by their incarceration. Together they offer insight into the impact of long-term detention on men.

What is the narrative of our lives - and can we influence the way our story is told? Michael White is a psychologist and therapist who in the 1970s co-founded the internationally successful therapeutic technique known as Narrative Therapy. Barbara Brooks is a memoir writer, biographer, and lecturer in life writing. Both listen to stories and then fill out the spaces in between. They join producer Gretchen Miller in conversation.