Writers Night Anthology - Part 1: A Break in the Wall

Creative Doctors Writers Networking Night 2015 demonstrated deep wells of talent amongst the

attendees. As a result we've decided to create an anthology of works from the night and this is Part 1.

Bruce Lachter is a psychiatrist whose published novel "A Break in the Wall" draws on his experience as a prison psychiatrist and his talent in seeing the humourous side of darkness to create a fascinating and highly readable work.
Bruce has given us the first two chapters of his novel to publish on the Original Words page of this blog. If it leaves you  itching for more the novel is available from Amazon in paperback or in a kindle edition.

Creative doctors thanks Judith Babich from Active Locums for her support in catering for this event and Black Dog Institute for providing the venue.

         
Watch this space in coming weeks for more of the work presented on the night.

2015 Writers Night is this Thursday 18th June

Just a quick reminder that Creative Doctors Writers Networking Night is coming up this week

The amazing Dr Dennis Lewis-Enright
reading from his spontaneous musings
at Writers Night 2014

on
Thursday 18th June at 6.30 for 7.00pm 
at
Main Lecture Room, Ground Floor
Black Dog Institute

The Black Dog Institute building is on Hospital Rd, a road within the grounds of Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick NSW. Hospital Rd runs from High St to Barker St along the edge of the Hospital. There is some street parking nearby and you are free to use the POW Hospital car park.

Light refreshments will be provided by the wonderful Judith Babich from Active Locums and we can expect to hear some of our members reading some great writing from both their published and unpublished work, as we have in previous years.

If you plan to come please let Howard know soon so that we can get the catering right.
howard@aya.yale.edu 0402827156
If you plan to read and haven't let us know yet please let Jan know asap so we can finalise the program
janorman@mccauleysoftware.com. 0425215876

Channeling Madame Defarge

It's winter again and some of us have turned our backs on the great outdoors and begun to snuggle up with our knitting. The click clack of my needles helps me shut out the daily struggles, the guillotine's thud.

Image by Kaley Tate

Sitting granny-like in my favorite chair, secretly indulging myself with needles and yarn, I have come across an article that tells me that not only am I one of the coolest of people but also that my favorite winter past time causes dopamine release and can cure a myriad of ills including depression and PTSD.
The article in the Daily Mail sparked my interest enough to have me go looking for some supporting evidence for its claims.
It seems that knitting's benefits are about more than a sense of achievement in creative endeavour.  Rhythmic repetitive body movements, stimulation from colour and texture, repetitive eye movement and focused mindful activity are all some of the suggested mechanisms for knitting's psychological benefits.
We also know that people who take up a craft like knitting, as well as those who read and play games, are less likely to develop mild cognitive impairment as they age. Increasing the complexity of the task improves the results further. Knitting is good for you, cable and fair isle are better still!
Is anyone willing to admit to knitting - now you know what a good thing it is? (Or have you known it all along?)

Don’t let practising medicine get in the way of your creativity!

“It’s never too late” was the main message coming out of Visual Arts night this year – never too late to get involved in artistic pursuits and hone the skills you learn to a high level. Striking stories of recent engagement (or re-engagement) with the arts were the order of the night.

Our 2015 Creative Doctors Visual Arts Networking Night was held  on 23^rd April at North Sydney. We saw an array of extraordinary exhibits from talented doctors - some familiar faces and a satisfying number of new ones. We also saw quite wide range of visual arts represented. Judith Babich of Active Locums again provided the venue (a terrific space in North Sydney Community Centre complete with display tables and easels) and the refreshments. 

Richard Wu

Marc Grunseit, former doctor and internationally reknown glass artist, Howard Gwynne, GP psychotherapist newborn as a photographer and Richard Wu, artist and practising psychiatrist, led the way for those whose work we’ve seen before. Marc has been a glass artists for 30 years having made the perilous leap out of medicine and landed safely on the other side. Howard would tell you that he discovered the joys of multiple exposure by chance. You can see some of the results of that chance discovery here. He took the opportunity to show us some of his more playful recent work. Richard Wu showed us works in 3 different styles. His interests include finding a model that ties together Chinese painting, psychotherapy and the neuroscience of creativity. We also saw some more beautiful felting from haematologist Alessandra Bianchi.

Alessandra Bianchi

Newcomers included:

• Kai Lin Lie, GP, who shared her experience of learning to draw as a mature student and showed us examples of the various techniques she has mastered.
• John Wong, GP, who exhibited skillful watercolour landscapes  influenced by his Chinese heritage and stunned us with the news that he only took up painting, or any kind of visual art, 3 years ago.
• Libby Bassett, former GP, who showed some of the extraordinary printmaking work she has done since taking it up in her retirement.
• Robyn Coleman, retired GP and occupational medicine specialist,

  

  Shima Ghedia

  who took up painting with her daughter some years ago to aid her daughter’s recovery from a serious illness and couldn’t stop. The process inspired Robyn to complete a Diploma of Visual Arts and she has exhibited every year since 2006. Robyn  showed us some of her recent pastel paintings.
• Shima Ghedia, emergency medicine specialist,who exhibited artwork and a portfolio of photography
• Barry Wilkins who displayed his stunning photographic landscapes
• Ajesh Shrestha, RMO, who showed us 17 delightful small graphite portraits – a talent he developed as a child growing up in Nepal.  You can see more of Ajesh’s work at here

The New Art of Medicine - Art in Medical Schools

Art therapy is a well established therapeutic modality, helping people recover from a wide range of physical and emotional difficulties, but art education for their doctors is a relatively new idea. It's not aimed at helping doctors manage their own health problems (though that's not a bad idea either) but rather at helping doctors understand what illness is like for their patients.

Artwork by Ted Meyer from his
Structural Abnormalities series

The Huffington Post recently published an article about Ted Meyer who has been guest artist at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA  for the past 5 years. Ted's story of the artistic crisis that occurred for him when he discovered he was not, after all, going to die at 30 is interesting in itself, but the story of the work he does with medical students is even more fascinating

This new way of thinking is even having an impact on the way prospective students in medical schools are being assessed. Dr Salvatore Mangione, Associate Professor of Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University says in an interview with Forbes Magazine in 2013  (you can read it here) that "artistic and visual skills may enhance the ability of a student to excel in medical school and become a successful physician in practice." Interestingly it is suggested that the right brain's visual and imagery skills have been made more important by the visual emphasis of the digital age.

Read the Huffington Post story here and let us know if you are aware of any other similar initiatives in Australian medical schools.