FOUR LIVES II (Part Two of Two)
Broadcast starting week of May 31, 2006

This week on The Infinite Mind: the second in our series telling the remarkable stories of Four Lives.

In this episode, we hear two more moving tales of recovery from mental illness. First, Caris Corfman is an actress who lost her short-term memory after a brain operation in 1993. Like the character in the film “Memento,” she can only hold on to new memories for about five minutes before they slip away. But, she says, in spite of her disability, the show must go on. She and her father join The Infinite Mind’s Emily Fisher to talk about her remarkable new one-woman play, “Caris’ Peace,” as well as her life offstage. In our second half, Judge Sol Wachtler, former head of the New York State Court of Appeals, joins The Infinite Mind’s Dr. Peter Kramer for a rare, in-depth interview. In the early 1990s, Judge Wachtler was on the fast track to the highest levels of public power. But in private, he was battling bipolar disorder, secretly seeing doctors who prescribed the wrong medications and made him even sicker. Suddenly, the nation learned his secret. In 1992 he was arrested for sending threatening letters to his former mistress and imprisoned for 11 months. Today, he says, he has rebuilt a new life for himself as a mental health advocate -- and he’s come to terms with his old one.

Fourteen years ago, Lichtenstein Creative Media produced "Voices of an Illness" - a series of groundbreaking public radio documentaries, the first to feature people with serious mental illness - telling their own stories in their own words. The programs looked beyond the symptoms of mental illness to tell stories of hope and recovery. Periodically, on The Infinite Mind, we return to those foundations, building a show around new stories called "Four Lives." It features first-person testimony by people who have confronted mental illness and brain disorders and prevailed. This week, on the second episode of our special double broadcast, we’ll hear two of their stories.

Joining us on this week’s program are:

Caris Corfman, an acclaimed actress who has lost her ability to make new memories. With credits ranging from the play Amadeus to the movie Funny Farm, as well work in TV, Ms. Corfman had built up the career she’d dreamed of since childhood. But in 1993, doctors removing a benign brain tumor damaged an area near her pituitary gland, leaving her unable to remember anything new for more than about five minutes – and, one might assume, destroying her acting career. Ms. Corfman was determined to keep acting, and with her new one-woman performance “Caris’ Peace” – next scheduled for a performance in Philadelphia in June – she has. She and her father, Dr. Philip Corfman, join The Infinite Mind’s Emily Fisher to talk about her return to the theater, and how her life offstage has drastically changed.

Sol Wachtler, former head of the New York State Court of Appeals. In the early 1990s, Judge Wachtler was mentioned as a gubernatorial candidate or perhaps, someday, as a nominee for the Supreme Court. In public, he was one of the nation’s most influential judges. But in private, he was battling bipolar disorder, and, afraid of the stigma, he didn’t get the help he needed. The nation learned his secret in 1992, when he was arrested for sending threatening letters to his former mistress. During his 11 months in prison, he saw the other side of the justice system, forcing him to rethink his views and reconsider some of the sentences he’d handed down. Today he has rebuilt a new life for himself as a mental health advocate. And, as he tells The Infinite Mind’s Dr. Peter Kramer in a rare in-depth interview, he’s come to terms with his past.

Heard on this week’s program: