Introduction The mystery and agony of mental illness are as varied as its symptoms, diagnoses, and treatments, but what else could one expect when delving into the world of the insane? This paper seeks to compare the experiences of three individuals who each tumbled into the domain of insanity. Susanna Kaysen is the author of Girl Interrupted, a biography detailing her eighteen months in a mental institution. John Nash was a brilliant mathematician, professor, and Nobel Prize recipient, whose passage into schizophrenia is chronicled in the movie A Beautiful Mind. Linda Penland is a dear friend of the author of this paper who was born into a life of poverty, ignorance, and the throws of mental illness, but courageously perseveres to carve out …show more content…
a productive and meaningful life despite the obstacles stacked against her. How does one reconcile the mystery of mental illness with the reality of life? Susanna Kaysen, John Nash and Linda Penland each view their symptoms, diagnoses, and medication uniquely, based on their individual personalities, diagnosis, and circumstances. Susanna Kaysen Susanna Kaysen was just eighteen years of age in 1967 when she signed herself into the McLean mental hospital upon the insistence of a doctor she had seen only once. The diagnosis assigned by this particular doctor was Borderline Personality Disorder. Kaysen attributes a major portion of the diagnosis to a pimple she had squeezed prior to her appointment, and to the apparent assumption on the part of the doctor that Kaysen was having trouble with her boyfriend (p. 39). It is difficult to isolate the reason Kaysen made the appointment initially, but the reader assumes it relates to her so-called suicide attempt, which seems more like a cry for attention. She called her boyfriend and left him listening while she swallowed fifty aspirin. If it can be called a symptom, the craziest behavior Kaysen observes in her behavior is the fact she willingly admitted herself for treatment: My point of view is harder to explain. I went. First I went to his [the doctor’s] office, then I got into the taxi, then I walked up the stone steps to the Administration Building of McLean Hospital, and if I remember correctly, sat in a chair for fifteen minutes waiting to sign my freedom away (p. 40). Her diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder is equally perplexing to her.
Kaysen spends an entire chapter defining it (pp. 147-149), and another chapter discussing why the label confused her: “[U]ncertainty about several life issues, such as self-image, sexual orientation, long-term goals or career choice, types of friends or lovers to have…” (p. 150). Kaysen calls this her “annotated diagnosis,” which would seem to describe most teenagers now, and certainly would have described them in the late 1960’s. As far as medication is concerned, Kaysen delivers this insight with a pronounced negative slant: They [the hospital therapists] couldn’t grant or rescind privileges, help us get rid of smelly roommates, stop aides from pestering us. The only power they had was the power to dope us up. Thorazine, Stelazine, Mellaril, Librium, Valium: the therapists’ friends…. Once we were on it, it was hard to get off. A bit like heroin, except it was the staff who got addicted to our taking it (p. 87). She speaks of an episode that concluded with a dose of Thorazine, which seemed to confirm to her that she was really crazy (pp103-104). However, there is no mention in the book of her being given that drug again. The discharge document indicates she had been treated with Chlorpromazine while admitted, but the document states she is “Recovered,” and there is no indication she was prescribed medication upon her release in 1969 (p. …show more content…
169). John Nash John Nash was a noted mathematician, a college professor, and recipient of the 1994 Nobel Prize in Economics. His accomplishments are particularly remarkable, because, as a young man, Nash was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He is the subject of the movie A Beautiful Mind. In the movie, Nash is depicted as totally surprised and very confused by his diagnosis of Schizophrenia. He is so totally convinced his delusions and hallucinations are real, he is unable to recognize his symptoms. Nash endures shock treatment and is prescribed medication.
The result, according to the film, relieves him of his schizophrenic symptoms; however, the side-affects leave him numbed to life, creating a dull, leaden existence. Against the recommendation of his doctor, but with the hesitant support of his wife, Nash discontinues taking them. Finally, Nash confirms the legitimacy of his diagnoses when he realizes Marcee, the adolescent niece of his college roommate—both objects of schizophrenic hallucinations—never grows older. At that point in the movie, something clicks and Nash takes the turn toward reality, though his hallucinations
remain: I still see things that are not here. I just choose not to acknowledge them. Like a diet of the mind, I just choose not to indulge certain appetites; like my appetite for patterns; perhaps my appetite to imagine and to dream. Linda Penland Linda Penland is my friend. Born into a large, underprivileged family, and raised in Asheville, North Carolina, she is sixty-nine years old. At age fourteen she quit school and married in order to escape her violent home life and threats from her father. She had her first child when she was sixteen, was divorced, remarried and had a second child by the time she was nineteen. At age twenty-four she had her first “breakdown,” and was admitted to Broughton Hospital, a psychiatric hospital located in Morganton, North Carolina. According to Linda, she was diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, and “a bunch of other stuff.” When asked what her symptoms were and what led to her need to be hospitalized, Linda answered, “Well, it was just the stress of taking care of two kids, and working, and my father trying to kill me. It just got to me, you know?” She replied without bitterness or anger. She is simply stating the facts as she remembers them. Her father and all six of her siblings suffered from mental illness. Linda said her mother was the only one who was “right.” Linda has been on medication since she was hospitalized that first time. Linda is grateful for the medication: “I just wanted to be able to work, and take care of my kids, and be able to get along. I was glad for the medicine, and glad I never got hooked on drugs or alcohol. A lot of them do, you know, but I never did. And I was always able to work.” Linda has been hospitalized two other times for mental health issues, once receiving shock treatments, which Linda says, “caused me to forget a lot of stuff; about three months of my life before that I can’t remember.” She had to be taught basic skills again, such as how to write a check and drive a car. In addition to her mental illness, Linda also has a severe hearing loss. Sometimes, people may confuse her hearing impairment with her mental illness if she fails to respond appropriately. However, Linda is matter-of-fact about her mental illness, just as she is with her hearing loss. She is thankful for her “nerve medicine,” just as she is thankful for her hearing aids. Linda has not had an easy life, but she remains hopeful because of her faith. “Jesus is the main thing,” she states. “He is my best friend. I don’t know what I’d do without him!” Conclusion Susanna Kaysen, John Nash and Linda Penland each view their symptoms, diagnosis, and medication uniquely. Though there have been advancements, mental illness, in many ways, remains a mystery. Mental illness is not always easy to identify, not always obvious to observe, not always easy to distinguish from the everyday absurdities of life. Treatments can sometimes seem as insane as the insanity they are designed to reduce, and medications may simply exchange one undesirable emotion or behavior for another by the side effects they produce. Linda Penland’s conclusion seems as reasonable as any, “Well, I’ll just keep trusting Jesus ‘til one day I see him face-to face. That’ll make it all worthwhile.”
Girl Time is a book written by Maisha T. Winn who is a former public elementary school and high school teacher. She has worked extensively with youth inside and outside urban schools throughout the United States. Winn provides information in the book about girls incarcerated in juvenile detention centers and girls who have been previously incarcerated.
Although Susanna Kaysen’s rebellious and self-harming actions of coping with her psychosis are viewed by some critics as pushing the boundary of sanity, many people have a form of a “borderline personality” that they must accept and individually work towards understanding in order to release themselves from the confines of their disorder. Kaysen commits to a journey of self-discovery, which ultimately allows her to accept and understand herself and her psychosis.
In 1978, Susan Sheehan took an interest in Sylvia Frumkin, a schizophrenic who spent most of her life in and out of mental hospitals. For more than two years, Sheehan followed Sylvia around, observing when Sylvia talked to herself, sitting in on sessions with Sylvia’s doctors, and at times, sleeping in the same bed as Sylvia during her stay at the psychiatric centers. Through Sheehan’s intensive report on Sylvia’s life, readers are able to obtain useful information on what it’s like to live with this disorder, how impairing it can be for them, and the symptoms and causes to look out for; likewise, readers can get an inside look of how some mental hospitals are run and how a misdiagnosis can negatively impact someone’s life.
Madness: A History, a film by the Films Media Group, is the final installment of a five part series, Kill or Cure: A History of Medical Treatment. It presents a history of the medical science community and it’s relationship with those who suffer from mental illness. The program uses original manuscripts, photos, testimonials, and video footage from medical archives, detailing the historical progression of doctors and scientists’ understanding and treatment of mental illness. The film compares and contrasts the techniques utilized today, with the methods of the past. The film offers an often grim and disturbing recounting of the road we’ve taken from madness to illness.
It is hard to comprehend how and why people lose their sanity and become mad. I will address how the mind’s struggles caused by individual genes, stress and social-cultural influence affect the lives of Naomi, a 24-year-old college student with schizophrenia and Eric, a 27-year-old classical musician with severe depression. Their thoughts and behavior surprised me as this is my first time exposed to what these mental illnesses are. The relation between the mind and the body and the fact that the emotions affect the functioning of the body and vice versa explains the how and why a person become insane.
This week’s reflection is on a book titled Girls Like Us and it is authored by Rachel Lloyd. The cover also says “fighting for a world where girls not for sale”. After reading that title I had a feeling this book was going to be about girls being prostituted at a young age and after reading prologue I sadly realized I was right in my prediction.
In Me, Myself and Them: A Firsthand Account of One Young Person’s Experience with Schizophrenia (2007), Kurt Snyder provides his personal narrative of living with Schizophrenia with Dr. Raquel Gur and Linda Andrews offering professional insight into the disease. This book gives remarkable insight into the terrifying world of acute psychosis, where reality cannot be distinguished from delusion and recovery is grueling. However, Snyder’s account does offer hope that one may live a content and functional life despite a debilitating, enduring disease.
The sickness of insanity stems from external forces and stimuli, ever-present in our world, weighing heavily on the psychological, neurological, and cognitive parts of our mind. It can drive one to madness through its relentless, biased, and poisoned view of the world, creating a dichotomy between what is real and imagined. It is a defense mechanism that allows one to suffer the harms of injustice, prejudice, and discrimination, all at the expense of one’s physical and mental faculties.
Sanity is subjective. Every individual is insane to another; however it is the people who possess the greatest self-restraint that prosper in acting “normal”. This is achieved by thrusting the title of insanity onto others who may be unlike oneself, although in reality, are simply non-conforming, as opposed to insane. In Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted, this fine line between sanity and insanity is explored to great lengths. Through the unveiling of Susanna’s past, the reasoning behind her commitment to McLean Hospital for the mentally ill, and varying definitions of the diagnosis that Susanna received, it is evident that social non-conformity is often confused with insanity.
Mental illness has been around as long as people have been. However, the movement really started in the 19th century during industrialization. The Western countries saw an immense increase in the number and size of insane asylums, during what was known as “the great confinement” or the “asylum era” (Torrey, Stieber, Ezekiel, Wolfe, Sharfstein, Noble, Flynn Criminalizing the Seriously Mentally Ill). Laws were starting to be made to pressure authorities to face the people who were deemed insane by family members and hospital administrators. Because of the overpopulation in the institutions, treatment became more impersonal and had a complex mix of mental and social-economic problems. During this time the term “psychiatry” was identified as the medical specialty for the people who had the job as asylum superintendents. These superintendents assumed managerial roles in asylums for people who were considered “alienated” from society; people with less serious conditions wer...
Girl by Jamaica Kincaid demonstrate how a mother cautions her daughter, in becoming a responsible woman in her society. Although the daughter hasn’t gotten into adolescence yet, the mother fears that her daughter’s current behavior, if continued, will tip to a life of promiscuity. The mother believes that a woman’s status or propriety determines the quality of her life in the community. Hence, gender roles, must be carefully guarded to maintain a respectable front. Her advice centers on how to uphold responsibility. The mother cautions her daughter endlessly; emphasising on how much she wants her to realize her role in the society by acting like woman in order to be respected by the community and the world at large. Thus, Jamaica Kincaid’s
Jamaica Kincaid’s short text “Girl” explores the issue of gender roles and the expectations society have for women. The text also touches on the issue of how society expects them to act and carry themselves.
Girl Interrupted is a film about a young woman, Susanna Kaysen, who voluntarily enters a psychiatric facility in Massachusetts. The purpose of this paper is to analyze a portrayal of psychiatric care in the 1960’s. The film is based on the memoirs of Susanna Kaysen and her experiences during an 18 month stay at a mental institution. During her visit, Susanna is diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. The film depicts psychiatric care, diagnoses, and treatments from a different era.
Nash showed much change in the way he was functioning through the movie. After treatment, it seemed like he had his disease under control, but he still had problems disbelieving in his hallucinations by still acting on them. For example, he still thought he was working for the government by helping them decode secrete codes in the newspapers. He tried to hide this from his wife by keeping all his work hidden in a shed. Eventually, Nash's life is seen as he returns to the college to teach and continues completing his mathematics work, while still seeing the delusions. This life is clearly far from normal. But for Nash, it also seems the best option.
“Was I ever crazy? Maybe. Or maybe life is… Crazy isn’t being broken or swallowing a dark secret. It’s you or me amplified.” The studies of mental health and psychology have improved greatly since the late 1960’s, but some could argue that there are still many disorders we do not understand. This movie envelopes the problems and treatment of patients during this era. Not only in a time of economic and racial disturbance, but the stereotypes and inequality for women were exemplified during this motion picture.