The Nervous State: Embedding Emotional Literacy in Education and Historical Literacy in Clinic Practice

The rediscovery of F.L. Lucas's Journal Under the Terror, 1938, and its dramatization as a play and film by Nicola Baldwin, in close collaboration with historian Prof. Julie Gottlieb, speaks powerfully to us all in our own moment of permacrisis.

Lucas's journal documents the mental strain and anxiety both he and his wife experienced in the suspenseful lead-up to war, during the so-called ‘a war of nerves’ that preceded the war itself. We can all relate to living in and trying to survive the Nervous State.

In this podcast the interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral team of pedagogical innovators, history educators, scholars, artists and mental health clinicians discuss their creative methods and the practical strategies they have devised to embed emotional literacy in the curriculum.

Further, they together emphasise the urgency of integrating historical literacy in therapeutic practice, especially to respond to the emergency in youth mental illness.