Veronica O'Keane
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One of the things that stands out, over more than 20 years of Private Passions, is the very strong connection between music and memory: as people choose music, which takes them way back, vividly evoking pivotal moments in their lives, it can be deeply emotional. Veronica O\\u2019Keane is perfectly placed to explain that response: as a practising psychiatrist, she\\u2019s spent many years observing how memory and experience are interwoven, working with patients whose memories are often broken or disrupted through brain tumours or mental illness. She\\u2019s Professor of Psychiatry and Consultant Psychiatrist at Trinity College Dublin, and the author of The Rag and Bone Shop: How we Make Memories and Memories Make Us.
In conversation with Michael Berkeley, Professor O\\u2019Keane explains the latest research on memory, and why unreal experiences such as psychotic delusions can leave people with lasting traumatic memories, even when they know they\\u2019re false. She chooses music that evokes a series of \\u201cmemory snapshots\\u201d from her own life, going back to her childhood in rural Ireland. And she reveals that she has the perfect antidote to the sadness of her professional life: she swims every morning in the cold sea near her home in Howth.
Music choices include Bach\\u2019s cello suites, Maria Callas, John Lennon and Philip Glass, as well as the traditional Irish musicians she loves.
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 3\\nProduced by Elizabeth Burke
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