2 docs tagged with "mental health"

I embarked on a journey to understand the brain due to my brother's diagnosis with schizophrenia, which led me to question the connection between dreams and reality. I dedicated my career to researching severe mental illnesses, moving to Boston to work in Dr. Francine Benes's lab at the Harvard Department of Psychiatry. We explored the biological differences between the brains of 'normal' individuals and those diagnosed with schizophrenia, schizoaffective, or bipolar disorder, focusing on the microcircuitry of the brain.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) has expanded from a slim pamphlet in the 1950s to an 886-page volume listing 374 mental disorders. While browsing through a copy, the author humorously discovers he "suffers" from a dozen disorders, questioning whether normal behavior is too often labeled as pathological.