Brain Stories will tell 10 unique stories - each featuring a different individual, distinctive symptoms and differing cultural, racial and sometimes historical questions. The stories will have deliberate diversity, yet share the most fundamental human concerns while fostering greater understanding of what it means to battle or manage brain illness. The world of brain illness looks foreign and alien. Yet the concerns, needs and aspirations of those with an illness are universal. This is the first season of the series, and a recurrent theme in these episodes will be an aspect that is most confounding, and least understood: anosognosia. This is the inability of many of those with a serious mental health issue to see the illness in themselves. The implications of this sociologically, institutionally, and yes emotionally (these stories are deeply moving) are enormous.
The mission of Brain Stories is to promote engagement with the mental health community from people who have little or no connection/exposure to those with serious mental health issues. Through the telling of these stories we hope to elicit empathy for and dissolve fear of those who battle brain disorders. In an effort to amplify the experiences of an highly stigmatized group through a historical, sociological, and cultural lens, we hope to facilitate community solidarity and engage listeners who might otherwise be unaffected by these realities.
