A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological pattern, potentially reflected in behavior, that is generally associated with distress or disability, and which is not considered part of normal development of a person's culture. Mental disorders are generally defined by a combination of how a person feels, acts, thinks or perceives. This may be associated with particular regions or functions of the brain or rest of the nervous system, often in a social context. The recognition and understanding of mental health conditions have changed over time and across cultures and there are still variations in definition, assessment and classification, although standard guideline criteria are widely used. In many cases, there appears to be a continuum between mental health and mental illness, making diagnosis complex. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), over a third of people in most countries report problems at some time in their life which meet criteria for diagnosis of one or more of the common types of mental disorder.

Elyn Saks is Associate Dean and Orrin B. Evans Professor of Law, Psychology, and Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the University of Southern California Gould Law School and an expert in mental health law.

She suffers from schizophrenia and has written about her experience with the illness in her autobiography, The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness published by Hyperion Books, 2007. Dr. Saks is in training as a psychoanalyst in Southern California.

Saks says "there’s a tremendous need to implode the myths of mental illness, to put a face on it, to show people that a diagnosis does not have to lead to a painful and oblique life". In recent years, researchers have begun talking about mental health care in the same way addiction specialists speak of recovery — the lifelong journey of self-treatment and discipline that guides substance abuse programs. The idea remains controversial: managing a severe mental illness is more complicated than simply avoiding certain behaviors. Approaches include "medication (usually), therapy (often), a measure of good luck (always) — and, most of all, the inner strength to manage one’s demons, if not banish them". That strength can come from any number of places, these former patients say: love, forgiveness, faith in God, a lifelong friendship. Saks says "we who struggle with these disorders can lead full, happy, productive lives, if we have the right resources".

Max Silverman (August 25, 1906 - October 5, 1966) was a Canadian ice hockey manager and politician. As president and general manager of the Sudbury Wolves, he led the team to victory in the 1932 Memorial Cup, the 1935 Richardson Cup and the 1938 World Ice Hockey Championships. The team also competed in the 1949 World Ice Hockey Championships, but lost to the Czechoslovakian team.

Silverman sold the team for $17,500 in 1956, and pursued a new career in municipal politics in Sudbury. He served as the city's deputy mayor from 1962 to 1964, and became mayor in 1966. He died on October 5, 1966, after less than a year in office.

Ruby Wax (born 19 April 1953) is an American comedian who made a career in the United Kingdom as part of the alternative comedy scene in the 1980s.

Wax was born Ruby Wachs, the daughter of Jewish parents who left Austria in 1939 because of the Nazi threat. Her father became wealthy as a sausage manufacturer and her mother qualified as an accountant. Wax was raised in Evanston, Illinois in the 1950s and 60s. Wax elected to major in psychology at the University of California, Berkeley.

Wax came to the UK and studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. She began her acting career as a straight actress at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, where she began a long-standing writing and directing partnership with Alan Rickman, who later was to direct most of her stage comedy shows. In 1978, she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, working alongside Juliet Stevenson in Measure for Measure, as Jaquenetta opposite Michael Hordern in Love's Labours Lost, replacing Zoë Wanamaker as Jane in The Way of the World and appearing in the Howard Brenton three-hander Sore Throats. While at the RSC, Wax also met and befriended Ian Charleson, and later contributed a chapter to the 1990 book, For Ian Charleson: A Tribute.

The Explosion was a punk rock band from Boston, Massachusetts. On February 13, 2007 the band announced that they had left Virgin Records, and on April 30, 2007, that they were to split up. On June 5, the band announced plans for two last shows in Philadelphia, and New York.

Matt Hock and Damian Genuardi met David Walsh through Rama Mayo, owner of indie label Big Wheel Recreation. They started the band in the fall of 1998, with Cave and Colby eventually joining later.

They pressed 250 copies of a demo before going on tour with Kid Dynamite. A roadie gave the demo to indie rock label Jade Tree Records, who signed the band and put out a self-titled EP containing all the demo tracks in 2000.

Their debut full-length, Flash Flash Flash on Jade Tree, was released to glowing reviews. Spin Magazine named it as one of the best 20 albums of 2000, and later named the band one of the top 10 punk acts of 2001. The Explosion also came in 2nd for Best Local Punk Act in the Boston Phoenix. They began touring the U.S. and Europe with the likes of Sick of it All, AFI (A Fire Inside), the Nerve Agents, Avail, Leatherface, US Bombs, Alkaline Trio, The Queers, Social Distortion, Tiger Army, The International Noise Conspiracy, Rocket From the Crypt and Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros. They were also featured on the 2001 and 2005 Warped Tour.