The show grips people because of its promise to 'access all areas' and this provides the viewer with the possibility of seeing something that ordinarily they would not be permitted to see. Often it is the more unacceptable and intimate material that creates a stronge urge to look. The Big Brother organisers realise that in order to keep people interested in the show they must select contestants with a tendency toward dis-inhibition.

This goes some way to explain the evolution or 'mutation' of the series from its original format. The latest strategies of Big Brother have become a lot more antagonistic and are designed to induct the group into splitting, rivalry and humiliation. Therefore those who volunteer to subject themselves for such scrutiny tend to range from the attentionseeking, narcissistic and deluded, to confused, maladjusted neurotics in search of some self-definition. This mix provides the type of cringefactor television that has the nation tuning in to watch the housemates socially and emotionally fragment under the pressure of the Big Brother environment. As the success of Alan Partridgeor David Brenttype characters demonstrate, we'll always laugh at watching socially inadequate and vulnerable people try desperately to get recognition whilst in the process emotionally imploding. Big Brother's audience tune in to experience the perverse painful pleasure of the 'Cringe Factor'.

One must question the selection committee, which in previous series has claimed to carry out rigorous psychological testing to ensure that the individuals entering the house are sufficiently psychologically robust to cope with the environment.

More recently, the testing would appear to have the opposite goal in mind.

Already in the latest series two contestants have had to leave the house unable to cope with the pressures. Dawn left the house this week as she felt she could not tolerate being without her suitcase for the duration of the show but perhaps it was more about a realisation of the actual implications for taking part in the process that triggered her premature but timely departure.

The other early exit was Shahbaz. He proceeded over the first five days to isolate himself from the group and elicit a rejection from them by antagonising, insulting and provoking his fellow housemates to ostracize him.

His profile . . . a 37-year-old homosexual man who has only ever lived alone and never worked . . . would undoubtedly suggest that he may struggle with people skills and mixing with others. The combination of this profile with the immense pressures of the house environment proved to trigger an implosion of his mental state where he frequently dissolved into tears and became a subject of mockery, taunting and amusement for the rest of the group. His inability to function in a group environment and his emotional instability fast-tracked him to an early demise. This can be described as a 'projection-type' defence mechanism where a person elicits responses around them that mirror their own perception of themselves. This man has obvious psychological inadequacies for such a highpressured situation as the BB ily predicted this outcome from his application form. But perhaps his inability to manage such interactions, his vulnerability in social situations and his lack of ego strength made him a suitable candidate for the Big Brother series, as it 'makes good telly'.

Other housemates, including Lea, who has undergone dramatic plastic surgery to enhance her breast size, and Nikki, who reportedly has suffered psychological 'breakdowns' in the past, also look to be particularly vulnerable, but are no doubt entertaining to the on-looking mob.

While some of the housemates would appear to have 'personality problems', the only housemate with a clearly visible mental health disorder is Pete.

He suffers from Tourette's Syndrome, a condition characterised by severe vocal and motor tics. It's a condition that makes social situations both stressful and difficult. Yet the organisers saw fit to select Pete for the competition. There may be a explanation/ excuse that it will increase public awareness of the condition, but to my mind displaying a disorder (which is exacerbated by stress and anxiety) by showing a sufferer on a Big Brother series falls far short of a realistic portrayal of any condition.

To examine the mental health ethics of the Big Brother game show is a woolly enough prospect with psychologically robust housemates but probably can be justified by the informed consent of 'expect the unexpected'.

But informed consent becomes somewhat more dubious when the consenting adults have many social and psychological achilles heels that, combined with immense stress, dis-inhibiting alcohol and provocative interventions, are a recipe for disaster. But seemingly that is now the object of the so-called 'game'.

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