“At much earlier times, people suffering from schizophrenia were viewed as either cursed by the gods or blessed by them” (Saks 169). Nobody can deny that Elyn Saks lived an amazing life. She grew up with a very misunderstood mental illness, schizophrenia, and overcame it to become a very well known and respected professor and mentor to others. Although Saks triumphed over her mental illness, does her life story fit the mold of Joseph John Campbell’s archetypal hero in his book, The Hero With A Thousand Faces? Campbell was an American mythologist, writer, and teacher whose work covers many different parts of the complex human experience. Campbell’s magnum opus, or finest work, was a book known as The Hero With A Thousand Faces. In this book, …show more content…
The two texts emphasized in this essay include Elyn R. Saks’ The Center Cannot Hold : My Journey Through Madness and Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With A Thousand Faces. “There were many days when I believed I was nothing more than the Lady of Charts - a crazy woman who’d faked her way into a teaching job and would soon be discovered for what she really was and put where she really belonged - in a mental hospital” (Saks 263). Saks entire life was a struggle because of the mental illness she had since a young age, schizophrenia. Most of her younger years were lived being misunderstood by her parents and peers alike. She turned to options like substance abuse and self harm to cope with her deteriorating situation in life. There came a point where she realized that she was better than her illness and was able to overcome it with the help and guidance of a few mentors. Now, Saks is a very successful assistant dean, as well as a professor of law, psychology, psychiatry, and behavioral sciences at the University of Southern California Gould Law School. Saks also went on to receive the award for MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and write her book. Joseph Campbell was also very successful in the same way because he wrote a book that is very complex and still relevant in this day and age. Campbell made the mold and Saks’ life fits it
In the book “The Mad Among Us-A History of the Care of American’s Mentally Ill,” the author Gerald Grob, tells a very detailed accounting of how our mental health system in the United States has struggled to understand and treat the mentally ill population. It covers the many different approaches that leaders in the field of mental health at the time used but reading it was like trying to read a food label. It is regurgitated in a manner that while all of the facts are there, it lacks any sense humanity. While this may be more of a comment on the author or the style of the author, it also is telling of the method in which much of the policy and practice has come to be. It is hard to put together without some sense of a story to support the action.
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.
The ‘me’ becomes a haze, and the solid center from which one experiences reality breaks up like a bad radio signal. (Saks, p. 13)” These words are the description of schizophrenia, written by a woman who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, Elyn Saks. Her book, The Center Cannot Hold, is the memoir of Sak’s own life experience and her struggle with schizophrenia, or as she puts it, her journey through madness. Although her journey did not lead to a full recovery, as is the case with many individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia, Saks was able to live and maintain a life, despite her very negative prognosis.
1. This book shows readers how those that are mentally ill think and helps others better understand the “why” of their behaviors.
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...
The issue of madness has been touched by many writers. In this paper I will focus on two important writings which deal directly with the mental illnesses. The first one is "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Kesey first published in 1962. The second is "Hamlet" written by Shakespeare approximately in 1602. Ken Kesey worked nights in a mental institution in California and his novel has a lot of truth in it. He faced patient's insanity every day and was confident that it was natural response to the overall madness of the corporate America. Shakespeare on the contrary, focused on the completely opposite side of the mental madness: through "Hamlet" he wanted to show that in degree of publicity mental disorders can harm observers.
Perrucci, Robert. Circle of Madness: On Being Insane and Institutionalized in America. Prentice-Hall, Inc. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: 1974.
...treatment of mental illnesses and that their ways of treatment and cures were ineffective and often detriments to their patients. She shows Charlotte as a victim to the male idea that women were not competent nor capable. This piece shows the power of diagnosis and its empowerment of the male physician's voice and how it took over and disempowered the female patient's opinion and thoughts on her own treatment and life choices.
It was famed writer, Phillip Dick who once claimed, “Sometimes the appropriate response to reality is to go insane,” when address mental health. The fact of the matter is that many undergo a nervous breakdown on a weekly basis; however, most do not recognize how beneficial their lives are compared to others. Take for instance the war in Vietnam, where thousands of men, some younger than myself, fought in one of the most gruesome war the United States has seen. In the work Fallen Angels, Walter Dean Myers depicts a story of a young man, escaping his lifestyle in the United States by enlisting in the military. One of the major themes this book brings to mind is the theme of accepting reality, and overcoming such reality mentally. Ergo, this work will be a
Reading the poem “Schizophrenia” really opened my eyes when thinking about the mental illness. The poet transforms the way of thinking about schizophrenia by the usage of three literary terms personification, metaphor, and tone throughout the poem. My initial thoughts that this poem would focus on a person with schizophrenia, but later realize that the poem shows the destruction of the disease, which made this a great poem. The poem painted a vivid picture of how schizophrenia could ruin happiness, a relationship and even a place of comfort. After reading the poem by Stevens, readers can take away the message if a person does not get control over the disease, it will end up controlling or destroying a person’s
Joseph Campbell, author of The Hero with a Thousand Faces, instituted the concept of the “monomyth,” the basic story pattern that can be applied to seemingly all literary works, which similarity shown as each of the text has a main character that goes on a journey. In the same way, the hero’s journey can be divided into three main sections: separation, initiation, and return. Into the three main sections, here are the several stages as the call to adventure, road of trail and magic flight, which all of these stages were shown in a lifelike way in the novel named Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar children.
In Shusterman’s book, Challenger Deep, the author introduces an insight and taps into the core of what it’s like to struggle with a mental illness. After going through the results of being a father of a child with schizophrenia, Neal Shusterman established Challenger Deep, in attempt to honor his son and provide a vision of life with schizophrenia to his readers. When Shusterman’s son was in high school he began showing signs of mental illness, when his son was in a better place Neal was determined to turn his son’s dark time in life into something positive in venture to help others. Shusterman strived to help his son and “involve him in any way” that he could in the book (hbook.com). In honor of his son, Shusterman wrote the story dedicated
“Whether dream or myth, in these adventures there is an atmosphere of irresistible fascination.”(51) In the book Hero with a Thousand Faces, written by Joseph Campbell, the author tells of a hero’s journey into his adventure of his life. Campbell puts forth the idea of the monomyth as something that every plot line follows this archetype. He portrays this from start to finish beginning with the call, the trials, the help the hero will receive, the eventual conquering, the receiving of the bounty and the return to his life.
Joseph Campbell was an influential writer, lecturer, and mythologist who truly believed that myths are interconnecting keys that help humans unlock the experience of life. His work and dedication to the subject of mythology is what led to the prominent concept of monomyth in modern society. Campbell popularized the monomyth and gave it meaning and structure through his book, “The Hero with a Thousand Faces.” In this famous work, he outlines and details the steps, phases, and trials of a typical heroic journey that can be found in tales from every culture and age. Inspired by a Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show he attended at the age of 7, Campbell immersed
I believe that hero stories are popular because they are relatable in many ways. They show us that how no matter how great someone is, they will always have flaws because no one is perfect: we are all humans after all. We are able to learn from heroes mistakes and apply these lessons to ourselves.