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"Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence" is the sixth song and title track on the album of the same name, written and performed by American progressive metal band Dream Theater. Though the song is essentially broken up into eight movements on separate tracks, it lasts 42 minutes in full and takes up the entire second CD of the album. The song was conceived when keyboardist Jordan Rudess wrote what would become the "Overture" section, and the band took various melodies and ideas contained within it and expanded them into segments of the complete piece. The song explores the stories of six individuals suffering from various mental illnesses. Particularly represented are bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, post-partum depression, autism, and dissociative identity disorder.

The song contains influences of the classical, metal, folk and progressive genres and weaves through many time signatures, including
₄,
₄,
₈, and
₈. Clocking in at 42 minutes, it is the longest song Dream Theater has recorded; to ease scrolling through the song, Mike Portnoy gave each movement their own track, and split the full song into eight tracks.

The song was played in its entirety on Score, with the "Octavarium Orchestra" playing "Overture" and backing for the rest of the piece.

Sections

• "I. Overture" – 6:50 (instrumental)
• "II. About to Crash" – 5:50 (Petrucci) - bipolar disorder
• "III. War Inside My Head" – 2:08 (Portnoy) - post-traumatic stress disorder
• "IV. The Test That Stumped Them All" – 5:03 (Portnoy) - schizophrenia
• "V. Goodnight Kiss" – 6:17 (Portnoy) - post-partum depression
• "VI. Solitary Shell" – 5:47 (Petrucci) - autism
• "VII. About to Crash (Reprise)" – 4:04 (Petrucci) - bipolar disorder
• "VIII. Losing Time/Grand Finale" – 5:59 (Petrucci) - dissociative identity disorder

Personnel

• James LaBrie - lead vocals
• John Petrucci - guitar, backing vocals
• John Myung - bass
• Jordan Rudess - keyboards
• Mike Portnoy - drums, backing vocals, co-lead vocals on "War Inside My Head"

References

1. Romano, Will (2010-09-01). Mountains Come Out of the Sky: The Illustrated History of Prog Rock. Backbeat Books. ISBN 9781617133756.
2. Patrick Salmon (2002-02-21). "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence". The Daily of the University of Washington. Archived from the original on 2013-01-21. Retrieved November 14, 2014.
3. "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence". Dream Theater. Retrieved 2021-09-10.
4. Mike Portnoy.com - MP.FAQ Archived April 28, 2007, at the Wayback Machine

• Dream Theater songs
• 2001 songs
• Songs written by John Petrucci
• Songs written by John Myung
• Songs written by Mike Portnoy
• Songs about mental health
• Songs about diseases and disorders
• Fiction about bipolar disorder
• Fiction about schizophrenia
• Songs about depression
• Works about autism
• Dissociative identity disorder in popular culture
• Vietnam War in popular culture
• Autism in the arts
• Fiction about post-traumatic stress disorder