Wide Awake: Johnny Cash, Alan Berliner and the phenomenon of creative-job-related insomnia
Johnny Cash was a haunted, restless spirit. So was, and is movie producer Alan Berliner, as he so brilliantly and transparently reveals in the classic documentary, Wide Awake. Both of these artists created some of their best material while under the influence of creative-job-related insomnia, and both fought this angel/demon with sleep medication. Their respective bouts of insomnia impacted their work, and their work, in turn, impacted their insomnia.
Johnny fought the insomnia-related sense of drowsiness and fatigue with uppers, eventually becoming psychologically and physically dependent on them, and he began consuming them in volumes that would have killed the average man.
On the other hand, Alan Berliner was so afraid of the effects of stimulants that he didn't even consume one cup of coffee until his Wide Awake informal phenomenological experiment, in which he consumed his first cup on film and then observed the results, while letting others in on those results with their own observations.
June Carter, the woman he would eventually marry and co-write Ring of Fire, one of his biggest hits with, co-dependently rescued him from his addiction to sedatives and stimulants, as revealed in this song by yours truly, featuring the sensational Alyssa Kaess:
Dr BLT and Alyssa Kaess
words and music by Dr BLT © 2009
If you've seen the movie, Wide Awake, you'll understand the phenomenon of job-related insomnia, especially as it concerns the arts. If you've read articles about insomnia, and compared them to the movie, you'll understand the beauty of the phenomenological approach to depicting a phenomenon such as insomnia. If allows you to understand what it feels like, not simply to have some sort of aloof clinical understanding of the phenomenon.
Whether he set out to do so or not, Alan Berliner was engaged in phenomenological research as he produced this self-revealing and poignant documentary. The song, Johnny and June, also involved an artist's (this artist's) phenomenological attempt to capture Johnny's struggle to control his sleep/wake disruption through medication, but it does so through the eyes of the woman who would become his wife and creative partner. Use the movie, if you've seen it, and the song, if you've heard it, to launch into a discussion about the contrast between phenomenological depictions, and empirical studies. Then look at the phenomenon of creative-job-related insomnia through the lens of empirical research.
What I'd like you, the blog visitor/participant to do is this: find another example of phenomenological research, then compare phenomenological research to conventional empirical studies. Provide a brief comparative description in the comments section below.
Then direct me to three empirical studies on the subject of insomnia, one good, one bad and one in between. Assign either an A, a B or a C grade to each, then provide a rationale for the grades you've assigned. Base your grade assignment on aspects such as these:
1. How close does the article come to accomplishing what Berliner's film does, allowing you to actually see, hear, and almost touch the phenomenon? (Succinct, ,clinically precise, pithy words are often instrumental towards this end.)
2. Does the work demonstrate originality?
3. Is the work organized via an introduction, a methods section, a results section and a discussion?
4. Does the work reflect what the APA manual describes as "...congruence between a study's operations (including those related to the design and analysis) and the author's interpretation and discussion of the study's outcomes..."
* the photo of Berliner is from the movie, Wide Awake, and the photo of Johnny Cash is from American Recordings.
Posted by Bruce L Thiessen Ph D at 6/9/2009 6:33 AM 
Categories: insomnia
Tags: Alyssa Kaess Johnny and June Alan Berliner insomnia Dr BLT Johnny Cash Wide Awake
Categories: insomnia
Tags: Alyssa Kaess Johnny and June Alan Berliner insomnia Dr BLT Johnny Cash Wide Awake
Howdy, Dr. BLT and class. This is Susan from the Monday night, Chapman Visalia class.
As I understand phenomenological research, it is "personal" -- the collection of subjective/self-described experiences of the topic under investigation rather than an objective/neutral examination free of personal bias and conjecture.
My first thought for an example was the work of psychiatrist Elizabeth Kubler-Ross on the topic of death & dying. Dismayed by the subpar and callous treatment of terminally-ill patients she witnessed in the 1960s, she sought to better understand the needs of dying patients by interviewing them directly. She discovered common themes in how they dealt psychologically with the dying process, and constructed the theory of "the five stages of dying" (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance) as a result of her study.
Interestingly, I found in my reading for this assignment that her "stages" have been criticized and found to be lacking in empirical proof. They are still useful guidelines, but professionals today recognize that the stages are not rigid: not everyone experiences each stage, and the stages may be experienced in different order or at the same time.
LINK: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=516672
Also, the following PDF link criticizes the morphing of Kubler-Ross' "stages of dying" into a generalized "stages of grief," which has been adopted by many in the helping professions without solid scientific support. The authors argue that unproven theories such as "the stages of grief" can actually harm clients by imposing a system into which their emotions *must* fit; if they don't, clients may feel guilty or incomplete in some way.
LINK: http://www.grief.net/Articles/Myth%20of%20Stages.pdf
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I’ve been struggling with the second part of this assignment because I’m not sure I have a firm grasp of the differences between types of research: phenomenological, qualitative, and case studies, e.g. Can we go over this in class, so I may better understand? I’m curious how this applies to the work of psychology theorists such as Freud, Jung, Maslow, and Rogers. I know they have been criticized as being “unscientific” in their theory formation, basing their ideas on a small number of patients and their subjective reflections. Is it fair to say that qualitative research is a good starting point in examining an issue, but other research methods (empirical, experimental, quantitative) need to be employed to test the validity of the qualitative findings, especially before we can apply those findings to the population at large?
I found several research studies on insomnia through the Chapman library and elsewhere on the Internet, but because they may be classified as “empirical” studies, they don’t meet the first grading standard listed – to provide a personal “you are there” feel to the subject matter. They are traditional research studies that involve a very formalized observation of subjects, with manipulated variables, all done for the purpose of testing a hypothesis (e.g., CBT is a more effective insomnia treatment than sleeping medication). Here are a few examples of what I would consider to be empirical research; they are described as “controlled trials”:
Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Pharmacotherapy for Insomnia: http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/164/17/1888
Behavioral and Pharmacological Therapies for Late-Life Insomnia: http://jama.ama-assn.org.libproxy.chapman.edu:2048/cgi/content/full/281/11/991?ijkey=a95fddbfcd95bb3aa1a583e57d9caa4aa325bf9b
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Treatment of Chronic Primary Insomnia: http://jama.ama-assn.org.libproxy.chapman.edu:2048/cgi/content/full/285/14/1856?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=insomnia&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT
Study Protocol of a Controlled Trial: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2296/10/9
The following abstract describes a study I think may qualify as “phenomenological”: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118850815/abstract. Subjective experiences of insomnia were collected through interviews, and then analyzed to find common categories of content.
The Association for Qualitative Research (AQR) in the United Kingdom offers a summary of one qualitative/phenomenological study of insomnia: http://www.aqr.org.uk/inbrief/document.shtml?doc=bob.cook.01-01-2006.insomnia. The goal was to show the effects of insomnia from the sufferer’s perspective, through videotaping the subjects for several days and nights. Actually seeing the insomniacs “in real life” provided a more vivid and thorough understanding of the condition than solely relying on interviews.
To be continued...
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Continued...
In closing, here are a couple of papers that explain the “what” and the “how” of performing phenomenological/qualitative research:
An Introduction to Phenomenological Research: http://www.sld.demon.co.uk/resmethy.pdf
Preparing a Qualitative Research-Based Dissertation: Lessons Learned: http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR10-2/bowen.pdf
I look forward to your feedback, Dr. Thiessen and classmates.
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The movie Wide Awake was interesting and observing the phenomina of insomnia and the creative mind was great food for thought. I have been a worrier and suffer of insonia for over 30 years. When it gets to terribly bad i will take kloinpin to try and quiet the noisy mind. I also am a very creative individual and wonder if this issue is common with those who think creatively. Most musicians are in the studio late at night... For me I can do my best cleaning at night when everyone else is sleep. I also tend to do major cooking at night. This movie also made me think of Labardos study and the movie that was done regarding students in a created prison simulation. Looking at the human condition when they are sleep deprived makes me wonder if there is a false sence of security and, right judgment when decisions are made when the mind is not fresh. It was stated again that the lack of sleep can be measured to have the same effect as one that is inebriated. Perhaps insomia comes from some forms of classical training... reward verses sacrifice. There were other personality issues that became apparent through out the movie as well. Obssesive compulsive disorder, an eccentric and eclectic personality, as well as some forms of co-dependancy between Alan and June.
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Hello I am in your Monday night class at Chapman. I am the nurse that works at the prison.
Phenomenoligical research is the study of human phenomena using human experiences in order to research and better understand such phenomena. Such as the study done in Australia by Joy Higgs and Gabrielle Morrissey regarding female adolescent sexuality. This study was aimed at finding out the affects and meaning surrounding the first act of sexual intercourse, which is an important transition, by learning each individual's personal story. Whereas empirical studies use observations and trials in order to prove a hypothesis.
One article I found to be worthy of a "C" grade regarding insomnia was an article entitled "Nonpharmacological Treatment of Chronic Insomnia" in which 48 clinical trials were conducted which concluded that 70-80% of the individuals treated without medication benefitted. In fact their sleep duration increased by approximately thirty minutes. However this article failed to mention what type of nonpharmalogical treatments were used. It also omitted the number of individuals that were part of the control groups observed.
The "A" article was the one entitled "Psychological treatment for insomnia in the regulation of long-term hypnotic drug use" published in the National Library of Medicine. This article explained the objective, which was to evaluate the cost and clinical impact of providing cognitive behavioral therapy for patients suffering from insomnia. It also identified the number of participants used in the study along with their ages and it outlined the setting, outcome, and results, interventions, and conclusions of the study. This study found that CBT therapy was effective and decreased the use of hypnotic drugs, which in turn increased the individual's quality of life.
The article I found to be deserving of a "B" grade was the article I found was the one entitled "Quality of Life in People with Insomnia." This article explained the objective of the study as well as the methods used to perform this study. In order to do this research, questionnaires were issued to people screened through telephone interviews. The data was collected by 261 individuals that had insomnia vs the 101 without, but no ages were given. Tgis study found that people with insomnia do suffer from a lesser quality of life than those individuals without it. However this study failed to identify what exactly ws considered to be impairments of quality of life, and what exactly they meant by quality of life. None of these articles did for me what Alan's documentary did, I was unable to get a real feel for what they were explaining. In part, because one of these articles was poorly presented and the other was lacking substantial and important information.
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I didn't look for a specific article on phenomenological research. I actually found a paper explaining that specific type of research and it's origins. If you look at http://www.ualberta.ca/~iiqm/backissues/3_1/pdf/groenewald.pdf, you will see the research explained. Phenomenological research is not based off of cold hard facts like empirical research is. Empirical research is based of numbers and seems as if it is more scientific. Phenomenological research relies on the fact that what we see everyday is a phenomenon. We can't know something unless we've seen it.
On the website, http://alpha-stim.com/repository/assets/pdf/Natural_Medicine.pdf, the writer gives us a natural method to helping with insomnia with cranial electrotherapy stimulation. The entire article explains what is stated above. The article however, does not explain insomnia like Wide Awake does. I don't think any article could. I give this article a B.
The website, http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/insomnia-000096.htm, does a really good job at explaining insomnia. It seems like it was written by a medical student because it is really precise. There was no research done by the person in this article, however it has a lot of information. I give it a C because it has no research.
On the website, http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/insomnia/article/10168/1163082, you will find a lot of information regarding insomnia and it's relation to other problems. It still does not explain insomnia like the movie does, however it touches on what the movie does not: maybe the insomnia is a condition from another psych problem. I give this article an A.
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Hi my name is Herminia I am in the Monday night 301 Psy. class (Visalia Chapman). I have blonde streaks in my hair.
I looked phenomenological research and it took me to Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) he believes that we can separate our life's experience to understand others' life experience. For Husserl he felt as though "phenomena can be studied only subjectively, not objectively." This information and more on Husserl can be found on:
Phenomenology - Edmund Husserl
As I watched the movie Wide Awake I felt many times as though I could relate. However, I was wrong I believe many of us lay awake at night for about an hour. We think of what we will be doing tomorrow, what we are going to wear, where the kids are going after school, meaningful events that took place, annoying co-workers how to deal with them, etc etc...until we fall asleep. The young man in the movie was an exaggerated amount of tired. He was short tempered, looked so tired, at a loss of words, and he couldn't concentrate. I read an article about sleep disorders on about.com <http://sleepdisorders.about.com/od/treatmentrisksandlimits/a/livingwithcpap.htm?p=1> there is a new treatment that we did not see in this movie. It is CPAP it stands for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure. This provides "constant flow of air delieverd through a face mask worn while sleeping." This may be a good alternative for some people.
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My names Irene Soriano i was the girl who sat at the back table on Monday night. I have brown hair, green eyes, and tan skin. lol I'm the young lady who asked about all your music.
Anyways here's where i begin writting about my homework. I researched three articles like we were told and found my horribly written on, my okay written one and my good written on. My horribly written article comes from Science Daily Article. What a horrible written article! An article should be well written, informative and educational. However, on the website of Science Daily I came across an article on Insomnia that was very horribly written. The article had eleven sentences max; the article quickly described the sleeping disorder. When reading the article it seemed to me that this website pretty much just mentioned facts that a person pretty much common sense when just thinking of the word Insomnia. I feel that it didn’t give a proper definition of Insomnia; it wasn’t descriptive at all or informative. I noticed that the article seemed more like a website that gave bullet points with important information on Insomnia. I quickly noticed that the article referred the reader to Wikipedia.org for more information about the topic and to read the full article. I was hoping that since it was a Science Daily website that apparently states “your source for the latest research news” that the information wouldn’t be the same as Wikipedia, for we all know that that specific website is not reliable. I was disappointed in this specific Science Daily website, with the article was written and how you had to jump from website to website it seemed to find more information about Insomnia. My okay article was more informative and descriptive. The article was from EMed TV. It provided the reader the definition of Insomnia, how common it was: "about 600 million Americans each eyar suffer from Insomnia.The condition tends to increase with age adn affects 40% of woman. It also stated the effects of it: tiredness, lack of energy, difficult concentrating and irritability. Now moving on to the well written article. This article was from Web MD, it was VERY informative, very descriptive and provided the reader with important information. It stated what insomnia was, what caused it: there are many things that can casue sleep problems-stress, depression, anxiety, poor sleeping habbits, changes in your sleep habits or surroundings, and other health problems. It stated what the symptoms are, how its diagnosed and how its treated and later in the article provided other links that led to more important information.
I looked up phenomenology and on answers.com it stated that it ment: A philosophy or method of inquiry based on the premise that reality consists of objects and events as they are preceived or understood in human consciousness and not of anything independent of human consciousness. A movement based on this, originated about 1905 by Edmund Husserl.
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Hello Professor, My name is Nora Soto, I'm in your Monday Class at Chapman in Visalia. Sorry it has taken me a while to post, I was having trouble with the battery cord to my laptop and had to look for a replacement. Anyways the three articles which I found on Phenomenological insomnia research were as follows, one was called The Nature of Insomnia and the Need to Refine Our Diagnostic Criteria, it was written by Charles Morin, PhD. I give this article an A because it explains so much about what a clinician can look for when diagnosing an individual with insomnia or sleep disturbances ailments. I liked this article because it talked about the possible causes for insomnia which could be underlying medical issues, psychiatric, or a possible substance abuse disorder. This article reported that it is difficult to diagnose a person who self reports as a victim of insomnia due to overestimating on time in which they do sleep or time it takes them to fall asleep. It also provided recommendations for the clinicians to use as a tool to be able to diagnose the individual such as referring the person to a sleep study center, night diaries and coping techniques to help deal with sleep.
The B article was an article that was written by several authors, the article was called Insomnia and Hypersomnia Associated with Depressive Phenomenology and Comorbidity in Childhood Depression. This article had many percentages provided and used 553 adolescents for the study. It reported that children and adolescents may experience the following symptoms when dealing with insomnia and hypersomnia such as depression, anxiety, weight loss and psychomotor retardation and fatigue. The article reports that a child who suffers from insomnia and hypersomnia are more likely to be much more depressed than with insomnia alone.
And lastly the article deserving a C is called Depressive Symptoms in Koreans, Korean-Chinese and Chinese: A Transcultural Study. It reportedly used 60 Koreans, 42 Korean-Chinese, and 31 Chinese for their study. This article was merely a paragraph long in which it just reported the findings of the study but did not even go into detail as to how their patients were studied or what were the means on diagnosing or assessing their symptoms as candidates for this study.
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