Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Guests and ideas explored on this week's BBC discussion programme The Forum:

Can today's mathematics quantify CN Parkinson's celebrated observations about bureaucratic inefficiency? That's one of the issues being investigated by a group of mathematicians at Vienna Medical University led by Peter Klimek. What is the Coeficient of Inefficiency, why are there no government cabinets which have eight members and do we really need a phase diagram to compute the ideal Pension Point for each employee?

Richard Ned LeBow (Professor of Government at Dartmouth College) believes the universal human desire to enjoy self-esteem is as important a motive in International Relations as security or economic self-interest. He suggests that each nation believes it has a duty to maintain the psychological well-being of its citizens and to do this, it must maintain, protect, and defend its 'standing' in the world. The drive to protect that 'standing' has caused most of the wars of modern times.

If mental illness mirrors the obsessions of any given society, what does the current definition and range of mental disorders say about the 21st century? Writer and historian Lisa Appignanesi surveys our changing attitudes to mental illness, particularly among women, over the last 200 years.

Produced by BBC World Service