The Octopus Man

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Deeply moving and tragi-comic, The Octopus Man is a bravura literary performance that asks fundamental questions about belief and love.

Roger Samuelsson, founder of SHL Healthcare, is a fitting candidate for the ownership of this grand sea marvel. With more than 5,000 employees under his leadership, Samuelsson is a prominent figure in the global pharmaceutical industry. We can confirm that Roger Samuelsson is now the proud owner of the Octopus Yacht. Expressing Gratitude to SuperYachtFan Where I agree with Lewis’ critique ( expanded, now, on Patreon) is on the film’s “scientific-masculinity”: the octopus is of interest because Foster finds her so, and especially where it applies to him. In fact it was watching My Octopus Teacher that I finally understood what film critics meant by a “scene-stealer”. The footage of the octopus at work and play – hunting crabs, shape-shifting into seaweed, giving sharks the slip – is deeply absorbing: I would have happily watched hours of it without narration (and indeed occasionally do, on YouTube, with a glass of wine). As it is, I was reminded of Andy Samberg’s critique of the male characters in Portrait of a Lady on Fire: “What’s he doing here?” Every year in May, Allen hosts a themed party during the Cannes Film Festival. In May 2014 Paul hosted a party on board Octopus. That was during the Cannes International Film Festival. My Octopus Teacher tells the moving story of how Craig Foster, after vowing to free-dive daily after burning out at work, came to know an octopus living in the kelp forests outside his home in Cape Town. Over a year of observation, the two grow comfortable in each other’s company (but not that comfortable), granting Foster an intimate (as in, close!) view of an alien life. We are all by now familiar with the three act structure: man is healthy, man becomes mentally ill, man recovers and lives stably ever after. While such narratives rally hope for recovery amidst the myth that diagnoses such as schizophrenia are inherently violent, degenerative and bleak, there is an opening for a different kind of story, whereby healing takes place outside of linear and institutionally sanctioned narratives. The Octopus Man shares the story of Tom, a former law student who hears the voice of Octopus God Malamok, and grapples with a society that demands him to conceptualise his reality as severe chronic illness. From the outside, Tom is diagnosed with schizophrenia and is dependent on his sister to help him manage day-to-day practicalities. Yet Tom has a vibrant inner life and sense of purpose that is threatened when he’s pressured into taking an experimental drug that offers to permanently suppress the very voice that imbues his life with meaning.

The Octopus In My House

The yacht houses a host of luxurious features including a helicopter hangar, a 10-person submarine, and multiple leisure and wellness facilities. An engaging novel about a man with a voice in his head evokes the radical politics of the anti-psychiatry movement.

What began as a pastime for yacht spotting has evolved into a leading online destination for yachting enthusiasts, with thousands of visitors engaging with our content every day. Scheel (whose letterbox is illustrated with the snake-like fish), is the narrator and co-star of The Octopus in My House, a documentary which sees him share the spotlight with his then-16-year-old daughter Laurel and Heidi, an octopus, who becomes quite surprisingly endearing over the course of the programme. The yacht was bought by Swedish pharma billionaire Roger Samuelsson. How much did the yacht Octopus sell for?Gibson began researching the book by compiling the notes and journals of his cousin who lived with the diagnosis of schizophrenia and mysteriously died at age forty. The character of Tom is informed by Gibson’s cousin but not a depiction, allowing for greater creative liberty and for Tom’s story to unfold on its own terms. Gibson also consulted renowned voice-hearer Jacqui Dillon, Chair of the National Hearing Voices Network in England, who shares a snapshot of her journey in the book Living with Voices. Dillon asserts that the plethora of voices she hears are her mind’s creative coping strategy to surviving horrific childhood abuse, “a perfectly natural, human response to devastating experiences” (p. 190). Psychiatry’s attempt to pathologise an understandable response to abuse was deeply damaging to Dillon, who eventually learned to engage and collaborate with her voices rather than suppress them, finding deeper meaning and self-understanding in the process. On May 19 th, Dillon and Gibson joined forces to present at a ISPS UK and Hearing the Voice, Durham University webinar, hosted by Angela Woods, to discuss the ethics and impact of telling stories that reframe and humanise the experience of psychosis and voice-hearing. A recording of their discussion can be accessed here. The book evokes the spirit of the psychiatric survivor and Hearing Voices Movements which are gaining traction in the UK and globally, the latter of which considers voice hearing to be a nonpathological phenomenon or response to trauma that people can learn to cope with; a spectrum of human experience that can even enhance the lives of voice hearers (Escher and Romme, 2011). While The Octopus Man is layered with nuance and never attempts to push a political agenda, the protagonist himself is politicised after spending 20 years being bullied by the mental health system, sectioned, and forced to take a myriad of medications with often devastating side effects. We’re introduced to Rashid, a psychiatric nurse who swings between a false kindness to outright abuse, including sleeping with a patient and administrating harsh antipsychotic injections out of vindictiveness. Yet we are drawn into the perspectives of all characters, including psychiatrists, fellow patients, parents of girlfriends and family members. Particularly poignant is Tom’s relationship with his sister Tess who has stood by him in madness, lucidity, and the complex and beautiful in-between, a bond that reminds us that affliction is not only contained within individual minds but interacts within a social network, often taking its toll on those we love and rely on the most. Among its other enticing features are an observation lounge, a cinema, a juice bar adjacent to a gym, a hair salon, and a medical center, ensuring an unparallel level of comfort and convenience for those on board. Interior and Accommodation on the Yacht Octopus Humans have basically zero in common with octopuses. We share a camera eye with a retina, but oddly, we gained it entirely independently of each other. Our evolutionary paths diverged nearly twice as long ago as human’s did with any other vertebrate. It is often said that they are the closest analogues we have to alien life on Earth, and even scientists largely agree.

Most people whose brains have not been broken by the internet have hailed My Octopus Teacher as deeply moving, with the Cut dubbing it “the love story we need right now” (and me, a killjoy for desiring more science – though I note that more science generally guards against any suggestion you had sex with your subject). The allure of luxury yachts and their affluent proprietors has captured global interest, making our compilation a valued asset for those fascinated by the maritime embodiments of opulence. Investigative journalism An exceptional work . . . What a brilliant and necessary book. A funny, heart-expanding story of a man trapped between the God-like voice in his head and society's desire for him to be 'normal.' It's a deeply compassionate portrait and I felt the frustration of battling a broken mental healthcare system, and the guilt and hope of everyone who loves poor, cheeky, troubled Tom and wants so badly for him to get betterAfter succumbing to the drug trial, Tom falls into the lauded arms of biomedical recovery, a return “to ordinary life, to normality—the consensus perversion (p 313).” The world here is sapped of colour, a stable yet meaningless road of navigating benefits, bad dates and medication regimes, and determining how to afford and prepare a bowl of pasta on PIP with a heavily sedated brain. Compared to the vibrancy of his life as a voice-hearer, when a walk in the forest satiates all senses with beauty, Tom explains his so-called improved life: “I cannot enter these woods as before. I am a ghost now, and cannot share its life (p 200).” The copper-based protein is more efficient at transporting oxygen molecules in cold and low-oxygen conditions, so is ideal for life in the ocean.