Sounds of Psychiatry

Most doctors if not all, will always tell medical students that their field is the field to pursue--psychiatrists are no exceptions. No harm in that, really.

"Psychiatry is interesting..."

-- was what we were told. Everyday. Usually, I'm skeptical about these things, but I'd have to agree that psychiatry is interesting--at least for me. Perhaps it is because of the knowledge and ability to understand the complexity of the human mind. Plus, you get to classify your friends under several psychiatric disorders ^ ^...(or yourself even)

And recently, I was going through my list of songs and I noticed that many songs were written about or inspired by some sort of psychiatric problems. I mean, no offense but people don't really write songs about myocardial infarction or appendicitis or placenta praevia, do they? But psychiatric disorders are commonly used as the main theme in many songs. An example is a song called "Lithium" by Evanescence. My sister and I used to wonder about it because we couldn't understand what the song was about. How is Lithium a metaphor for anything? Only thing I knew about Lithium was that it's a highly reactive chemical compound--so I don't really see the connection between chemistry and music. After we found out that it was actually a mood stabilizer, it all makes sense. I still don't get the lyrics, but at least I know she's not singing about some chemical compound just because it has a nice ring to it, or that Lithium would make a better title than Oxygen.

There's also another song by Kinks. It's an old song I think. As I listen to the lyrics, I started to pick up the symptoms of a schizophrenic patient and the subtype. Isn't it interesting that we are able to learn psychiatry or medicine even, in an unconventional way?

I'm too terrified to walk out of my own front door,
They’re demonstrating outside I think they’re gonna start the third world war,
I’ve been to my local head shrinker,
To help classify my disease,
He said it’s one of many cases of acute schizophrenia he sees.

Well the milkman’s a spy, and the grocer keeps on following me,
And the woman next door’s an undercover for the k.g.b.,
And the man from the social security
Keeps on invading my privacy,
Oh there ain’t no cure for acute schizophrenia disease.

I’ve got acute schizophrenia paranoia too,
Schizophrenia, schizophrenia,
I’ve got it, you’ve got it, we can’t lose,
Acute schizophrenia blues.

I’m lost on the river, the river of no return,
I can’t make decisions, I don’t know which way I’m gonna turn,
Even my old dad, lost some of the best friends he ever had,
Apparently, his was a case of acute schizophrenia too.

I got acute schizophrenia paranoia too,
Schizophrenia, schizophrenia,
I’ve got it, you’ve got it, we can’t lose,
Acute schizophrenia blues,

They’re watching my house and they’re tapping my telephone,
I can’t trust nobody, but I’m much too scared to be on my own
And the income tax collector’s got his beady eye on me,
Oh there ain’t no cure for acute schizophrenia disease.

No there ain’t no cure for
Schizophrenia disease.