text:
Schizophrenia in the Golden Ass
Michael Fontaine, PhD
Lucius, the narrator of Apuleius' Golden Ass, meets the diagnostic criteria of schizophrenia. This observation suggests (1) that schizophrenia is not a recent disease, as historians of psychiatry assert, but that—whatever its origin and nature—it is at least ancient and probably eternal. It also suggests (2) that Lucius is an unreliable narrator of the novel because he believes his own delusions even more sincerely than most readers do.
This paper begins with a caveat that it represents no more than a thought experiment in progress. It draws together ideas I have developed piecemeal over many years of thinking about Apuleius' Golden Ass in the light of J. J. Winkler's ideas about the novel's unreliable narrator. Winkler (1985) attributed the novel's unreliable narrator to Apuleius' experimentation with a kind of narrative akin to modern detective fiction. In this paper, I would like to suggest a different reason. As I shall argue, the narrator is unreliable because Apuleius presents him to us as a schizophrenic.
What is schizophrenia? According to the website of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, incurable, and disabling brain disorder. It affects about 1% of Americans today—that is, about 3.2 million individuals. Its cause is unknown but most experts assume it is genetic.1 According to E. Fuller Torrey, the founder and Executive Director of the Stanley Medical Research Institute and a high-profile schizophrenia researcher, "schizophrenia is caused by changes in the brain and … these can be measured by changes in both brain structure and brain function. … Schizophrenia is thus a disease of the brain in exactly the same sense that Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, and Alzheimer's disease are diseases of the brain."2
Behind this confident rhetoric lies a heated controversy. NIMH states that schizophrenia has affected people throughout history, but historians of psychiatry disagree. If you aren't familiar with psychiatric controversies, you will be surprised to learn that schizophrenia is a very late arrival to the annals of medicine. The disease is barely 200 years old. The first clinical descriptions date only to 1809 in London and Paris,3 and repeated attempts to find examples of schizophrenia in the vast literature of ancient Greece and Rome routinely come up empty. A 2003 survey determined that "in ancient Greek and Roman literature, there were no descriptions of individuals with schizophrenia."4
The sudden appearance of schizophrenia just two centuries ago, followed by a furiously rapid proliferation of cases, has given rise to ongoing debates about whether the disease has always existed or whether it really is an epidemic of recent origin, comparable to the outbreaks of syphilis and AIDS. The debate is called the "recency vs. persistency hypotheses." It explains why researchers worldwide are frantically looking for causes and trying different treatments—some physical, such as electroshock, lobotomy, or surgery (all of which are still in use), but the majority of them increasingly chemical, especially neuroleptic (or "antipsychotic") drugs.
I would like to suggest that the whole apparatus on which the recency hypothesis depends is fundamentally wrong, and that we classicists can help show it. In my view, (1) Lucius, the narrator of Apuleius' Golden Ass, easily meets the diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia, (2) Apuleius meant for readers to see him that way, and (3) that fact is why Lucius presents as an unreliable narrator.
What is schizophrenia and what does it look like? Since those who know Greek are likely to guess wrong, let me start by telling or reminding you what schizophrenia does not refer to. First, despite the etymology, schizophrenia does not mean a split personality. If you are thinking of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, you are very much mistaken. Second, the schizophrenic is not a raving psychotic who has lost all touch with reality, of the kind we often see in Hollywood movies. Typically he is a functioning individual.
How do we tell when someone is schizophrenic? Here are the diagnostic criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, which is usually known as the DSM-5 (emphasis added):
Criterion A lists the five key symptoms of psychotic disorders: 1) delusions, 2) hallucinations, 3) disorganized speech (e.g., frequent derailment or incoherence), 4) disorganized or catatonic behavior, and 5) negative symptoms (i.e., affective flattening, alogia or avolition). At least two of these five symptoms are required to be present during a 1-month period and at least one symptom must be one of the first three (delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech). Only one Criterion A symptom is required "if delusions are bizarre or hallucinations consist of a voice keeping up a running commentary on the person's behavior or thoughts, or two or more voices conversing with each other."
Schizophrenia is also marked by "social/occupation dysfunctions." What does that mean? It means that:
One or more major areas of functioning such as work, interpersonal relations or self-care are markedly below the level achieved prior to the onset (or when the onset is in childhood or adolescence, failure to achieve expected level of interpersonal, academic, or occupational achievement).
In plain English, this means schizophrenics start to do poorly in school or at work and their hygiene can be appalling.
These criteria do not mention a fact that clinicians often taken for granted, namely that schizophrenia tends to manifest in late adolescence (late teens to early 20s).
At any rate, Lucius seems to meet not just two of the five, but all of the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria.
Consider the "social/occupation dysfunctions." At the outset of the novel, Lucius is an unmarried young man, presumably about 20 or 25 years old. He is a curious and naïve adolescent on the cusp of manhood, with the whole world open to him. He comes from a good family, much seems to be expected of him, and he is poised for a lucrative career in the import/export business. In short, he is attempting to make the transition from dependence to independence. That fact is one reason the novel has been taken for a Bildungsroman, a coming-of-age story.
But it also makes him exactly the right age for schizophrenia to appear, and as we know, his original mission to Thessaly, which was a business trip (Thessaliam ex negotio petebam 1.2), fails spectacularly. The novel ends with him not as a successful merchant but as a member or priest of a cult engaged in bizarre religious behaviors. He shaves his head, he keeps donating money, and so on. His last words in the novel assert that he is happy performing his new duties (munia…gaudens obibam) but his bliss seems to be less real than he says. Many scholars, most recently Stefan Tilg, note that obibam appears to pun on the idea that Lucius "was dying (obibam)."5 I agree with this view, and would add that "I'm dying" is a typical schizophrenic metaphor for existential distress, much as we know that "I was abused" or "I was raped" or "I am drowning" sometimes are.
What about the other symptoms? In the rest of this paper I move through each of the five major symptoms:
disorganized speech
disorganized or catatonic behavior, and
negative symptoms
1. Delusions
According to the DSM, schizophrenic delusions are typically persecutory or grandiose or both, but other themes, such as jealousy, religiosity, or somatization, may also occur. They are usually organized around a coherent theme. It is said that the persecutory themes may predispose the individual to suicidal behavior, and the combination of persecutory and grandiose delusions with anger may predispose the individual to violence.6 This is the source of the popular belief, and perhaps fact, that schizophrenic individuals are "dangerous to themselves or others," especially family members.
Lucius' arrest and trial for murder at the Laughter festival in books 2 and 3 bears all the hallmarks of a schizophrenic delusion. As he tells the story, the whole city is conspiring to persecute him. (The episode brings to mind Kafka's The Trial, just as the novel as a whole evokes his Metamorphoses.) Just so, the episode that precipitates the trial—that is, Lucius' killing of wineskins that he mistakes for men— seems to be a hallucination.
In the same spirit, of course, Lucius' very transformation into a jackass can be read as a delusion of persecution, perhaps the grandest of all. It is notable that while in ass form, Lucius repeatedly contemplates suicide. It is also remarkable, to me at least, that as the narrative wears on Lucius begins referring to himself increasingly as "my ass" rather than himself as an ass (me asinum). This line of speech reads as a dissociation or at least a lack of commitment to the delusion.
In this connection I have always wondered about a remarkably different account of the burglary of Milo's house that we hear of at the start of book 7:
[A]nother one of the band of robbers arrived … and then made the following report to his band of brothers:
"As for what's up with Milo's house in Hypata, the one we ransacked not so long ago…it was not by questionable inferences but by demonstrable arguments that [according to the local mobs of people] the finger pointed toward someone named Lucius as the mastermind indubitably behind the crime—this was the common conviction of the entire crowd. In the days just prior he had, by bogus letters of introduction, contrived to present himself to Milo as an honest man; he had commended himself to him so solidly that he was invited to share Milo's hospitality and was accounted one of the bosom members of his host's household. But as he stayed there for a few days, insinuating himself into the soul of Milo's serving girl with a false front of affection, he investigated the bolts and bars of the front door as circumstances allowed, and thoroughly and thoughtfully scrutinized the very rooms in which all of Milo's treasure was usually kept.
And it was no insignificant indication of who the guilty party was that, in fact, on that very same night, at the very same moment of your outrageous offense, that same man ran away, and could not thereafter be discovered anywhere."7
Of course, Lucius' larger narrative implies this account is false. But could it be true? If so, and if Lucius is the unreliable narrator he is often claimed to be, his entire account of turning into a jackass and being kidnapped and tormented by sadistic robbers could be a colossal schizophrenic metaphor for his guilty conscience, much as in Greek tragedy Aeschylus and Euripides hint the Furies haunting the murderous Orestes might be.8
This line of interpretation falls in line with a passage at the start of a short story from 1940 titled Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius by the Argentine experimentalist Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986):
Bioy Casares había cenado conmigo esa noche y nos demoró una vasta polémica sobre la ejecución de una novela en primera persona, cuyo narrador omitiera o desfigurara los hechos e incurriera en diversas contradicciones, que permitieran a unos pocos lectores—muy pocos lectores—la adivinación de una realidad atroz o banal.
Bioy Casares had had dinner with me that evening and we had lost all track of time in a vast debate over the way one might go about composing a first-person novel whose narrator would omit or distort things and engage in all sorts of contradictions, so that a few readers—a very few—might divine the horrifying or banal truth.
A schizophrenic narrator is an obvious means of achieving this aim. Is it possible, then, that with The Golden Ass, Apuleius sought to compose a first-person novel whose narrator omitted or distorted things and engaged in all sorts of contradictions, so that a few readers—a very few—might divine the horrifying or banal truth? If so, that horrifying or banal truth must be that the Golden Ass is really the tale of a young man, Lucius, who succumbs to schizophrenic delusions and, in their grip, turns to a life of crime and homelessness.
In my view, this line of interpretation is not only authorized by the prologue but may even be demanded by it. The famously enigmatic prologue offers us the best example in the novel of the second diagnostic criterion, namely (auditory) hallucinations.
2. Hallucinations
Schizophrenic hallucinations are usually auditory. In common parlance, they are what we call "hearing voices." The voices can express various ideas but usually fall into patterns. They may mock the individual who hears them or threaten him. They may command him to harm himself or others. They may also suggest he enjoys exalted birth or that he has been chosen for a special, often divine, mission. Because psychiatrists arbitrarily exempt religious beliefs, Judaism, which meets the last two criteria, is not considered a symptom of schizophrenia. In fact, however, until recent times about half of all schizophrenic delusions (or hallucinations) were religious in nature (Krzystanek, Krysta, Klasik, and Krupka-Matuszczyk (2012)). And a clear proof that people in ancient Greece and Rome claimed to experience schizophrenic hallucinations appears in Plautus' Menaechmi. In the climax of the play the protagonist, who is feigning "insanity" (insania), pretends to hear Apollo's voice commanding him to kill his wife (831-881).
Apuleius took a special interest in the hallucinated "voice" (daimonion) that Socrates claimed to hear; he wrote a whole treatise, the De Deo Socratis, about it. I would like to suggest that he toys with the idea in the Golden Ass, specifically via the invisible voices Psyche hears in Cupid's palace (5.2):
And as she inspects all this with the greatest of passion and delight, a disembodied voice (vox quaedam corporis sui nuda) presents itself to her. "Why, my lady," it said, "does your jaw drop at the sight of such a welter of wealth? All these things belong to you. … We, whose voices you're hearing (quarum voces accipis) are your handmaidens…
More to the point, Lucius himself seems to hear voices right from the outset of the story. The first sentence of his prologue famously begins:
At ego tibi sermone isto Milesio varias fabulas conseram.… Exordior. "Quis ille?" Paucis accipe. Hymettos Attica…mea vetus prosapia est;
But I'll—let me string some tales together for you, stories of all sorts…. I'm starting. "Who's that guy?" Listen briefly. Hymettus in Attica…is my pedigree from of old.
We cannot tell who the tibi is that Lucius is talking to, or that he thinks he is talking to, when he begins his story in mid-conversation (cf. at, "But"). But it could be the same person, or voice, that interrupts him getting started (exordior) by pointing a finger at him and asking a third person, "Who's that guy?" I do not think I am mistaken in detecting a hostile tone to the (deictic) pronoun ille.
Translators invariably soft-pedal quis ille? Like most others, for example, Relihan translates it "But who is this man? you say." The problem, however, is that the Latin makes it clear that Lucius, the narrator, is hearing someone else's voice and talking back to it.
In my view, this pointed question is what makes it apparent that Lucius is presented to us as a schizophrenic narrator, as one who talks to himself or his "voices." Because there is no one else obviously around, his interlocutor can only be one of his imaginary voices. Furthermore, Lucius seems to refer to this "voice" a moment later. He states:
Iam haec equidem ipsa vocis immutatio desultoriae scientiae stilo quem accessimus respondet.
As a matter of fact, this immutatio vocis provides a nice analogy to the manner of composition that we have brought to bear here—much skill and quick leaping from one thing to another, like circus performers on their two trick horses.
Relihan renders ipsa vocis immutatio as "change in my language" and, with others, takes it to refer to Lucius' switch from Greek to Latin. But that makes scant sense of iam. In my view, Lucius can equally mean "As a matter of fact, already this very shifting of voices…," referring back to the voice asking quis ille? If so, and if Apuleius' readers took that interpretation for granted, than we would do well to consider whether all the fantastical elements in the narrative that follows—the transformations, the dream(y) and grandiose apparition of Isis, the torment of the robbers, and so on—are simply the ravings of a (paranoid) schizophrenic narrator.
3. Other symptoms
The last three symptoms can be dealt with summarily. The third, disorganized speech, refers to strange speech. It is sometimes called word salad or schizophrenese. As in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, it is marked by the frequent use of neologisms, and some, though not all, consider it identical to glossolalia, or speaking in tongues. As the catalogue in Lara Nicolini's recent book (Nicolini 2011) shows, of course, this phenomenon is the very essence of the narrator's style in the Golden Ass. The novel is packed with bizarre puns. Conseram, the first verb of the novel, which could be either future or subjunctive, and which could come from conserere "to plant" (cf. sermonem serere) or conserere "to weave together" (cf. exordior), is only one of endless examples.
Lucius' braying attempts to articulate human speech while in ass form would count as examples of the fourth synonym, disorganized or catatonic behavior, just as his repeated thoughts of suicide while in ass form easily meet the criteria of negative symptoms—affective flattening, alogia, or avolition. In fact, his entire experience in ass form, in which he mostly sees himself as the passive victim of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, meet these criteria.
What can we conclude? Two points.
First: if schizophrenia—whatever its origin—really did meet mankind only in 1809, then it is astonishing that not only some, but that all of its chief symptoms are on display in a novel written 1900 years ago. This suggests psychiatric historians ought to read Apuleius' Golden Ass.
Second: J. J. Winkler called Lucius an unreliable narrator. I say we can take that observation a step further and state that Lucius is a schizophrenic and therefore unreliable narrator: in other words, he is bullshitting us, but only because he believes his own bullshit even more sincerely than we do. The model is Kafka, not Conan Doyle.
If this line of interpretation seems promising, a suitable next step is to investigate the inset story of Cupid and Psyche. If it is allegorical, as it seems, it may well tell us what Apuleius thought of the union of one's desires with one's soul or mind in a context that we consider biological (medical, pathological), but that he may have considered an eternal part of the human condition.
NIMH (2016)
Torrey (2011)
Gottesman (1991) an Noll (2007) xi-xiii
Evans, McGrath, and Milns (2003).
Ting (2014) 141-142.
The language in this paragraph deliberately adapts that of the diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia found in the DSM0IV, the predecessor of the DSM-5.
All translations of Apuleius' Golden Ass in this paper are that of Relihan (2007), occasionally modified.
I expand on this theme in a forthcoming paper to be titled "The Myth of Paranoid Schizophrenia in Classical Perspective: Aeschylus' Libation Bearers and the Legacy of Thomas Szasz."
Borges, Jorge Luis. 1998. "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius (1940)"; in Andrew Hurley (tr.), Jorge Luis Borges: Collected Fictions. New York: Penguin, 68-81.
Evans, K., J. McGrath, and R. Milns. 2003. "Searching for Schizophrenia in Ancient Greek and Roman Literature: A systematic review." Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 107(5): 323-330. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12752027. Accessed on February 28, 2016.
Gottesmann, Irving I. 1991. Schizophrenia Genesis: The origins of madness. New York: W. H. Freeman and Company.
Krzystanek M., Krysta K., Klasik A., Krupka-Matuszczyk, I. 2012. "Religious content of hallucinations in paranoid schizophrenia"; Psychiatria Danubina 24 Suppl 1:65-69. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22945191. Accessed on February 28, 2016.
Nicolini, Lara. 2011. Ad (L)usum Lectoris: Etimologia e giochi di parole in Apuleio. Bologna: Pàtron.
NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health) website. "Schizophrenia." (http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/schizophrenia/index.shtml). Accessed on February 28, 2016.
Noll, Richard. 2007. "Madness, Psychosis, Schizophrenia: A Brief History"; in R. Noll (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders, 3rd edition, New York: Facts on File, ix-xx.
Relihan, Joel (tr.). 2007. Apuleius: The Golden Ass. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 2007.
Tilg, Stefan. 2014. Apuleius' Metamorphoses: A study in Roman fiction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Torrey, E. Fuller. 2011. "Schizophrenia as a brain disease: Studies of individuals who have never been treated – Backgrounder." (http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/resources/briefing-papers-and-fact-sheets/159/466). Accessed on February 28, 2016.
Winkler, J. J. 1985. Auctor and Actor. A Narratological Reading of Apuleius' The Golden Ass. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Mad in America hosts blogs by a diverse group of writers. These posts are designed to serve as a public forum for a discussion—broadly speaking—of psychiatry and its treatments. The opinions expressed are the writers' own.
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Michael Fontaine is Professor of Classics at Cornell University. In 2016 he received the Thomas S. Szasz Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Cause of Civil Liberties.
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BPDTransformation, B.A. March 6, 2016 at 9:14 am
Schizophrenia is already dead: There is no schizophrenia, nor was there ever. Here's a good explanation why from Jim Van Os, the psychiatrist from Maastricht, Netherlands:
https://www.schizofreniebestaatniet.nl/english/
https://www.schizofreniebestaatniet.nl/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Manifest_UK.pdf
I recommend you to stop using the word "a schizophrenic" to define a person in your writing. It is stigmatizing and inaccurate. If you would not use the word "a cancer" to label a person who is believed to have a cancer, or "a Parkinson's" then you should not call a person a schizophrenic…. it is insulting. Of course, "schizophrenia" is not even comparable to those conditions in ontological reality in the first place, maybe this usage even less appropriate, something you should know…
BPDTransformation, B.A. March 6, 2016 at 2:12 pm
Here is the beginning section of a long essay I'm writing refuting the NIHH and NAMI's position on "schizophrenia". I have written it using some medical language, in order that those deluded by the medical model will be able to find it in the first place. I hope readers here find it interesting… still working on finishing this piece:
How to Cure Schizophrenia: Eight Stories Proving that NIMH, NAMI, and APA Are Lying to the Public about Schizophrenia's "Incurability"
Pro and Con: A) Seven Experienced Therapists Saying Schizophrenia Can be Cured
B) Three Psychiatric Organizations Saying Schizophrenia is Incurable
In this essay I'm going to show that "schizophrenia" can be cured via intensive psychotherapy.
First, I'll quote seven experienced therapists who helped formerly schizophrenic people become genuinely well. To those who believe that schizophrenia is a lifelong brain disease, such hopeful statements may sound impossible. But consider that these quotes come from people who have worked intensively with hundreds of schizophrenic clients in long-term psychotherapy. The quotes that follow come from bureaucrats or psychiatrists who, for the most part, have never made a serious attempt to understand people labeled schizophrenic psychologically:
Seven Masters Therapists On Curing Schizophrenia
Italian-American psychoanalyst Silvano Arieti, commenting on his decades of experience doing intensive psychotherapy with schizophrenic clients,
"If by cure we mean the reestablishment of relatedness with other human beings, closeness with a few persons, love for the spouse and children, a reorganization of the personality that includes a definite self-identity, a feeling of fulfillment, or of purpose and hope – and this is the cure we want – the answer to this question ("Can Schizophrenics Be Cured?") is still yes. In my experience we can obtain these results in a considerable number of cases.
I have already mentioned that, as a result of psychotherapy, many formerly schizophrenic patients achieve a degree of psychological maturity far superior to the one that existed prior to the psychosis… In reviewing the cases of schizophrenic patients that have been treated with intensive psychotherapy, I have come to the conclusions that my optimistic predictions proved to be accurate in by far the majority of cases."
(From "Interpretation of Schizophrenia")
Italian psychotherapist Gaetano Benedetti, commenting on his study of 50 schizophrenic patients given psychotherapy for an average of 5 years each:
"These formerly schizophrenic patients made remarkable clinical, interpersonal, and social improvement, often leading to complete healing… These cases show that there is a correlation between the deep affection of the therapeutic relationship, clinical improvement, and maintenance of post-therapeutic contact… All the patients, through letters, phone calls, or occasional sessions were eager to show the therapists their social and emotional improvement."
(from Psychotherapy of Schizophrenia, chapter 17, "Individual Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy of Schizophrenia").
American psychoanalyst Bryce Boyer, commenting on his study of 17 schizophrenic patients in long-term psychotherapy:
"The psychotic core was fundamentally altered, as a rule, within two years… Fourteen [of 17 total] schizophrenic patients appear thus far to have outcomes which can be classified as satisfactory, or in some cases, most encouraging… It is suggested that the psychotic process is reversible in some patients and that we, as analysts, might aim not at encapsulation of at least some psychoses, but at their cure."
(Psychoanalytic Treatment of Schizophrenic and Characterological Disorders, Chapter 3, "Office Treatment of Schizophrenic Patients").
Turkish psychoanalyst Vamik Volkan, commenting on his six phases of long-term psychotherapy for schizophrenics:
"If there is no interference from the environment, and the therapist commits no major technical errors, the schizophrenic patient will visit his terror and emerge from it with progressive development… After this experience the patient no longer feels like a "bad seed" with a core full of "bad" affects. When the infantile psychotic self is dissolved, the patient will never again be schizophrenic… Only in the termination phase is the formerly schizophrenic individual expected to mourn genuinely as an adult on leaving the analyst. With most former schizophrenics, mourning continues silently for many years after treatment has been concluded."
(The Infantile Psychotic Self,
American psychoanalyst Lawrence Hedges, commenting on the transformability of schizophrenic mental states, which he calls "organizing" experience,
"By now the limitations in empathic instruments about which Kohut speaks have been considerably altered so that sustained and reliable empathic immersion in psychotic and borderline states under many conditions is deemed possible. It turns out that the dread of reexperiencing the primordial fear and chaos… can be satisfactorily accomplished.
All organizing states (i.e. schizophrenic conditions) are transformable… I know of no reason that, given the proper containing conditions, organizing experience cannot be brought into a therapeutic relationship for analysis so that channels once closed off can be analyzed, thereby opening them to human contact and further development."
(page 197 and page
New Zealand-based therapist Paris Williams, commenting on the recovery research about so-called schizophrenia,
"Myth #3: People Cannot Fully Recover from Schizophrenia… While there continues to be the widespread belief in our society that people diagnosed with schizophrenia generally do not recover, the actual research tells a very different story… The finding that recovery rates are quite high is surprisingly robust. The authors of the largest such series of studies – the World Health Organization – have concluded that "the overarching message is that schizophrenia is largely an episodic disorder with a rather favorable outcome for a significant proportion of those afflicted."
"As we have seen, the recovery research strongly suggests that, when supported in a compassionate and empathic environment, psychosis often (and perhaps even ordinarily) resolves automatically. In addition to this, there is significant evidence that a psychotic episode sometimes provides a breakthrough into profound healing and even psychological and emotional growth."
(Rethinking Madness, pages 39-41, and page 65)
American psychiatrist Edward Podvoll, commenting on the recovery journeys of several formerly psychotic men,
"There is a moment in the midst of madness when things suddenly begin to make sense again. One feels that one has come back into oneself. One has become the "operator", as Henri Michaux called it. It is an island of clarity where one is suddenly freed from the fixed mind of delusion… Frequently this moment carries with it an uncanny confidence that the worst is over and that one will become well again." (From "Recovering Sanity", page 209).
American Psychiatry's View of Schizophrenia as an Incurable Lifelong Brain Disease
Now, compare these viewpoints on the potential for cure and healing in "schizophrenia" with the viewpoint of our National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), an institution which happens to be funded by pharmaceutical companies:
"Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and disabling brain disorder… Many people with schizophrenia are disabled by their symptoms. The disorder makes it hard for them to keep a job or take care of themselves… Most people who have the disorder cope with symptoms throughout their lives. There is no cure for schizophrenia."
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/schizophrenia/index.shtml
Here is what our main consumer-led – and coincidentally drug company-funded – patient-rights organization in the United States, the National Alliance for the Mentally (NAMI), has to say about schizophrenia:
"Schizophrenia is a complex, long-term medical illness that interferes with a person's ability to think clearly, manage emotions, make decisions and relate to others… There is no cure for schizophrenia."
https://www.nami.org/Learn-More/Mental-Health-Conditions/Schizophrenia
And the American Psychiatric Association; the main organization representing psychiatrists, and also heavily funded by drug companies, defines schizophrenia in this way:
"Schizophrenia is a chronic brain disorder that affects about one percent of the population… there is no cure for schizophrenia."
http://psychiatry.org/patients-families/schizophrenia/what-is-schizophrenia
You would almost think the same person is writing these snippets! While these sources give lip service to helping people with schizophrenia "live well with their illness" and "effectively manage their symptoms", the underbelly of these viewpoints is that someone with schizophrenia will always be less well than "normal" people, always have "the illness", and never fully recover.
To the idea that schizophrenia is incurable, my response is "enough is enough": this essay will expose the myth of schizophrenia's incurability.
Goals of This Essay
In this piece, I will review the history of psychodynamic psychotherapy for schizophrenia. I will show that major improvement and/or cure of psychotic experience is not only common but expectable in good treatment. Furthermore, many people fortunate enough to access long-term psychotherapy for psychosis (as well as many who get well without therapy) have become enduringly non-psychotic. This is very different from "managing an illness" – these former schizophrenics are able to live, love, work and do all the things that any normal person enjoys doing, free of psychotic symptoms.
Let me retrace now some of the major books on psychodynamic psychotherapy for schizophrenia, along with Amazon links. Because psychosis is a fascinating subject and a developmental precursor to borderline states, and because I have a family member who has had psychotic experiences, I have spent the last 10 years studying these works.
What I hope the reader will see is how much literature is actually out there showing that "schizophrenia" can be meaningfully understood in social and psychological terms. Not only that, but these books contain scores of stories of people labeled schizophrenic who become psychosis-free and live a fulfilling life.
(still working on finishing this; about 40 psychodynamic books to cite and many case studies to summarize…)
bcharris March 6, 2016 at 10:32 am
Van Os' opinion is hardly new or novel, the idea of a schizophrenia syndrome being around for at least 50 years. The syndrome, itself isn't new, either- a sufferer is a central figure in a Biblical story in the Book of Mark of the man named Legion (so named from the legion of demons inhabiting him and telling him what to do) and Jesus exorcising his demons into the Gadarene swine, thereby stampeding them into the Sea of Galilee.
Frank Blankenship March 6, 2016 at 1:00 pm
Schizophrenia, the word, didn't exist until Paul Eugen Bleuler coined it at the beginning of the 20th century. I have a great deal of trepidation about imposing the present on the past. I don't have any illusion that the ancients were any less correct, when it comes to madness aka psychiatric labels, than are the would-be experts on the subject today.
Michel Foucault pointed to usurpation of the containment of the mad by the medical profession as beginning sometime at the end of the eighteenth century. This is the point at which madness becomes "mental illness". I personally think there is a lot to be said for Foucault's analysis. What Foucault doesn't try to do is to interject a 20th century diagnosis into a 1 st century piece of fiction the way you just did.
As for quoting Hamlet, wouldn't Nick Bottom have been more appropriate?
I'm not one for taking events out of context, that is, for neglecting the absolute historicity of the situation you're dealing with. To paraphrase, F. Scott FitzGerald, "You know, the ancients were different from you or me." Hemingway: "Yes, they had no schizophrenia."
It's always curious what you get out of a Google news search. If it's for "schizophrenia", you're going to get one thing. (Usually clinical research.) Ditto this disorder or that. If it's for "mental health", you're going to get something else. (Generally mental health movement propaganda.) If it's madness, it's going to be March Madness, and football. My but oh my, how things change.
Flashback a few thousand years ago. "Schizophrenia!" What's that? The buzz over those telegraph wires that haven't been invented yet. Ditto psychiatrist, the successor to mad doctor and alienist. Only her alchemist knows for sure.
Back to Google news searches, if it's anti-psychiatry, generally the detractors outnumber the admirers. There's a reason this is so. You've got a corrupt government in bed with the corporations that put those officials in office, and none of them represent the man in the street. Not unless that man in the street is filthy rich. Some of those corporations are drug companies. Watch television sometime if it doesn't put you to sleep. Direct to consumer advertising has made it a matter of back to back drug ads.
This craze to label and drug people is bound to be godsend for your business of labeling and drugging people from the past. There can be no end to it. What it ignores is the rising "mental illness" rate. This rising "mental illness" rate was once a rising "lunacy" rate. The 19th century asylum boom sent those rates through the ceiling. Robert Whitaker has dealt with the rise of those rates since the advent of psychiatric drugs in the mid 1950s. Nothing is sending those rates down, and particularly not to the levels existing before institutional psychiatry arose in the 17th century. In the middle ages though, and in Rome, I kinda don't think anybody was counting. Today it's a whopping 20 %, more or less, and none of them are as much a "danger to self or others" as any elected official.
oldhead March 6, 2016 at 8:49 pm
As for the current status of anti-psychiatry in the public eye, I notice a good percentage of reasonably intelligent people react to my bringing up the topic by associating it with Tom Cruise or Scientology, generally in an insulting way. So we need to discuss how we can best get them past this.
Frank Blankenship March 7, 2016 at 11:05 am
There is no anti-anti-psychiatry search category. A category that would be much more appropriate to most of the articles about "anti-psychiatry" in quotation marks. Anti-psychiatry searches are stuck with anti-psychiatry bashing psychiatrists, very similarly to the MIA stories that might come up if you put "psychiatry" into the search box, and irritate the bio-psychiatrists.
There is one story that comes up if you search Google news for anti-anti-psychiatry. It was written by a former patient of Laing follower Leon Redler. He blasts Redler and Laing for their capitalism. This is interesting in one sense because recently I came across the term anti-psychoanalysis in reference to Felix Guattari and Gilles Deleuse. The claim was that their anti-psychoanalysis put them in opposition to anti-psychiatry. I say…to-may-toes, to-mah-toes…
Now that all these cats have outlived their nine lives, we can dangerously (I don't like safe) oppose all forms of social control practiced by the state. There is no developed philosophy of anti-psychiatry because anti-psychiatry isn't organized in the slightest. Maybe that is something we can work to change in the future. Just imagine, card carrying anti-psychiatrists with anti-psychiatry cells in every neighborhood.
If my daydream went too far, so be it. Some would still say it doesn't go far enough, and I would agree so long as psychiatry is used to disqualify, invalidate, and injure people (i.e. has not "gotten out of Dodge").
As things stand now we are the anti-psychiatrists who are perhaps more than we realize helping guide the discussion at this point in history, as there are more people paying attention to MIA than it might seem, most of whom don't post comments. But at least some of them are taking notes. So we don't need to look in Wikipedia etc. to find a good definition for anti-psych, we are in a position to define it ourselves and, if it differs from Wikipedia's version, to request that they correct themselves.
Nijinsky March 7, 2016 at 10:43 am
I read this whole article, and….
1) Since when is "schizophrenia" a legitimate disease? And none of the statements about it support this when as logic it is comparable to stating that when a person has a physical wound which shows signs of trauma (black and blue marks, a scab, pain etc.) that this proves that there is something wrong with the body, and that there's a disease going on. Emotional trauma is emotional. The behavior expressing this is also emotional. When the healing modalities such as Healing Homes of Finland, Soteria project and other such disciplines heal these conditions this shows it's emotional. When the supposed healing modalities calling it a fictional physical disease cause a spike in said occurrence, this shows they aren't healing it, and that to hold onto the idea that it is physical in the way they define it doesn't. Unless you want to talk about healing fictional diseases (in comes old story), and when you can cause more of this fictional disease by suppressing emotions and cognitive insight (problem has to be fictional to exist for example) you can add numbers to how much healing is going on of what is fictional (so when there's more of the fictional disease, you can have more fictional healing, and in a fictional sense it's all working, like so and so with his magic wand). That when it's seen for what it is when there's healing is suppressed can be overlooked (in comes fictional character with disease).
2) This redundant repetition of "signs" of schizophrenia when they are behavior oriented, all conveniently placed to cover up trauma as having a physical fictional source rather than emotional, and make that out to be a disease when there are signs of healing, of a loosening of the parameters of control that are in collusion with trauma based control tactics. Trauma based control tactics responsible for the riff in society which caused the trauma: what this is purported to have to do with fiction, except we're back to that instead of actually understanding the story, is quite disturbing. All the supposed symptoms are seen as symptoms of an alleged disease, rather than tools to gain perspective on emotional trauma being exposed and thus let go of. Why have this list of symptoms when being seen in such a fashion are in collusion with causing disease rather than healing?
3) AGAIN, statements about the change in the shape of the brain. If one goes to such websites supporting these supposed proofs, you see that they say the people who are and aren't medicated show reported signs of these reported changes in shapes of the organ called the brain. It does NOT say how much the correlation is with those who aren't medicated, how marginal this might be. It ALSO does not say (conveniently leaves out) that the change in those medicated has long been proven to correspond with medication, something which at first was reported as a symptom of the disease but had to be corrected. Once AGAIN: It was known the whole time the "medications" cause the change in brain structure, this was suppressed, and even attributed to a yet to be proven disease caused by a yet to be proven chemical imbalance – all while the medications have been proven to cause, a chemical imbalance which resulted in the change in brain structure. And yet again, when there is supposed proof that a disease is caused by changes in brain structure (which has been proven to be caused by the medications) to include those who aren't medicated, and have NO proof that the medications correct this change in brain structure (rather than cause it which there is proof of) with any logic would point out that the "medications" are a cause not a remedy. It would be AMAZING if the drug companies said that people with a proven identifiable heart condition (which has to be determined by analyses of behavior rather than any physical sign) when on their medications or not have said identifiable heart abnormality, and completely skip that the medications are supposed to fix this abnormality, not correlate with causing it. If you are or aren't on these medications that fix this problem you have said problem does not correlate with fixing said problem! And how many of the psychiatric medications actually end up causing heart problems?
4) Back to supposedly identifying behavior symptoms of a fictional disease whose diagnosis is in collusion with creating a major spike in occurrence of said fictional disease (and whose treatment has been proven to cause an "epidemic" of biological disease caused by "medications"), all to validate said disease as being reported in a fictional story ages ago, because historically the fictional disease was said to exist after the fictional story was written.
5) So we are asked to entertain that (this, those, them) fictional disease(s) existed (exist) in fiction before fictional disease was named a disease (alleged but guilty until proven innocent), the evidence being that a fictional character might have been making up fiction (which is seen as a symptom of said fictional disease, but not by those making out the fiction to be a disease fictionally identified after fiction) because said character made up possible fiction about being hijacked by a group of fictional robbers.
And where's the "brilliant" article that "Shakespeare" coined the most number of neologisms, and being mostly (that we know of) taken into the English language, this shows that the whole population of the English speaking world has possible symptoms of (see list) in article…
Or what list of inconvenient truths are then marginalized as "fictional?"
Nijinsky March 10, 2016 at 10:46 am
I'm sorry if I'm over working this, and I hope that the last phrase of a statement in this article: "that we consider biological (medical, pathological), but that he may have considered an eternal part of the human condition." points out where healing takes place.
I do have to mention that it's fine and well to theoreticize about a story, but this is not,
sigh,
I don't know what to say about this. It's not a case history, something which in regarding psychiatry might be a great plus; because then you CAN theoretize rather than one is coerced into thinking one needs to follow a mode of treatment, although this correlates in the majority of cases with perpetuating the problem not healing it. But people who truly are suffering trauma need a bit more cogent and intimate help than such fictional speculation, which might go along with the same lines of creating a theory just to make it sound plausible as already goes on with the methods in collusion with the whole spike in "mental illness."
If one were going to make a statement about "schizophrenia" I think you have to include the stories of people who have been through it, and have recovered, and don't see it as a biological disease.
That ISN'T something the people maintaining the DSM or the NIHM might even allow, let alone are truly interested in.
To list criteria of what one could term propaganda from organizations dismissing the stories of people who have actually themselves been through "schizophrenia" and recovered, in order to maintain that a fictionalized story shows there was "schizophrenia" two millenii ago…
And yeah, I think there was trauma two millenii ago, but using the term "Schizophrenia" seems to be about denying how trauma effects people and calling it a disease rather than trauma.
If one is to speak of narrators who are unreliable, you might want to start with those writing the DSM or maintaining the NIHM. Advertised treatment correlating with an epidemic of a disease rather than healing, isn't a very reliable source of information.
Being institutionalized against your will and forced on treatments that don't correlate with healing, damage your body while you lose your civil liberties, all for a disease that hasn't been proven to truly exist as defined but is a great source of wealth for the drug companies when fraudulently made out to be, this isn't so far off from being kidnapped and tormented by sadistic robbers (robbers who recently have had to pay billion of dollars of fines for false advertising)…
Fiachra March 7, 2016 at 12:40 pm
Lovely Article Michael,
I believe theres no such thing as schizophrenia, it's an invention.
A few years ago I did some building improvement on a police station in Central London. When I started work on the outside a policeman asked me if I would be cleaning up the leaves as well (he said his boss wanted to know).
I told him I wouldn't, but I said maybe another contractor might do this for him. He went inside the station and opened the window so that I could hear him, shouting at his boss – telling him I wasn't a cleaner.
He came out again and apologised to me, and he asked me if I was going to beat up his boss. I told him that I couldn't be bothered.
Then the policeman apologised again and went back into the police station disappointed.
The policeman was having a laugh, but in psychiatry the problem is that staff are often 'out of touch' people who can concoct strange ideas about other people and are then in a position to act them out.


text:
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Representative Experience
Scott is a partner at Hite, Fanning & Honeyman, L.L.P. He concentrates his practice in:
He also has extensive experience in the areas of construction, corporate law, real property, probate, estate planning, civil litigation, and insurance defense.
Scott is admitted to practice in Kansas state and federal courts and the U.S. Court of Appeals, 10th Circuit. He has been selected for inclusion in Missouri & Kansas Super Lawyers® - Rising Stars Edition, 2009-2017.
Banking & Financial Services. In his banking practice, Scott represents clients in multi-million dollar transactions involving:
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He provides practical advice on general banking and regulatory matters, collections, foreclosures and bankruptcies.
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A member of the Wichita, Kansas and American Bar associations, Scott has served as the Young Lawyer's President of both the Wichita and Kansas Bar associations, and the Kansas and Missouri Young Lawyer's Division District Representative to the American Bar Association. He served as the Wichita Bar Association's Technology Committee Chair and has spoken at Continuing Legal Education events about technology as it applies to the legal industry. In 2008, he was named an "Outstanding Young Lawyer" by the Kansas Bar Association. Scott joined Hite, Fanning & Honeyman, L.L.P. in 2003.
Scott is an avid runner, having completed more than 100 marathon or longer running events, including eight 100-mile ultramarathon single day runs.
Banking & Financial Services– Represented a community bank in multi-million dollar commercial and multi-residential foreclosure actions and subsequent work-out financing arrangements. Represented large local bank in multi-million dollar commercial loans including multi-state securitization.
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Court Rules Against Proposed Wind Farm in Northern Sumner County
On September 21, a Sumner County judge issued a ruling in a zoning appeal case that blocks the construction of a proposed wind farm in northern Sumner County.
Kelly Rundell leads Wesley E. Brown American Inn of Court
Kelly Rundell has been elected president of the Wesley E. Brown Inn of Court for the 2017-2018 year. The Inn's 100 members are selected through an application process. The membership is made up of Masters, Barristers and Associates, depending on the attorney's experience. Kelly is a Master and has been a member of the Inn since its formation in 2008.
The Kansas Bar Association named F. James Robinson the 2017 recipient of the Phil Lewis Medal of Distinction. He was also presented with the 2017 Kahrs Lifetime Achievement Award by the Kansas Association of Defense Counsel.
The Kansas Association of Defense Counsel presented F. James Robinson with the Kahrs Lifetime Achievement Award. This award is the KADC's highest honor, given only to those individuals with a distinguished legal and public service career. Aside from being a highly regarded attorney, Jim serves as a leader in the educating others of the role of an independent judiciary. The award was presented during the KADC's annual conference in December 2017.
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text:
50 Years' Trailer Broadcast in Australia
The Doctor Who 50 Years' Trailer was tonight broadcast in Australia on ABC1. The 60 second teaser was aired after Kakadu and just prior to the 8.30 p.m. start of Luther. In all respects the trailer is identical to the one shown on BBC One seven days earlier with the exception of the final sting. As Australia's time is ahead of Britain's the simultaneous broadcast of the 50th Anniversary Special, The Day of the Doctor, on the evening of 23 November UK time will actually be early on the morning of 24 November 2013, Australian time. The sting on the Australian version of the trailer therefore states 24.11.13.
You can view the 50 Year's Trailer here.
The UK sting for Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary. The Australian sting says 24.11.13
Vivien Fleming
Filed under Eighth Doctor, Eleventh Doctor, Fifth Doctor, First Doctor, Fourth Doctor, Ninth Doctor, Second Doctor, Seventh Doctor, Sixth Doctor, Tenth Doctor, Third Doctor and tagged ABC, BBC, Doctor Who, Sci Fi, Science Fiction, The Day of the Doctor |	Leave a comment
Day 34 of 50th Anniversary Countdown – 5 Best Doctor Who Radio Times Covers of the Sixties
The Radio Times is a weekly radio and television programme guide which has been published in the UK since 1923. Owned and published in house by the BBC until 2011, the publication is now owned by Immediate Media Company. Prior to the deregulation of British television listings in 1991 the Radio Times only carried listings for BBC radio and television programmes. Since then the magazine has comprehensively listed programmes on all networks.
The first article published by the Radio Times on Doctor Who on 21 November 1963 discussed the exciting new adventure series starring William Hartnell
Doctor Who has been represented in more Radio Times covers than any other programme, with 29 issues featuring Who on its cover. Today the Doctor Who Mind Robber will review the five best Doctor Who Radio Times covers of the Sixties.
5. Marco Polo
The Radio Times cover for the missing Doctor Who serial Marco Polo in February 1964
4. The Power of the Daleks
The return of the Daleks was worth a Radio Times Cover story when the Second Doctor's first serial, The Power of the Daleks, was broadcast in November 1966.
3. The Tomb of the Cybermen
The Cybermen soon found themselves on the Cover of Radio Times in this feature about The Tomb of the Cybermen in September 1967
2. The Dalek Invasion of Earth
The Daleks appeared in their second Doctor Who serial in November 1964. The Dalek Invasion of Earth featured in this cover
1. The Enemy of the World
A rare colour cover for 1960s Radio Times with Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor in The Enemy of the World in January 1968.
As a comparison with the current era, here's a September 2012 cover of the Radio Times featuring the Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory. The Daleks are still a major draw card.
A September 2012 Radio Times cover for the premier Series 7 episode, The Asylum of the Daleks
©Vivien Fleming, 2013.
Filed under Uncategorized and tagged BBC, Doctor Who, First Doctor, Missing Episodes, Radio Times, Sci Fi, Science Fiction, Second Doctor |	1 Comment
Day 35 of 50th Anniversary Countdown – 5 Serials You'd Swap for Missing Episodes
The success on iTunes of the recently recovered Troughton era serials, The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear, has conclusively shown that 45 year old monochrome Doctor Who can successfully compete against the best current release TV shows. An article in the UK's Mirror newspaper states that in the first three days after the release of the two stories 10,000 series pass downloads were sold. Presumably this figure is for sales in the UK only. The article goes on to state that to date there have been 73,000 episode downloads.
The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear have only been released on iTunes in the UK, US, Canada and Australia. Enemy is due for release on DVD in late November and Web is due sometime in the New Year. Rumours continue to surface that Marco Polo may have been recovered and is soon to be released.
Doctor Who retro posters courtesy of Radio Times designer Stuart Manning – http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2013-10-11/doctor-who-missing-episodes-retro-poster-designs
In the light of Doctor Who's missing episodes hysteria the Doctor Who Mind Robber today looks at 5 Serials that you'd swap for missing episodes. Even the most rabid of fans acknowledge that the output of Doctor Who has never been consistent. Some stories are brilliant whilst others would have been best left unmade. As 97 episodes are still claimed by the BBC to be missing from their archives, which extant episodes would you willingly ditch for a recovered one?
5. The Sensorites
The Sensorites is the most unloved serial of Season One Doctor Who. In a documentary included in the Special Features of the DVD release comedian Toby Hadoke described the serial in the following way:
The Sensorites. Poor, unloved, The Sensorites. Nestling, lost somewhere, down the back of the fans' collective sofa. There it lies at number 7 in the first heady year of Doctor Who. It didn't even have the decency to be wiped so we could all mourn its loss, and imagine how brilliant it must have been. It's not a story anyone really talks about. We certainly don't know that much about it …
Little more needs to be said.
A scene from The Sensorites
Although beautifully directed The Ark has undoubtedly the worst monsters in Classic Series Who, the Monoids. In my review I described the Monoids like this:
Also travelling on the spaceship are an assortment of animals and the Monoids, a peculiar mute race whose most distinctive feature is their one eye. This single eye is in their mouths, or at least what would've been their mouths if they had human anatomy. These eyes are actually painted ping pong balls which the actors held in place with their mouths. Now that's ingenious small budget special effects for you! On the top of their heads is a long Beatles style mop top wig, whilst the rest of their bodies are clothed in green ill fitting garb. They have webbed hands and feet and move slowly.
An unfortunate Monoid in The Ark
3. The Keys of Marinus
The Keys of Marinus is the second of two little regarded serials in Doctor Who's first season. The six parter was among the more expensive stories to produce as each episode took place in a different location of Marinus. Season 16's The Key to Time is not dissimilar. Unfortunately the variety of locations makes for a disjointed serial and the chief monsters, the Voord, are what young people today might best describe as "rubbish". With wet suit clad bodies and swimming flipper feet their most redeeming features were their quite unusual heads.
A Voord with Susan in The Keys of Marinus
2. The Space Museum
In my review of The Space Museum I discussed the DVD extra, Defending the Museum. In it the writer Rob Shearman outlined his devotion to The Space Museum which rests solely upon the assumption that the story is a parody of William Hartnell era Doctor Who episodes. The aggressors, the Moroks, are little more than morons who invade a planet only to turn it into a museum for their past achievements. The rebels are excruciatingly bad. Dressed in black polo neck jumpers, they look like students in a coffee bar. Vicki starts a revolution only because she's bored and the native Xerons don't need a great revolutionary, just a locksmith! That The Space Museum can only be appreciated if it's considered a parody says much for the low esteem in which it's generally held. The serial is unlikely to be missed.
The Doctor hiding inside the casing of a Dalek exhibit is one of the best parts of The Space Museum
1. The Web Planet
I was so utterly bored by The Web Planet that I couldn't even find the enthusiasm to review it. The best parts of the story are William Hartnell's "Billy Fluffs" and when an extra ran slap bang into a camera and it wasn't edited out. This fan made compilation clip, however, is brilliant.
Filed under First Doctor, Second Doctor and tagged BBC, Doctor Who, First Doctor, Marco Polo, Missing Episodes, Sci Fi, Science Fiction, Second Doctor, The Enemy of the World, The Web of Fear |	8 Comments
Enemy of the World Region 4 DVD Release 27 November
The recently recovered missing serial The Enemy of the World is set for DVD release in Australia and New Zealand on 27 November 2013. Although both The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear were released on iTunes Australia on 11 October, neither of the serials are available on iTunes in New Zealand. Like Australia, New Zealand has purchased and aired Doctor Who since the very first story, An Unearthly Child, almost 50 years ago. The BBC's snub of New Zealand fans is deplorable. As The Web of Fear is not due for DVD release until sometime in the new year, New Zealanders still have a long wait to see the Brigadier's debut.
Details on what, if any, special features are included in The Enemy of the World have yet to be released. The latest issue of the Doctor Who Magazine states that "Enemy is due to be released on DVD in November, along with special features yet to be confirmed". The British Board of Film Classification appears not to have approved any special features to date. A basic release without special features has become known in fandom as a "vanilla" release.
The current edition of the Doctor Who Magazine with The Enemy of the World cover. This edition of DWM is also available with a special edition cover featuring The Web of Fear
Enemy is currently available for pre-order at both the BBC Doctor Who online store and the ABC Shop for $19.95. As both retailers ordinarily sell new release Doctor Who classic series DVDs for $29.95 one wonders if the discounted price reflects a "vanilla" release. Alternatively, the reduced price may be based upon the assumption that purchasers have previously bought the release for $14.99 on iTunes. Only time will tell!
A Radio Times produced retro poster for The Enemy of the World
Filed under Season 5, Second Doctor and tagged ABC Shop, BBC, Doctor Who, Doctor Who Magazine, Missing Episodes, Sci Fi, Science Fiction, The Enemy of the World, The Web of Fear |	3 Comments


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Wayne Morse Family Farm
595 Crest Drive
Looped path
Wayne Morse Family Farm is the former home and farm of Senator Wayne Morse, a political figure who has come to symbolize political integrity and service in America. The only City park on the National Register of Historical Places, the 27-acre park features a historic house, natural wooded area, and meadow.
Dog owners may access the off-leash dog area by parking in the main lot and walking east down the gravel path to the fenced pasture.
The historic house is available for rent year-round for events up to 30 people. The picnic shelter and adjoining field are also available for rent, for non-amplified events, May through October for groups up to 125 people.
The Wayne Morse Historical Park Corporation works with the City to preserve the site as a public resource, and provides stewardship for the park's cultural and educational resources. For more information about this site, please contact the City of Eugene Parks and Open Space division or the park office at 541-682-5380.
Southwest Hills Neighborhood Association
To rent facilities at Wayne Morse Park, contact the Recreation Division
Park planner: Landscape Architect Philip Richardson


Preston residents are invited to help plant trees in a city park this coming weekend.
Over 300 trees will be planted by the Friends of Ashton Park after a tree donation by the Forestry Commission and Trust for Conservation Volunteers.
Councillor Robert Boswell, cabinet member for environment, said: "The friends group work very hard to improve Ashton Park and it's great that this free community event will allow people to get their hands dirty and plant trees which will make a real difference to the environment in the park.
The planting takes place from 1pm on Saturday 16 February. Meet at the Rangers Pavillion next to the bowling green.


My name is Arturo, this is my first post.
[Wrn] [Publisher.cc:141] Queue limit reached for topic /gazebo/default/pose/local/info, deleting message. This warning is printed only once.
Any clue to fix this problem? The model has more .dae files which are in the same folder than the one i was created with blender.
It looks like Gazebo is not finding your model. Unfortunately, just starting Gazebo from inside the model's directory is not enough for the model to be found.
After you added this to bashrc, did you open a new terminal? It won't be valid for the current one. When you open Gazebo, can you see the paths you added listed on the insert menu on the left? Could you double check that `/home/projectfolder/text_test/gazebo/worlds/models/turtlebotJde2cam/meshes/tagtext1.dae` exists?


text:
Q: How to Automatically Center Verse Consider the following code:
\documentclass{book}
\textwidth 5.75in
\usepackage{verse}

\begin{document}
\thispagestyle{empty}
\LARGE

\vskip 25pt

\begin{center}
\textbf{Casey at the Bat}
\end{center}

\vspace*{5pt}

%\addtolength{\leftmargini}{60pt}
\begin{center}
\begin{verse}
Oh, somewhere in this favoured land \\
the sun is shining bright, \\
The band is playing somewhere, \\
and somewhere hearts are light;

\vskip 10pt

And somewhere men are laughing, \\
and somewhere children shout, \\
But there is no joy in Mudville--- \\
mighty Casey has struck out.
\end{verse}
\end{center}
\end{document}

which produces

As you can see, despite the \begin{center} \end{center} I've used, the stanzas of verse are not centered.
I know that I can approximate what I want if I uncomment the command %\addtolength{\leftmargini}{60pt} and then visually adjust the amount until I get something which looks acceptable; however, I would like to do this automatically such as one would do to center a minipage or a tikzpicture.
QUESTION: Is there a way to center stanzas of verse in a reasonably simple and automatic way? If so, how may I do this this?
Thank you.

A: You asked,

Is there a way to center stanzas of verse in a reasonably simple ... way?

If the verse package is loaded, the verse environment takes an optional argument, which informs LaTeX about the average length of a stanza which, in turn, influences the horizontal positioning of the stanzas. The argument should be a length variable or macro; the verse package provides a macro called \versewidth for this purpose. This mechanism should be used in conjunction with a center environment. (Aside: If you want to allow page breaks inside the verse environment, you should use \centering, not \begin{center}...\end{center}.)
Your query further asked if there's an automatic way to center the stanzas horizontally. The \versewidth mechanism is not fully automatic; however, I believe that's quite alright and not a shortcoming at all, as what you should really want to achieve -- typographically speaking -- is "optical" rather than "mathematical" centering. Whether a bunch of stanzas "looks centered" depends on several factors, and not just on the widest or average length of the stanzas in the verse. In the following example, after some trial runs, I chose the length of the second-longest stanzas as the basis for \versewidth. Your aesthetic preferences may well differ from mine.
The framelines in the following screenshot are drawn by the showframe package.

\documentclass{book}
\setlength{\textwidth}{5.75in}
\usepackage{verse}
\usepackage{showframe} % draw framelines around text block

\begin{document}

\begingroup % localize scope of '\centering' and '\LARGE' directives
\centering
\LARGE
\settowidth{\versewidth}{And somewhere men are laughing,} % 2nd-longest stanza
\textbf{Casey at the Bat}

\vspace{0.5\baselineskip}

\begin{verse}[\versewidth] % <-- note the optional argument
Oh, somewhere in this favoured land \\
the sun is shining bright, \\
The band is playing somewhere, \\
and somewhere hearts are light;

And somewhere men are laughing, \\
and somewhere children shout, \\
But there is no joy in Mudville--- \\
mighty Casey has struck out.
\end{verse}
\endgroup

\end{document}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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OpenTyrian is an arcade-styled vertical shooter that is an open source port of the original 1995 classic, Tyrian, from Epic MegaGames. Available for Windows Phone, the game delivers an intense, fast-paced Sci-Fi shooter that is reminiscent of games such as Impossible Shoota and Galaga.
The game's graphics have a retro feel with plenty of color and detail. Gaming controls for OpenTyrian are simply designed to help give you a chance at surviving the enemy onslaught. If you are a fan of arcade-style gaming or just are searching for a Windows Phone game to keep you on your toes, OpenTyrian is an entertaining title to have in your gaming library.
The backstory for OpenTyrian has you playing the role of a terraforming pilot named Trent Hawkins, who is employed to scout out habitable locations on newly formed planets. While exploring the planet Tyrian, Hawkins discovers a rival corporation wanting to terraform the same planet for a special mineral, Gravitium, that can be used to control gravity. It is up to Hawkins to defeat the rival corporation, MicroSol, collect data cubes on Gravitium and prevent the new element from being used for evil.
In practice, OpenTyrian is an overhead arcade shooter where you control a spaceship and battle enemy ships and ground forces. OpenTyrian's primary menu has options to start a new game, load a saved game, view your gaming high scores, read the game's instructions and view the gaming credits.
OpenTyrian has two gaming modes, full game or arcade, and three difficulty modes (easy, normal and hard). The full game mode is a story mode with multiple chapters and you manage your ship's upgrades independent of gameplay. The arcade mode also includes the same chapters but is played in arcade fashion with upgrades available during gameplay.
Each game mode has a secondary menu that includes an option to access the mode's settings. These settings include sound and music levels, an option to save the game and choosing your ship control type. OpenTyrian includes support to use the Windows Phone accelerometer to steer the ship or you can tap the screen to direct the ship's movement. Weapon's fire is automatic.
Here is a quick tip on using these secondary menus: The navigation labels (Play Next Level, Options, etc.) require you to double tap the label before the game transitions to that feature. The other menus require a single tap to launch the feature.
Gameplay is fast-paced with an aggressive onslaught of enemy ships and ground forces. The gaming screen has your ship's vital statistics running down the right side of the display and your score in the bottom left corner of the screen. Again, weapons fire is automatic, and you can turn off this feature by tapping the power button that is at the bottom the ship's vital statistics display. When turned off, to fire your weapon just tap the screen. Another quick tip, leave the autofire turned on to give yourself a fighting chance of survival.
There is also a secondary weapon available when your ship is upgraded that fires missiles ahead of your ship. Firing the secondary weapon requires you to tap with two fingers to launch the missiles.
The gameplay transition has you facing a host of enemy ships and ground troops that can be easily destroyed, then a few stronger enemy vessels come into play, all of which leads up to a boss ship that can be a beast to destroy.
Your ship is equipped with shields that will protect you from a few hits from enemy fire or collisions with enemy ships. A gauge is present on the ship's vital statistics panel to give you an idea on how much damage has been sustained and when the shields fail, you lose a life. OpenTyrian is somewhat generous with ship lives with plenty of opportunities to collect purple orbs during gameplay to add a gaming life to the mix.
When you first pick up OpenTyrian and give it a try, it is easy to get hooked on gameplay. There are some slight delays in loading menus and then you have the double-tap variations for navigating around the game that can be a little confusing. Just measuring OpenTyrian on gaming value alone, it is an enjoyable retro arcade game to spend a little time with.
Graphics are detailed and offer that Sci-fi battlefield look, gaming controls are simple and the action has a feverish pitch. OpenTyrian is a free title that is available for Windows Phone that provides you access to the first chapter of gameplay. Additional chapters are available through an in-app purchase of $1.99.


text:
Proportional Canons at Tokyo
31 March 2017 17 July 2017 ~ Jason Stoessel
Last week I travelled to Tokyo, Japan, to present a paper at the quinquennial congress of the International Musicological Society on some of my recent findings on proportional canons from c.1390 to c.1500. This research is part of a larger project that I am conducting with Denis Collins on Canonic Techniques and Musical Change, c. 1330–c.1530. While we have been doing much work last year on the fourteenth-century canon, these are relatively straight-forward examples in which voices imitated each other at the unison after a certain delay between voice entries. The latter is commonly called in technical parlance the interonset interval or IOI.
Proportional canons, on the other hand, present a different set of criteria from the earliest canons. Composers seem to have invented proportional canons at the end of the fourteenth century, possibly in response to other trends around the relationship between music notation and performance, especially the idea of transformation of musical elements into other duration or relationships by shifting them to different time signatures (or, to use historically correct terminology, mensurations) or proportions while using/thinking about the same notes. This is a phenomenon that Emily Zazulia (University of California, Berkeley) has been writing about recently. The BIG difference with the proportional canon (and, as I will soon argue, the mensuration canon) is that canonic voices start simultaneously and then slowly drift apart due to their respective proportional (or mensural) relationships.
So, I am interested in how composers (and probably musicians in general) might have worked out some "rules" for making proportional and mensuration canons. Even though the mensuration canon differs from the proportional canon in terms of process, the results that I was soon seeing in my computer assisted analysis suggested that they were in fact closely related to each other in terms of melodic and contrapuntal technique.
For this enquiry, I asked myself could have composers used principles of melodic design to control contrapuntal relationships between canonic voices. This was partly spurred on by scholarship by Julie Cumming, John Milsom (who was looking at this phenomenon more than 15 years ago) and Peter Schubert concerning the stretto fuga, that is canon in which the IOI between voice entries is no greater than one mensural unit (or tactus). These researchers had found that composers were limiting their choice of particular melodic intervals up or down according to the particular type of stretto fuga that they wished to compose. By particular type, I refer to the interval at which voices imitated each other. All they had to do was ensure was that the canonic voice preferred or avoided certain intervals, and the canon (stretto fuga) would just work! We get a good sense of this practice when it starts to be codified by Gioseffo Zarlino (1558) and then by William Bathe (1584). The latter even presented a table to be used for composing a stretto fuga at any interval, with a list of acceptable melodic intervals according to the interval of imitation. Composing by numbers!
Before 1558, no writer provides instructions for writing a canon (there isn't really anything about proportional canons until the modern era), and so we are left with the question of how did earlier composers write canons. Cummings and Schubert have shown that stretto fuga techniques can be found in compositions as early as the 1430s and as late (or even later than) 1600.
In my paper at Tokyo I revealed some of the findings from computer-assisted analysis on the following proportional and mensuration canons:
Composer and Title Canon Type Interval between voices Sources
Anonymous, Blijfs mi doch bi, gheselle goet Proportional (2:1) (durations in comes double those of the dux), 2 in 1 Simultaneous unison; third voice possibly lost NL-Amsterdam, Universiteitsbibliotheek, Ms. ES 64, fol. 1r
Johannes Ciconia?, Le ray au soleil Proportional 4:3 and 3:1, 3 in 1 Simultaneous unison and octave Perugia, Biblioteca Comunale "Augusta", MS 3065, 3r (part of Lucca 184 manuscript, LXXXIIIr). Lower half of page (under Una panthera)
Guillaume Du Fay, Bien veignés vous, amoureuse Proportional 1:2, 2 in 1 with Contratenor Simultaneous octave GB-Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Canon. Misc. 213, fol. 34v
Guillaume Du Fay, Inclita stella maris Mensuration, C and O, 2 in 1 with two free contratenor (concordans) Simultaneous unison I-Bologna, Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica, Q.15, fols. A211v-212r (no. 173)
Anonymous, Eslongies suy de vous, belle mastresse Proportional 2:1 Simultaneous octave below I-Trento, Museo Provinciale d'Arte, Castello del Buonconsiglio, MS 1374 [87], "Trent 87", fol. 34r
Josquin, Missa L'homme armé super voces musicales, Agnus dei II Mensuration, C, ¢ and 3 Simultaneous, fourth and octave below Numerous sources, from Vatican Library, Cappella Sisitina 197, fol. 9v to Glarean, Dodecachordon and beyond
Although the full extent of my findings will be reserved for a future publication (and reveal in a related blog post!), the following graphs highlight some of my findings. The first chart shows the melodic interval frequency of intervals across the selected canons.
Melodic interval frequency of proportion canons. CC-BY Jason Stoessel.
In some ways, this quite unsurprising – lots of conjunct melodic motion. But in other ways is it interest, particular the greater preference for thirds and fourths in some examples. Le ray au soleyl shows a preference for thirds, and as some readers would know, using a melody of thirds around a central tone is one of the easiest ways to write a canon.
Melodic 3rds abound in Ciconia's(?) Le ray au soleyl, bb. 1-4
But more interesting is Josquin's preference for fourths, something that is a quite obvious feature of the concluding section (bb.19-25) of the Agnus Dei II from his Missa L'homme armé super voces musicales.
Decorative melodic 4ths make canon at the 8ve easier in Josquin's Agnus Dei II from his Missa L'homme armé super voces musicales
One of the ways of trying to make more sense of what is happing in the previous chart is to look at how melody and counterpoint relate. To do this, we can consider the succession of contrapuntal intervals between a pair of canonic voices as a series of trigrams which describe the movement of one interval (or dyad) to another interval, including the melodic step in one voice (here the lowest voice). To represent each trigram I use element notation of [x, y, z], where x is the first vertical interval, y is the second vertical interval and z is the melodic interval in the lower voice of the pair of voices forming this counterpoint. I use the interval indexing convention most well known from the contrapuntal theory of Sergei Taneyev, i.e. 0 is a unison, 1 is a step, 2 a third, 3 a fourth, etc. The results (which require further verification and testing) of trigram analysis of canonic voices in the selected canonic voices is shown in the following graph. For the purpose of this graph I have removed all dissonant vertical intervals, since they are by definition non-contrapuntal.
Trigram frequency of selected proportional and mensuration canons. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This chart begins to demonstrate that some of the melodic interval preferences are related to contrapuntal preferences. For example, consider the highly individualised (at least in terms of this sample) trigram profile of Josquin's Agnus Dei II. It shows a marked preference for thirds moving to unisons by a third in the upper voice [2,0,0], but more significantly are the spikes of descending or ascending melodic fourths in oblique counterpoint [7,4,0]. A quick glance to the above example showing bars 19-25 of this composition helps to understand what is going on here: Josquin is using the interval of the fourth in a quicker moving voice in the top staff over the longer notes of a slower moving voice in the middle staff. It's a simple technique, but it creates variety and allows the canon at the octave between these two voices to work effortlessly.
Another interesting feature is the dominant use of 6ths to 5ths and vice versa as oblique contrapuntal progressions ([5,4,0] and [4,5,0]), as well as other individualising features like a preference for more parallel descending 6ths [5,5,-1] or 6th to octave [5,7,-1] by contrary motion in Eslongies.
Another telling feature of the data is the closeness of the trigram profiles of Guillaume Du Fay's two canons. One is a proportional canon, the other a mensuration canon, thus providing grist to my mill that there is little difference in the technique of both types of simultaneous canons. I could go on, but for now I will let this graph speak for itself. But at this stage, the data from these findings points to techniques similar to the stretto fuga, something that might not be too surprising given that there is only a small difference between close and simultaneous proportional/mensural imitation.
There's more work to do. The perceptive reader would observe that there is a leap between the first and second chart presented above. The first chart considers all intervals regardless of whether or not they form dissonances with other voices. This type of melodic interval, mostly occurring as passing tones but sometimes are ornamenting dissonances (eg. in a suspension), needs to be eliminated in a model that can tell us more about the melodic skeleton of proportional canons that are often decorated by stepwise melodic motion. Similarly, I haven't considered duration and rhythm in this present analysis. These are the next steps in my computer-assisted analysis of proportional canons which I hope to share soon.
Milsom, John. "Hard Composing; Hard Performing; Hard Listening." Early Music 41, no. 1 (2013): 108–12.
Schubert, Peter. "From Improvisation to Composition: Three 16th Century Case Studies." In Improvising Early Music, edited by Dirk Moelants, 93–130. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2014.
Schubert, Peter, and Julie Cumming. "Another Lesson from Lassus: Using Computers to Analyse Counterpoint." Early Music 43, no. 4 (2015): 577–86.
Posted in Canonic Techniques, Computational musicology, Conference Papers, Music history, Uncategorized
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Representative Garnet Coleman is introducing one based on the Sandra Bland case.
Texas state representative Garnet Coleman will carry a bill that calls for ending investigative traffic stops, among other things.
Sandra Bland's arrest in July of last year and her subsequent suicide in the Waller County jail have motivated state representative Garnet Coleman to introduce the Sandra Bland Act in the Texas Legislature, which will convene on January 10th.
Coleman is a Democrat who represents House District 147.
He says Bland's case shows the need for reforms.
"First part is the investigative stop, or a minor traffic violation stop, moving to an escalation by the trooper, then having her put in jail, not getting a PR bond," Coleman explains.
A PR bond is a personal recognizance bond, by which people can be released based on good faith, instead of having to pay cash.
Coleman also wants more training for officers to de-escalate potentially violent situations and better monitoring of inmates who are at risk of suicide.
Jon Taylor, chair of the political science department at the University of Saint Thomas, thinks Coleman's bill could go far in Austin because there is a relative consensus among Texas lawmakers that some changes are needed.
"There is this argument that there needs to be a great concern on the part of law enforcement regarding de-escalation and diversion, particularly diversion before booking," notes Taylor.
Another lawmaker from the Houston area, State Sen. John Whitmire, a Democrat who represents Senate District 15, will carry a bill to make 9th grade students take a class about the duties and responsibilities of police officers and the rights of civilians.


text:
White Hall Vineyards
White Hall Vineyards is a farm winery located just 13 miles from historic Charlottesville, Virginia. At an elevation of 800 feet, the winery has lovely grounds, a pleasantly shaded picnic area, and spectacular views of the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. In addition, the winery boasts a handsome tasting room and a state of the art production area. A visit to the vineyard has been described by some as pure romance, winemaking at its best, and the perfect Sunday afternoon excursion. White Hall Vineyards is open for tours and tastings from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday. The vineyard is closed from Dec. 15 to March 1, and during major holidays.
5282 Sugar Ridge Road, White Hall, VA, US, 22932 Email: tastingroom@whitehallvineyards.com
Phone: 434-823-8615 Web: www.whitehallvineyards.com
Breakheart Red
This easy-drinking wine is an earthy blend of Cabernet Franc, Syrah, and Chambourcin. Aged in a combination of French and American oak barrels, our 2006 Breakheart Red offers the complexity, spice and color from the 2006 Cabernet Franc, with bright, vibrant red-fruit flavors and aromas from the 2006 Syrah. A local favorite, our winemakers change the blend of this wine with each vintage, allowing for experimentation.
A varietal famous for producing quality fruit in Virginia, our 2007 Cabernet Franc was similar to the previous vintage, with small cluster size and early bud break and harvest. The fruit was then carefully handled and left on the skins for a period of two weeks before aging in a Burgundy style for ten months.
The 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon was aged in French and American oak for 10 months. After harvest, the fruit underwent extended maceration, enhancing the color and body of the wine. The Cabernet was blended with Petit Verdot to develop the depth and tannins of the palate.
This Chardonnay was fermented and aged on its lees half each in French and American oak barrels, and held in stainless steel tanks for ten months. Over the years, it has become known as "Charlottesville's Chardonnay," and was bottled this year with both screw cap and cork closures. Our largest production, this wine is fashioned with beautiful extraction of fruits, fresh and lively acidity, and subtle, well-integrated oak flavors.
Chardonnay Reserve
Aged on its lees in our premium French oak barrels for ten months, this wine is a blend of the New and Old blocks from White Hall and is 100% hand-picked estate fruit. The wine has delightful fruit on the palate, a crisp clean finish, and a touch of French oak flavors and aromas. Much like a white Burgundy, our Chardonnay Reserve will benefit from some bottle age.
Cuvee des Champs
Literally translated as "blend of the fields," this local favorite also shares the owners' last name. The Cuvee is our premium red wine, made from the best fruit and juice that each vintage has to offer. A classic Bordeaux blend, our 2006 vintage is comprised of all five Bordeaux varietals and was aged for 18 months in our finest oak barrels..
Edichi
This port-style dessert wine was named after Mrs. Edith Champ, a co-owner of White Hall Vineyards. A blend of Touriga (a Portuguese varietal) and Petit Verdot, the 2006 vintage shows intense spicy aromas and wonderfully full flavors. With residual sugar and alcohol levels that are slightly lower than typical ports, this is a fantastic dessert wine. Enjoy a glass with a piece of chocolate for an added treat!
Produced in a manner similar to our 2006 vintage, the 2007 Gewurztraminer was cold soaked and pressed. The juice was then added to barrels and steel tanks for fermentation. This vintage of our Gewurztraminer was also made in an Alsatian style, but is slightly sweeter than the 2006 vintage, making this a great food wine and a wonderful aperitif.
Light and fruity, the 2007 Merlot was aged for eight months in both French and American oak barrels. It was fermented half in small bins and half in the French Delestage method. Blended with Petit Verdot and Chambourcin, our Merlot has a long and smooth finish.
This is White Hall's fourth year producing a Petit Manseng, and the wine has quickly become a local favorite. A grape known primarily for blending, it is becoming more and more popular as a varietal. Our Petit Manseng grapes were harvested later than most fruit, providing beautifully ripe flavors. Expect a big, rich, aromatic, fruity, and floral white wine with just a bit of sweetness.
A popular Bordeaux varietal that has shown great potential in Virginia, this is our fourth vintage of Petit Verdot. The grapes were fermented half in small bins and half with the French Delestage method, and the fruit was then aged in French and American oak. Deep color, rich flavors of fruit and spice, and smooth tannic structure make this varietal one of our most popular.
100% estate grown, our Pinot Gris fruit was crushed and cold soaked on the skins for four hours prior to pressing, adding to the body and richness. Neutral oak integration occurred during fermentation to give the juice more of a "Gris" style, before moving the collection into stainless steel tanks to complete the process.
Soliterre
The Soliterre, our version of a German Eiswein, is a sweet dessert wine. In Europe, grapes are naturally frozen while here, grapes are harvested in early September and mechanically frozen for three months. The fruit is then pressed partially frozen and the resulting juice is concentrated and viscous. The residual sugar levels are also higher than normal, allowing us to partially ferment the wine, while leaving behind some sweet flavors. The wine is then aged entirely in stainless steel tanks for five months. The result is a wonderful dessert wine with fabulous concentration and a beautiful balance of sweetness and acidity. Try it alongside your favorite berry or peach dessert!
Sugar Ridge White
Named after the road in front of the winery (Sugar Ridge Road), this white wine is fruit forward and off dry. For our 2007 vintage, we reverted to the award winning 2005 style, and produced it with 100% Vidal Blanc, unlike our 2006 vintage, which was a blend of six different varietals. This vintage was also fermented entirely in stainless steel tanks and bottled with screw cap closures.
The 2007 Syrah is our fourth vintage working with this varietal and, as with previous vintages, bright fruit aromas precede vibrant flavors and a lengthy finish. Similar to Australian Shiraz in many ways, the wine has become known for light, fruit forward tannins.
Touriga
White Hall's third vintage of this Portuguese varietal, Touriga Nacional, was fermented both in small bins and with the French Delestage method. The fruit was then aged for ten months in French and American oak, resulting in a deeply colored, smooth, and rich wine with dark fruit flavors. Ready to drink now, the Touriga will continue to age well with a wonderful balance of tannin, fruit, and oak.
Vin Gris
The 2007 Vin Gris is our dry rose style wine. It is a lovely blend of five different red varietals, including Syrah from White Hall's own vines. The juice was bled off the cool, freshly crushed grapes with limited skin contact allowed, and then processed like a white wine, resulting in a southern French and Mediterranean style dry rose with lush red fruit flavors that makes a wonderful aperitif wine.
Extremely ripe grapes were pressed to produce juice typical of a Viognier. The wine was then barrel-fermented at cool temperatures for richness, and malolactic fermentation was inhibited to keep the acidity vibrant. Our most popular wine next to our Chardonnay, the Viognier was aged 40% in neutral oak and 60% in stainless steel, and was also bottled with screw cap closures.