All in the Mind 10th Anniversary Special 5: The Banyan
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What is the purpose of the 10th‑anniversary special of All in the Mind?
Welcome to All in the Mind and happy 2012. We're continuing with the tenth anniversary celebrations of the show over the next few weeks, digging into our delicious archives. Natasha Mitchell with you. Now I'm heading off to present our daily morning programme Life Matters here on ABC. Radio National later this month. Looking forward to that. All in the mind continues from April with Lynn Malcolm in the chair, but we'll be alternating seasonally with an exciting new show hosted by Amanda Smith called The Body Sphere. Which kicks off on january the twenty ninth. So the body and mind gets fused this year on Radio National and we'll be moving to a new slot Sundays at five and still on Mondays at one. Now one of the themes that I've come back to again and again on the show is the way our minds are culturally situated, because the way we think is shaped by culture, as is the way our thinking becomes fractured.
There's been a big focus this century on the biological story of mental illness, but I've been Equally interested in the cultural story too. And with that, over the years I've brought you stories from Burma, Iraq, Archeh. China, Japan, Bali, Russia, Central Australia, the Torres Strait, New Zealand and whole host of other places. So let's head back to All in the Mind in two thousand and four and our series A Mental Health Odyssey in India The Extraordinary Stories from the Banyan, which still thrives today in Chennai.
Inji paraga, manjasid paraga, kala sidi paraga, marakama Markam May Kuri Panjav If a woman fe is stressed. And if she throws a tantrum, she's immediately branded as mental. But as a man Whatever stress he has, it is accepted for him to smoke to ease out his stress, for him to drink to ease out his stress. for him to have sex either in extramarital or marital Whereas a woman is expected to keep quiet, which is a very unfortunate thing. Козерh ⁇ н бин нет с outlet.
And people I've heard people say he she's mad, he's mad, but I didn't have a full idea and I never, never expected in life that I would become one, that I will be in such a situation. Only after I came into w when I became mentally ill, when I went to the mental hospital, when I saw so many patients going under circum there there I found it very difficult.
Hello Natasha. I'm quite well, thank you. I went to church this morning and what was the message? That God will supply all your needs according to his word. And the God who brought you in Banin will heal you completely of all your illness. I sing one song sister. I sing one song. I know the Lord will make his way for me. I know the Lord will make his way for me. These women you probably not even see it is you you use this term of destitute brown, which is the color of people who come in and when they're sitting on the side of the road, you actually don't see them. The color of your clothing is the same color as it's grey. Probably don't see them. I would say most often it becomes like uh in India the woman is considered as a caregiver.
But if the woman is falling sick there isn't anybody. So she treats herself the last. So When there is an onset of illness nobody really knows that this is a sign of mental illness or anything. Probably the children come back from school or the husband comes back from work and there is a woman who is sitting at home and who is disturbed. They think okay, she's just acting smart or she's thinks too much of herself or she's just feeling bored because she's sitting at home and you know, things like that. But nobody really thinks beyond that.
Some women in this situation who go without support or treatment find themselves isolated or in extreme cases cast out by the family they've married into.
How does culture shape the way mental illness is understood in India?
And it's one such woman whose experience inspired the birth of the Banyan in nineteen ninety-three. Today, this NGO based in Chennai, South India, houses over 260 women who are homeless and mentally ill. Seymour and Snigda, who you just heard from, both work and live at the banyan, alongside women residents, and an enthusiastic population of volunteers, health workers and visitors.
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