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Bipolar and writing
What’s a topic or issue about which you’ve changed your mind? I often changed my mind about how I approach my ‘bipolar disorder’. A recent example is when decided to write openly about my diagnosis and my experience with ‘psychoses’. I thought hard about it and reached the conclusion that if I, a university lecturer,… Continue reading
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Work and bipolar disorder
In what ways does hard work make you feel fulfilled? Work fulfils me in many ways, and I like working. It’s an essential part of being human. Karl Marx distinguished between labour and work. Labour is when you end up being exploited, like, for instance, in a factory where all work could finish in seven… Continue reading
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Agency and ‘Severe mental illness’
In social science, agency is the ability of individuals to have the power and resources to fulfil their potential. It’s one independent ability to act on one’s will. John Locke pointed out that the concept of agency is the capacity of individual beings to shape circumstances in which they live. And Jacques Rousseau called it… Continue reading
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Live your life fully
What things give you energy? It’s an interesting question to ask: what things give you energy? By answering this question I would like to first make an observation that there are people who derive you off energy (psychic vampires) and those who give you energy. I am a donor of energy. I give energy to… Continue reading
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On Writing
What do you enjoy most about writing? My family name Netchitailova means unreadable’ in Russian and yet, writing and reading is my biggest passion! I started to write at the age of twelve and in Russian and even won a third place at one writing competition at school but didn’t pursue this passion until the… Continue reading
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The Mad Teacher
We all have the potential for madness, but the degree of its manifestation is what really matters, in order to be considered as mental, or just slightly eccentric. The amount of crazy people though is very likely to be on the increase, considering the society in which we are living, not helped by the consequences… Continue reading
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Overcoming the odds
Everyday I get up and keep going, despite multiple psychoses behind. Everyday I overcome a terrible feeling of shame and show up to the world for the sake of my son. I can do it, I tell myself, and I fight for the space on earth – I still managed to create with my diagnosis… Continue reading
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A Crush on a Russian and Bipolar Disorder (By Guest Blogger: David Williams)
I remember my first crush was on a Russian gymnast called Yelena Davidova. I had the copy of Newsweek when she was on the front cover. She was the women’s artistic individual all-around champion at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. I was 14 and intensely miserable. I had undergone a transformative experience at 13,… Continue reading
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I Live
Hello friends and other interested parties. My name is Ekaterina. I was born in Russia during the year of dragon (according to the Chinese wisdom), month of cancer (according to astrology). Currently we are in the year of the rat, characterised by the global Corona pandemic, which gives a message: start taking care of the… Continue reading
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A Peek Inside the Modern Asylum
The psychiatric hospital of today might appear as a foreign, scary object to the mind who has never visited the institution. It represents the unknown, the territory that one is terrified of, but at the same time attracted to with natural human curiosity. Let’s be frank here: we want to know what is inside and… Continue reading
About Me
I am a doctor of philosophy, a university lecturer, and a lover of cats, fine wine, dancing, theatre, and human eccentricity. I was born in the Soviet Union (Moscow). I am fluent in four languages, and have spent all my adult life studying (except from 18 to 19) working and living throughout Western Europe. Despite a surname-Netchitailova- that translates from Russian into English as “unreadable”, my greatest passions in life are reading and writing. My personal struggles have made me appreciate the manifestations of weirdness that exist everywhere.