Disconnectedness

What causes mental disease?

What causes mental disease? The definition of mental disease can be different from one another. Everyone may encounter mild or major life events now and then. It affects the way you think and how you behave. It is almost impossible to avoid mental disease in a capitalistic society. But why hasn't it been talked about enough? It is almost considered taboo. Numerous studies are being conducted to facilitate hospitalization and treatment for people diagnosed with mental illness. Many patients suffering from mental diseases and their families cringe in the public eye. Therefore, Seulbin Roh believes it should not only be talked about but also be dealt as an emancipatory possibility to overcome capitalism itself.

Brain Activity(visual changes and tactile sensibility)

Roh specifically started to delve into schizophrenia and how it affects brain activity. In the novel "The Tell-Tale Heart"(1843), the main character suffering from schizophrenia shouts: "Didn't I tell you that what you think is madness is a hypersensitivity of emotions?" Sensory changes are particularly prominent in the early stages of schizophrenia. For example, the main character experienced sharpened hearing. However, visual changes are more common than auditory changes. A patient depicts: “Now the color looks brighter. It's like fluorescent paint. You can't tell if things are solid or liquid. I'm not a very artistic person, but I think I'm more sensitive to color. Everything looks lively. Especially red.” Sometimes tactile sensibility is maximized. Another patient depicts: “Everything felt rich as if it were a thin line. It was soft and shiny like water, but it was also solid. But again it became rough and shaded.”

New form of togetherness

Psychosis is accompanied by depression, anxiety, sleep disturbance, loss of motivation, and many other symptoms. In the contemporary age in which pursuing individual gains is rampant and the social bubble of the world could be seen as psychotic in itself, many people suffer from the debilitating consequences of mental illness. Born by a sacrificial journey through the disconnected, Roh looks to a remediated connection and world in which it is possible to dream of new forms of togetherness, evoking a place where the wasted scraps are reborn to bear fruit and our inner and collective selves become stronger.