Mind Odyssey Indeed

Sir: Wednesday 25 July was an unusual day with such a series of coincidences (or was it what Jungians would call synchronicity?), that I thought readers of the Bulletin might also find it of interest. The day certainly illustrated aspects of my College work, linked to ‘Science and Caring’, the ‘Mind Odyssey’ and to the ‘Changing Minds’ combat stigma campaign.

I had had lunch with Nicholas Kenyon, the Director of the BBC ‘Proms’, at a small restaurant behind the Albert Hall. The meeting was arranged at short notice, although I had written perhaps 6 months before to search for links between the 2001 Mind Odyssey and this particular cultural event.

During the abbreviated lunch and prior to a special meeting of the Court of Electors to discuss “who regulates?”, I searched for overlap interests between the purpose of the Mind Odyssey and the organisation and themes of the promenade concerts.

We discussed around the subject of music and musicians and creativity and mental disorder, and some interesting ideas emerged. Who would write an introduction to the Proms programme for next year, making these links? Those composers who had psychiatric disorder, how would they now be treated in a community mental health service? Could there be a Mind Odyssey Prom? (Answer: probably not.) Was there a possibility that Guy Woolfenden's piece commissioned by the College and performed at the Annual Meeting might be included in a Prom concert next year? (Answer: unlikely.)

It was a nice lunch and friendly conversation. I said that I was planning to come to the Prom that evening to hear the European premier of a new piece, Seeing, by Christopher Rouse. The concert was a sell out but Nicholas Kenyon found a place for me in his private party overlooking the orchestra! In the socialising before the concert I was introduced to the composer. He explained that the source of his inspiration came from reflecting on Robert Schumann's short life, who spent his final years in an asylum with untreated depression, and a well-known rock guitarist who had schizophrenia. The programme note said that Rouse's music was acclaimed as “among the most intriguing orchestral music now being written”.

Christopher Rouse himself wrote “How do people with mental illness ‘see’ — not in the purely ocular sense, but rather in the psychological and spiritual sense? How do they interpret what they see? And how can a representation of those images be translated into sound? Seeing does not ‘take a stand’ upon mental illness as a social cause; rather, I wish to concern myself with the tragic toll such afflictions can take upon individual persons and those who care for them.”

The music, the man and the commentary had said it all. The ‘Proms’ and the College had come momentarily together, albeit briefly.