Shock Head Soul. The Story of Daniel Paul Schreber

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Description

He was a respected judge in 19th-century Germany, but at age 51 Daniel Paul Schreber began claiming to receive messages from God via a "writing down machine" that spanned the cosmos. He spent several years in an asylum, tortured by delusions of cosmic control and convinced he was shifting gender. During his confinement he wrote Memoirs of My Nervous Illness, a volume later referenced in detail by Freud. In it, Schreber argued that his belief system was a matter of religious freedom and that he was sane enough to live with his wife and daughter. This film uses a variety of creative approaches to document and examine Schreber's case. In doing so it explores the intimate link between family secrets, psychiatric methodology, and the limits to our contemporary understanding of mental illness.