Madness: Songs of hope & despair

Presented by Dr Sean Baumann

Scientific or naturalistic accounts of madness or psychotic experiences are inadequate and impoverished by a limited objective perspective. Literary and accounts in other media in the wide range of the humanities too often lack authenticity and tend to treat madness as a metaphor for personal and social ills. This project arises from a concern that the plight of the seriously mentally ill is either ignored or profoundly misunderstood, and that these responses significantly contribute to the suffering of those deemed mad.

The writer is a clinician who has worked as a specialist psychiatrist in the domain of the psychoses for approximately twenty-five years. The experiences described and the first-person accounts are authentic; they derive from clinical encounters with patients and others involved in their lives. The aim is an attempt to both enter the world of psychosis and to present the phenomena of madness in a respectful manner that
seeks to be as truthful as possible given the mysteries of the mind in turmoil.

More about the lecture

The method is to use music, graphic animation and the spoken and sung word in an attempt to portray the complexities and also the wonder of these strange and ultimately unknowable worlds. The central theme is the tension, and the shifts between harmony and noise, coherence and incoherence, pattern formation and loss. The tone is intended to be energetic and hopeful of the mysterious ways of coping with extreme and altered
states of mind

More about the presenter

Dr. Sean Baumann, until his retirement in 2017, was a senior specialist psychiatrist in the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health at the University of Cape Town, and a consultant at Valkenberg Hospital. He continues to hold an honorary lectureship position in the Faculty.

Dr. Baumann serves on the editorial boards of many peer reviewed journals in his area of expertise. As research scholar, he is credited with many publications in national and international journals. He edited the recently published “Primary care psychiatry – a practical guide for South Africa” written to support primary health care workers who are increasingly required to deal with a wide range of mental disorders. Dr. Baumann is currently writing a book of essays provisionally titled: “Madness: Stories of hope and uncertainty”.

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