Humanity's Genes and the Human Condition
the genetics of psychosis

Last weekend I was at a symposium on campus called "Humanity's Genes and the Human Condition" organized by Sydney Brenner. The speakers were excellent, and I plan to put up a few posts over the next couple of days. The pictures below are from a talk by David Porteous about the genetics of psychosis. Dr. Porteous started his talk with an anecdote about Bryan Charnely an artist with schizophrenia. The pictures below are from a series of painting as he took himself off his medication and resulted in his suicide about three months after the first painting. The Final painting shown here was found on his easel along with his body. The complete series of self portraits as well as information about the life and work of Bryan Charnely can be found at this website. This really brought home to me the idea of titrating the chemistry of life. How do we define "normal" and who should decide the level of medication etc. There are no clear answers, but the "project" is striking.