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The Assessment

A mental health self diagnosis event

looking out from a lectern in a lecture hall a man sits on the right with his head in his hands

Performance 2014

“This tentative experience is strangely effective in compelling us to consider just how arbitrary the dividing-line between sanity and madness can be; it’s hardly a show, but it is an event.” Scotsman

Commissioned by Anxiety Festival and SMHAFF

Mental illness seems to be on the rise; one in four of us will experience some form of mental ill heath in our lives – some statistics put that number at closer to 1 in 2. In 2012 around 50 million prescriptions for anti-depressants were written – anxiety is amongst the most common symptoms.

Is half the population struggling with their minds? Are psychiatrists over diagnosing? Or are changing attitudes making it easier to seek help? And what about you? You are not a statistic, you’re a person with a free mind. How’s your mental health?

If the boundaries between madness and ‘normality’ are blurred, how do we define what is a mental illness, and what isn’t? You are invited to delve into your own mind, to be assessed for common mental health conditions, whilst testing the current processes of diagnosis.

  • looking out from a lectern in a lecture hall a man sits on the right with his head in his hands
  • a railway arch set out with exam tables and examinees either reading or writing on their papers
  • looking down on an audience from the back of a lecture hall as they either read or write
  • an audience in a lecture hall all looking down at their paper either reading or writing