My Films on Recovery from Psychosis/Schizophrenia

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And a note of gratitude:  Many of these subtitled versions of my films come compliments of a generous grant in 2012 from The Foundation for Excellence in Mental Health Care.

31 thoughts on “My Films on Recovery from Psychosis/Schizophrenia

  1. Hi Daniel, I accidently ran into your YT video “Six reasons why I quit being a therapist”. I watched the title for three days until I decided to watch the video itself. And then I watched also the video about Trauma and grief. I found so much truth and vibrance in what you are saying.

    I’d love to translate your video into Slovenian. I still have to watch them all. I find it very important for the people to be able – through our own self-healing process – detect the lie that we commit against ourselves and in front of others just to make the appearances continue. I don’t see any other solution to this – yes, a slow one – process of evolving into or deepening the awareness. Perhaps I haven’t had it so much on the feeling/sensation side as you describe but I pretty much catch the point. Thank you so much for your preseverance on the self-healing and truth. It’s extremely precious. Best, Alenka

  2. Hello Daniel,

    I’d like to translate your films into Korean. I’m a native speaker of the Korean language (a certified Korean language teacher), and have a master’s degree in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). Hope to contribute to spreading the wild truth for people in my home country.

    Thanks for all your work.

    Mako

  3. Hello Daniel,
    I like your work a great deal.
    I have had ‘mental issues’ from the age of 17 when l was poisoned with LSD. Yes l had a traumatic childhood and suffered greatly from the physical violence of my father and his complete lack of empathy. The consensus of my entourage was to condemn me as a schizophrenic and ply me with drugs that the doctor and the family (notably my father) maintained and maintain are for life.
    I have a number of times tried to come off antipsychotics cold turkey and as you will learn this has been disasterous for me and others.
    In 2007 l had been off antipsychotics for about 6 months. My partener at that time was pregnant since 6 months past. She had tôld me that she had had an abortion some years beforehand and that she had worked in a sex Shop for some time before she met me. She used to get phone calls late at night from various men who wished to keep in touch. This led almost inevitabley to me having doubts about her integrity. I became jealous and then after a period of painful doubt l asked her to live with a friend of hers until l could feel confidence in her once more. Now this may seem relatively normal but l had behavioral problems and deep anxiety after she left my flat .l didn’t want to lose her and became very agitated. This may be in relation to the fact that my Mother left the family home when l was 6 because she started having anxiety attacks and was hospitalized herself at that time. She left our home because my Father wanted nothing more to do with her. So l think l am or was hypersensitive to feelings of abandonnement at that time. Seeing my distressed state she decided to leave me . It followed that having called her in great distress she visited me the next morning. My daughter (from a previous maraige) should have been there with me but she had had to do something else at the last minute, so l found myself in my flat alone with what was now my ex compagnon. I was having suicidal feelings and all she could say was if you commit suicide just tell your daughter that it wasnt my fault. This made me angry and l moderatley slapped her.Then l said that she should do as a wanted and that there would be no problèm. She took this as a threat when l asked her to take off her cloths. l accept that it was effectively rape but it did’nt seem like that to me at the time. Indeed she asked me if l was going to rape her and l replied ‘of course not’. She did nothing to stop me at all. I served about 2 years in prison.
    This is not the end of such a woeful story, there is indeed much worse to come, with one more attempt to come off antipsychotics too abruptly.
    If you’re interested in my history l will relate it to you and your readers. One thing l can say is that it’s salutary and well worth the detour.
    Hope to hear from you soon
    John Herbert

  4. Hi Daniel,
    I saw that some of your videos have Chinese subtitles, but not the rest which could be interesting for general population who want to heal. Also your films are not searchable in youku.com (by your name) or other Chinese video sharing sites. I think it won’t hurt to do a bit more, whether in translation or spreading the msg to a larger audience.
    Lin

  5. Hi Daniel,

    I would like to help translate your film subtitles into Chinese, with my academic resources. Maybe we can discuss ?

    Lin

  6. I know you about myself, I’m Anwar from paestine I am 21 years old and studied psychology at Birzeit University, Can you help me to help my brother, my brother, at the age of 22 and suffering from psychosis, deals with drug therapy, but I want to help him to integrate more closely with the community. I watched some of the videos, which you mentioned that you are addressing cases without medication drew my view it.
    I hope that you will help me
    Thank you for your mighty

    • hello anwar—-hmm, i am not sure what i could do help you. i wish i could!! i am presently in south america and not on the internet much. i am not sure if your native language is arabic (i assume it is) but maybe if you post a comment in arabic on the arabic page you will find someone else who is likeminded in palestine?? just an idea. meanwhile—i send you great strength and wish you only the best!! daniel

  7. Olá , sou do Brasil e aqui dificilmente encontramos profissionais com esse pensamento sobre o assunto , posso dizer que convivo com tudo isso e agradeço muito pelos videos e sua dedicação … Precisamos de mais pessoas assim como você nesse mundo … Obrigado !!!

    • obrigado! hola desde patagonia en argentina. yo estoy haciendo dedo al norte…hacia brasil eventualmente…. lo siento que estoy escribiendo en español, pero no puedo escribir en portugues…pero entiendo un poco!! daniel

  8. Hi, Dan, i think i can help you get the movie, for starters Open Dialogue, translated in Dutch. It would definitely add some extra value to the Dutch speaking mental health system, i’m writing from Belgium but also The Nederlands could benefit from it, since our languages do not differ this much. Anyway i could use some instructions, perhaps the english manuscript, a clean video as well as the appropriate software to create and sync subtitles. Please contact me as soon as possible. Kind regards, Maarten

    • hi maarten, i’ll send you some information. meanwhile, you caught me at a perfect time, because in a few short hours i’m going to south america and won’t have my computer with me…. so this is the last day for a while that i’ll have this information accessible!! i’ll email you backchannel— all the best, daniel

  9. Hi Daniel, Thanks for replying so quickly. Not sure what you can do either, but it’s great to hear you’d be willing to be involved. No, I’m not in touch with Robert, Sandy or Dan. I don’t suppose you’d have contact details for them? You could email me at: jonhaynes@ridiculusmus.com if it’s easier. Thanks so much. Jon

  10. Hi Daniel, I’m from UK theatre company Ridiculusmus and we’ve recently produced a successful and somewhat controversial play called ‘The Eradication of Schizophrenia in Western Lapland’ (http://www.ridiculusmus.com/shows/on-tour/eradication-schizophrenia-western-lapland/), which has toured the UK and been presented in Australia. As part of the research we watched your excellent film, went to Keropudas Hospital in Tornio and got ourselves invited to a dialogic practices conference in Hameenlinna where we met Jaakko and the team and performed an extract of the play. While there we also took part in a demonstration of an OD session as the characters from our play before an audience of several hundred psychotherapists (it went so well that the OD team are now using a film of it for training purposes). Mia Kurti and Pekka Holm also participated in a Q&A with us when we performed the show in London. Anyway, the point is we would love to bring the show to the States, if possible with the help of the British Council, who are very interested in facilitating events and promoting work that will stimulate public debate around important issues, as I think our show would (we’ve held many post-show discussions in the UK, and they’re invariably very lively affairs). I’m looking at the possibility of pursuing various contacts we have in your country (universities of Yale, MA-Amherst, and Bucknell, Pennsylvania etc) as well as making new ones. Was thinking of suggesting to the B Council a conference on OD organised around showings of the play, with people like yourself, Robert Whittaker and so on, as well as more conventional psychiatrists possibly opposed to innovative dialogic treatments like OD, on the panel. Is it something you’d be interested in being part of? Have you any suggestions of people I should contact? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Best wishes, Jon.

    • sounds great, Jon. I’ve actually heard of your play — congrats! So sure, I’d like to be a part of something if you did it in the USA, but I’m not quite sure what to do to help…. Are you in touch with Robert Whitaker about this? How about Sandy Steingard? Or Dan Fisher?

      Meanwhile, I’ve been working on an essay on Open Dialogue — along the lines of my thoughts about Open Dialogue five years after shooting my film. I’ll probably finish it in the next week or two and put it up online.

      looking forward to keeping in touch — Daniel

  11. Good morning Daniel from a warm, windy and threatening rainy Ireland. I am in the process of applying for a travel scholarship to visit the Open Dialogue team in Finland. As part of my application I need to show where I have made contact with the people in Finland. I have searched all the relevant websites but cannot seem to locate a contact name/email. Would you be able to help me out?

    Kind regards

    Fiona

  12. Hi Daniel…i like your way of talking about many case of solution and recover…maybe you can give me an advice for my bro having schizophrenias and under drugs by five years.
    Here in italy we don’t have serious comunity or if there are they are not supported and it means to pay lots of money.. thank you.

  13. Good morning Daniel,

    How generous of you to put your DVDs in every translated language so far, available for free and full viewing on YouTube.

    A total of 5 hours of excellent documentaries!

    One the one hand, professionals in psychiatric wards no longer have the excuse that their accountant and/or boss refused to authorize the purchase of your DVDs: the information is now freely available for them to embark on their learning-curve for delivering higher service quality at lower costs.

    On the other hand, numerous sufferers and their families who cannot afford the purchase now have free access too and can benefit and enjoy the very useful information that you brought to the surface.

    Over here in the little Kingdom of Belgium, I am spreading the news to “decent” professionals as well as to a number of new friends who can benefit too. Ducth-speaking friends hope that the translation in Dutch will soon be available too.

    After seeing your DVDs, and then after visiting Tornio and Open Dialogue in Lapland, Finland, last year, plus a difficult coming-off psych-drugs, our son is now on his way to further benefit of both your information and Scandinavian progress in a “Healing Home” of Sweden. The European network of social security is proving useful.

    Hopefully, on your side of the Atlantic, present “bugs” of the Obama care will soon be solved, and North-American citizens will soon enjoy Scandinavian progress in their Mental Health Care too.

    Once again, Dear Daniel, we want to express you our deepest gratitude for your work and positive contribution, and

    Kind regards from the presently sunny Kingdom of Belgium,

    Luc

    • Hello, I know I will probably not get an answer years later, but I wanted to ask, how you went about getting a place in one of the swedish healing homes? I read on their website that they don’t take patients from outside the country? Would be very helpful to know if it’s possible, I would like to go to a Healing Home myself, but I’m from Vienna, Austria. Greetings

  14. I’m interested in the possibility of sharing a unique story about the history of mental health and the effects it has on today’s treatment
    I also have historical documents to back up statements!
    How do I get involved ?

    • sounds interesting Kimberly. I would suggest writing up your story first and then trying to find the right place to share it. I might have some ideas for you.
      wishing you the best,
      daniel

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