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12
Culture
Drugs aren’t cool:
High Society
Kathryn Dickson
Guest Writer
“The jazz just isn’t the same when
I’m not stoned”. The 65 year old in the
psychiatric outpatient clinic smiles
sweetly. He gave up cannabis five years
ago thanks to its tendency to push his
bipolar disorder into depression. I feel
for him because this clinic just isn’t the
same without a black Americano. For
him, the pub isn’t the same without a
Jamesons-coke or the cold walk home
without a badly rolled Golden Virginia.
As the current ‘High Society’ exhibition
at the Wellcome Collection points
out, very few people live their life without
some kind of mood- or mind-altering
substance. Drugs have been used
throughout history and across continents.
Yet drug culture is so intolerable
to society that not only do we criminalise
it, but we turn its use into medical
syndromes. As a society, and as a medical
profession, we attempt to balance
conflicting demands of an individual’s
autonomy against the need to protect
from the harm that drugs can cause.
Drugs are used to alter our bodily
functions for a variety of purposes
- medical, recreational, religious, experimental.
Using the idea that ‘the
alteration of consciousness is a universal
human impulse’, ‘High Society’ explores
mankind’s use of drugs. Videos
of the Tukano tribe taking ritual Ayahuasca
to achieve a spiritual connection
with their ancestors play opposite
engravings of opium dens, whilst manuscripts
of Kubla Khan lie next to prohibition
propaganda. A heroin addict
describes the experience of withdrawal
in front of a case of Sativex (a cannabis
based analgesic licensed in 2010 for
MS). The wide range of materials in
the exhibition is clearly its main selling
point, although the diversity does add
to the romanticism surrounding drugs.
With only a slight nod to modern research,
it could be argued that the exhibition
focuses more on
the curious than
the current.
However,
with
the tagline ‘A free destination for the
incurably curious’, perhaps this is to
be expected. The chilling note of sobriety
is as one leaves – a giant poster
charting the cost and purity of heroin
as it travels from grower to user.
The exhibition has an emphasis on
the broadness of the term drug, which
encompasses many substances. When
we use the term we primarily think of
those which alter the mind’s functioning.
Drugs give us the power to alter
the world we perceive. One of the most
commonly used metaphors for a drug
experience is a trip, drugs literally being
able to transport us to a different
world. For some, this deepens our understanding
of what it means to be human,
but it is these drugs that are problematic.
Dangers of altered mind aside,
are we demanding fair play in our demonisation
of drugs? We are forced
to suffer the pain of the sober world,
why should others be able to opt out?
In December, the government released
their drug strategy-‘Reducing
demand, restricting supply, building
recovery’. In recent years there has
been a move towards the aim of harm
reduction instead of criminal justice.
Now the focus is on recovery, although
whether this is drug reduction or abstinence
is still unclear. The proposition
to cut benefits of drug users refusing
treatment has not been carried through,
although six pilot schemes to “explore
how payment by results can work for
drug recovery for adults” are to be set
up. In perhaps more relevance to the
future medical profession, the management
of drug and alcohol services is to
move from Local Authorities to the reformed
NHS and a new Public Health
for England body. Is this simply policy
to bring power to a more local level, or
a reflection of our attitude towards addiction
as a medical problem and a disease?
Becoming responsible for strategy
will force doctors to take a clearer
stance on the problem of drugs and alcohol,
and the associated ethical debates.
The NHS is changing, doctors are
to be held responsible for the strategies
and policies we may have previously
been able to hide behind. As ‘High Society’
neatly demonstrates, drug use is
a universal habit, one which poses complex
questions for society. If answering
these is to fall to the medical profession,
we must find our minds educated and
open. This is what ‘High Society’ does;;
it challenges all attitudes. The exhibition
offers no conclusion, these are the
things that we do, and the problems that
we are left with. The rest is up to us.
.
The exhibition ‘High Society’ is
running at the Wellcome Collection
until 27th February. For more info
visit www.wellcomecollection.org
The King’s Speech documents
the rise of Prince Albert
(Colin Firth), son of King
George V and second in line
to the throne. Though crippled by a pronounced
stammer, Albert ascends to the
head of the monarchy in an age where
for the first time ever, royal speeches
were expected to be delivered into the
home of every subject, via the cutting
edge technology of wireless radio.
The opening of the film introduces
us to not only the Prince, but also to
the severity of his disability. As Firth
attempts to give a speech to a packed
Wembley stadium, the anticipation
of all is apparent. As the Prince agonisingly
stumbles over every word,
the faces of those around him display
bemusement and disappointment,
none more so than that of his wife
Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter).
The film cuts to a despondent Prince
undergoing a speech-therapy session.
The upper-class three-piece suit-wearing
doctor fails to make any headway
with the Prince’s speech impediment
and is made to seem an almost laughable
figure. Frustrated by the latest failed
THE KING’S SPEECH
attempt, Albert gives up on any further
therapy. However, his long suffering
wife persists and enlists the help of Lionel
Logue (Geoffrey Rush), an Australian
speech therapist based on Harley
Street. After the death of King George
V, and the abdication of his eldest son,
Albert becomes a reluctant king. The
beginning of his reign was tainted with
the declaration of war against Germany.
It was a radio address to the entire Kingdom,
both home and abroad, that would
bring Albert his biggest test so far.
It is the relationship between Albert
and Logue that allows the Albert
to overcome his obstacles. Initially,
Albert plays the role of a difficult patient,
sceptical about anything Logue
suggests. Logue, in stark contrast to
the ‘upper class, three piece suit-wearing
doctor’, remains patient and, and
after his own stuttering start, eventually
breaks down the barriers that existed
between himself and Albert. This
opened Albert up to new ideas and
techniques for tackling his problem.
Eventually, by building rapport and
trust, Logue is able to get the Prince
to disclose personal problems, despite
February 2011 medicalstudent
Culture Editor: Robyn Jacobs
culture@medical-student.co.uk
Pranav Mahajan sees a film that sp...sp...speaks volumes for the Dr-patient relationship...
his initial insistence that he would not,
thus allowing him to explore the psychological
core of Albert’s impediment.
The film is brilliantly directed, with
a star-studded British cast. The attention
to historical detail, from the wonderfully
authentic props to the wobble
of Winston Churchill’s jowls, adds extra
dimension to a remarkable visual
experience. Firth brilliantly depicts raw
emotion, his character’s frustration and
awkward irritation at his inabilities is so
well portrayed, that those feelings are
readily shared by the viewer. It comes
as no surprise that his performance is
tipped to earn Firth his first Oscar, having
already won a Golden Globe for
best actor in his portrayal of the King.
The film will also be making a theatre
debut in the West End later this year.
The King’s Speech would appeal to
anyone, but the importance of Logue’s
relationship with Albert, makes this a
must see for medical students wanting
to explore patient communication techniques.
The importance of listening,
patience and rapport building are all on
display in a real master class in establishing
a good doctor-patient relationship .
Student
Artwork of
the Month
By Jiyu Lim
“A boy sets out on a
journey in search of
his long lost mother,
whom he is told is
a ‘mermaid’. The
boy spends all his
childhood looking
for his mother,
only to realise that
sometimes the truth
is best left unknown”
If you would like to see your
artwork, photography or
poetry featured, please email
culure@medical-student.co.uk