Friday, September 2, 2011

The Schizophrenic Musician

For those who love classical music and live in L.A., Robert Gupta would be a familiar name.  He is a violinist with the L.A. Philharmonic.

What many people might not know is that he is also passionate about neurobiology and mental health issues.

He is currently also a TED fellow.  In this video, he talks about a meeting with Nathaniel Anthony Ayers.  The homeless musician in the movie the "Soloist." Jamie Fox played the character.

What he thought was a lesson teaching Ayers the violin turned into a lesson on the power of music.  How music changes a person, a person's mood and countenance, a person's reality of sanity...

Robert Gupta: Music is medicine, music is sanity
 
The Nathaniel Anthony Ayers Foundation
http://www.naayers.org/index.php/site/index_more/from_management_to_recovery_emerging_approaches_to_serious_mental_illness1/


Book & Movie:  The Soloist (2009)

I cannot comment much on the subject of the severe mentally ill. For I do not work consistently with that population.

However, I do have to agree that, as difficult as it is working with them, how much more it is to be them.  More often than not, it is not the disease that concerns them, it is the isolation (from people).

It is true that management is not enough. How is society to help them to participate in the functioning world? What I seek is awareness (for myself), not simple answers. For there are none.


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