A dissection of ‘Paranoid Android’

Abstract

This article discusses 'Paranoid Android' the role of music in psychiatry. Psychiatrists, psychologists and philosophers have tried with varying degrees of success to describe and delineate mental distress; and yet it is perhaps poets, artists and authors who have captured the disturbance of human thought and emotion better. Contemporary culture is profuse with descriptions of madness, but an epochal piece of work that considers themes of alienation, disaffection and insanity is the album ‘OK Computer’ by the alternative rock band Radio head. Considered by many to be one of the great albums of recent times, it deals directly with modern day influences that serve to dehumanize and provoke madness. A song from the album that gives a rare individual account of insanity is 'Paranoid Android'. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)