Obiter dicta by Professor Gavin Brown AO

Mental health

14 November 2003

From time to time there comes a confluence of ideas and events which appears highly propitious. Such a train of circumstances began for me some three weeks ago in New York as I listened to a talk on Alzheimer's disease in fruit-flies. The lecturer was Vikram Khurana, one of our brightest young graduates, now working in the United States.

The language is, of course, deliberately colourful and exaggerates our knowledge both of human ageing and of drosophila. The latter breed so quickly and so prolifically in the laboratory that they are the scientists' favourite tools for a great many genetically related investigations. In this case the study concerns nerve degeneration and one trusts that fresh insights will not only be gained but will also be transferable to a deeper understanding of homo sapiens. At around the same time I read the latest novel by Sue Woolfe, who teaches writing at the University of Sydney. Her book is most successful, to my eyes, as an exploration of love - be that parental, filial, marital - and is both moving and lyrical. A powerful underlying theme, however, is mental illness, in this case autism.

The book explores a black power struggle between those who deny genetic predisposition relying on psychiatric resolution dripping with parenting blame, and those who seek understanding through laboratory science. Perhaps Woolfe's depiction is too pessimistic (I hope so) just as her story's ending is too sweet for my taste. A further background issue which could have been explored is the potential tension in other forms of mental illness between biochemical analysis and treatment and psychiatric diagnosis, explication and cure.

The Brain and Mind Institute, being led and developed by Max Bennett with the active involvement of Ian Hickie, sets out to tackle depression and schizophrenia, inter alia, with a planned collaborative integration of neurophysiology, pharmaceutical analysis, clinical outreach and psychiatric care. The University has made available a building in Mallett Street and significantly large seed funding. Already the Institute has won a Ramaciotti grant of $1 million and has received tangible backing from private donors. Co-operation with other universities and external organisations is well advanced and the latest briefings on progress are greatly encouraging.

Also, in the last week, I have learned of exciting new work at the Centre for the Mind where one of Allan Snyder's projects focuses on autistic behaviour. There the technique of switching off parts of the brain by electrical means has allowed experiments which appear to confirm the hypothesis that some of the learned functions of the normally developed brain deny us access to skills (in drawing, arithmetic etc) typical of freakish savants which we possess in latent form.

I have been told that at least one in five Australians suffers mental illness at some time. Nevertheless, research in this field attracts less public and private support than is warranted. I am proud that the University of Sydney is showing strong leadership in the enabling disciplines and in the closely related area of gerontology. I commend those scientific initiatives to you, just as I commend the efforts to strengthen links with expatriate Australian researchers and, moreover, I commend The Secret Cure of Sue Woolfe.