Interesting. Had dinner last week with a friend who does psych assessments in regional Victoria and we sort of touched on this issue. I think you have a valid point. Part of the problem is our poor level of understanding of psych issues and chronic underfunding in all areas of mental health. I think the workers at the coal face are stressed and traumatised and often end up batty themselves.

Unfortunately much of today’s left intelligentsia is more interested in narrowly bourgeois issues like arts funding rather than bread and butter issues like mental health, which disproportionately impacts the poor. Of course the right intelligentsia couldn’t give a stuff. As mental health isn’t a vote winner and the elites largely ignore it, the prognosis is very poor indeed.

But I think you may be sugarcoating some of the less attractive attitudes in the mental health professions towards some diagnoses over others. Maybe it’s less pronounced at the neuroscience end of the profession.

Firstly, Quinn spent one week at the Howard Florey Institute working with a number of different neuroscientists. All were extremely impressed with her maturity and her ability to understand the complexities of the brain. The Florey’s Director was also very impressed by Quinn. Such support from Australia’s leading brain research institute means that should Quinn decide to one day undertake postgraduate studies or seek employment in neuroscience, the Florey would welcome her. To say that by talking about her battle with a annorexia and depression on TV would have a negative impact on her neuroscience career prospects is pure nonsense.

Secondly, Quinn and her family were made fully aware of the ramifications of talking on TV about her battle with annorexia and depression. Quinn was not ashamed of her experience with mental illness and believed that by sharing her story she may be able to help other girls going through similar problems.

Quinn is an exceptional young woman. We need more talented people like Quinn taking an interest in neuroscience research as it is these people who will help find the answers to the devastating brain disorders that affect billions of people world-wide.

Just some observations: just because we’d all like mental health issues to be stigma-free, doesn’t mean they are. And, like we said, there are some issues within the mental health professions that are very real (and widely recorded in the literature) that haven’t attracted much attention outside it.

I don’t think there is anything to be gained by extending arguments about shielding children from exploitation to absurd extremes. Even the injunction “thou shalt not kill” will yield paradoxical and absurd results when applied rigidly and without reference to the context.

Kay Redfield Jamison wrote a memoir documenting her bipolar disorder. She is Professor of Psychiatry at John Hopkins Medical School and an acknowledged academic expert in Bipolar Disorder. Quinn walks in the footsteps of others and thankfully, they have made it a little easier for her to achieve her goals.

One only has to look at the way Bindi Irwin has been shamelessly exploited following her father’s death and made to perform all over the world like a trained seal…

And how is this different from sticking a child in a room full of other children and expecting them to perform like a ‘trained seal’?

When it comes to normative standards concerning the rights of children and the responsibilities of their parents, inconsistencies and hysteria are par for the course in our society.

I think the question is: where is the line between an abnormal childhood and an abusive one?

WTF

a wicker basket laden with back issues of Peopleand a bookcase completely bereft except for a dusty bottle of Baitz’s Cherry Liqueur and copy of Max Walker’s How to Hypnotise Chooks.

Far more embarrasing but fortunately ungooglable.

A disturbing post Robert. Presumably she should bury her past and never mention it again? All too late now obviously. However, if future partners or employers are going to discriminate against her because of her childhood psychological issues (that she has bravely overcome) then I’d suggest that’s their loss and she’s better off without them.

You seem to be validating the social stigma of mental illness while at the same time decrying it. The stigma attached to mental illness is obviously very real in society and we’re quite pychzoid about it, but the antidote for such stimga is never going to be brought about through our being embarrassed about another’s revelations. Indeed such reactions only serve to compound it.

From what I could gather Quinn was in the final 4 but was not the winner.

When it comes to normative standards concerning the rights of children and the responsibilities of their parents, inconsistencies and hysteria are par for the course in our society.

I kind-of see your point Robert. But I have to warn you that IMHO to link this one with Henson puts you perilously close to nomination for an Agincourt Award. (*ooh, harsh!*)