All In The Mind

Criminal profiling has captured the pop culture psyche - from CSI to The Silence of the Lambs, with star forensic psychologists who have an uncanny knack for getting inside the criminal mind. But what's profiling like in the real world - and does it really work?

Hypnosis conjures up images of side shows and circus acts, but its use in medicine is growing, and with impressive results - especially with children. From insomnia to irritable bowel syndrome - how does it work, are there risks and why do kids appear to make the best candidates?

Hippocrates thought melancholia was caused by too much black bile. Now some scientists describe the Black Dog as an inflammatory illness. Heart disease, oxidative stress and omega 3 are all part of the compelling story too, where body and mind reunite.

In Sierra Leone,child soldiers committed acts that words can barely describe. At the war's end, ravaged communities responded to them with terror and stigma. A minority of former child soldiers, many orphaned, have access to reintegration programs. Dance and movement therapist David Alan Harris describes an extraordinary project to respond to the traumatised psyche through engaging the body.

Child and adolescent psychiatrist Professor Graham Martin is an international leader in suicide prevention, educator, researcher, a sometime thespian, poet, mediator and black belt in Karate. But in 2009, life took a radical turn when he was suddenly paralysed, and the tables were turned - doctor became patient.

Imagine if thoughts could move matter? US Army Sergeant Glen Lehman lost his arm at the end of his tour of duty in Iraq - now he's trialling a limb he controls with his mind alone. And, pioneering neural engineer Andrew Schwartz decodes monkey minds, with potentially extraordinary possibilities for paralysed people.

Bali is a tropical holiday paradise, but there's a darker side few tourists witness. People with mental illness being chained, caged, or shackled by their family members, often in shocking conditions. All in the Mind joins the rural rounds of prominent local psychiatrist Dr Suryani, as she meets and speaks with families, determined to make a difference.

Whether it's choosing words to make up a sentence or walking along a crowded street, we're all capable of improvising. But musical improvisation fills us with amazement. How do musicians make the moment-by-moment decisions to create spontaneous music that's more than noise -- and what's going on in their brains to make it all happen?

Mental illness is reportedly on the rise in young people. Why? And, what role for secular ethics education in fostering developing minds? Patrick McGorry joins His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Natasha Mitchell in conversation.

Marco Iacoboni studies mirror neurons -- what some dub 'Dalai Lama neurons' -- and believes they 'force us to rethink the deepest aspects of our very selves'. Psychologist Paul Ekman redefined the scientific study of emotion. They join Natasha Mitchell in dialogue with the Dalai Lama.