This week I wanted to bring attention to a great series on PBS called, “This Emotional Life”. It is a multi-part series that talks about a whole range of topics, including depression, negative and positive thinking, resilience, autism, PTSD, and social relationships as they relate to human emotion with the ultimate goal of achieving “happiness”.
The host, Dan Gilbert, talks with experts in neuroscience, psychiatry and psychology, artists, authors and everyday people to learn about how various emotions are involved in our lives. The series looks at social relationships. What goes right when they work and what goes wrong when they don’t. The show tries to synthesize it all and comes away with some valuable conclusions. As I watched the series, I was struck by an episode (Episode 2) on negative emotions (which covered a veteran who suffers from PTSD) and well as identical twins (one of which is severely depressed). In particular, the severely depressed young woman was heartbreaking to watch and I just wondered what was going on in her brain that makes her feel this way compared to her identical twin who does not seem to suffer from the condition. You follow her through typical therapy and treatment, and finally, to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). For me, and I am guessing a lot people out there, they think about “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” when they hear ECT. However, this series stripped away that stigma and showed directly the positive effect it can have on someone who is severely depressed and out of other options.
I would encourage you all to explore the website below as it has many topics that can be appealing to many different people. It is definitely worth a look. You can also view the upcoming TV schedule and watch your local PBS station.
http://www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife/series/episodes/2