ABC TV's immensely popular Enough Rope program with Andrew Denton will be airing a special feature documentary on 'madness' next week (Monday 7 April). You can take a sneak peak here More info (PDF) here

Here's an excerpt from last week's Age newspaper about Angels and Demons:

'Mental illness is a subject close to Denton's heart. "It's been in and out of my life in various ways for the last 20 or 30 years. I've had a few people in my life, close to me, who have had different forms of mental illness. Manic depression. Nervous breakdowns. That often trotted-out statistic of one in five Australians suffering from mental illness? It doesn't surprise me.

"And yet at the same time it's such a taboo topic. People are so scared of the idea. So that was really the motivation. I wanted to see if it was possible to have a conversation about this which is not about experts in white coats, which would take some of the fear out of it.

"I found it quite extraordinary to sit with people who had been mad and who are still struggling with madness, genuine madness, and who are able to lucidly describe that experience.

"The main thing I drew from it was that within that madness still exists the person. And if the program humanises that in some way, then it will have been effective."

http://blogs.abc.net.au/allinthemind...-and-demo.html