In Oliver Sacks clinical biography Awakenings, men and women diagnosed with encephalitis lethargica seemed hopeless until 1969 when Dr. Sacks introduces patients to a new drug called L-DOPA. The patients were catatonic; they would display behaviors like stupor or motor rigidity and in some cases would be unable to speak, respond, or move. Patients would be checked out or seem to be in their own world. The drug L-DOPA provides an “awakening” effect and makes an exceptional impact on patients’ physical and cognitive abilities. Sacks explores the lives of these individuals and the phenomenal transformations with this particular treatment. Awakenings provides a passionate and insightful connection between physical health and the human mind.
Throughout Awakenings, Oliver Sacks emphasises the abruptness of the disorder. By combining the biological and biographical dimensions of his patients struggle and success, Sacks captures and depicts a deeper understanding of the messy human mind. His main goal throughout the novel was to jump into the full emotional and physical contexts of their lives in order to illustrate the remoteness of a progressive disease, the sudden awakenings with
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The individual case studies provide different perspectives and the reader finds themselves anticipating what will happen to each patient. This book falls into the abnormal psychology unit, relating to disorders such as schizophrenia and symptoms like catatonia. The way in which Sacks describes his patients brings the reader into the curiosity of the complicated human mind. It is interesting to read the perspective from Oliver Sacks on his patients who suffered from a crippling disorder. Differently from any normal case study, Oliver Sacks manipulates his words by allowing the reader to connect and relate to the patients who suffer from encephalitis lethargica, making each case study that more
Sayers, he was a new doctor and worked at a mental hospital in the Bronx. The hospital he worked at had all kinds of patients with weird and different diseases or disorders. Dr. Sayers had a goal and according to the article, Bringing Statues to Life, his goals was, "To help these people breakout of their semiconscious state"(Fehlhaber). This quote explains all he wanted was to achieve this and the goal to be successful. He looked at the many different kinds of disorders and diseases, before the one had caught his eye. The disease/disorder that had caught his eye were the patients, who had the extreme version of Parkinsonism. These patients have been catatonic for decades. The article Bringing Statues to life, it explains that, "He had heard about a new experiment drug, L-Dopa, which was being used to treat patients with Parkinson's disease" (Fehlhaber), so he thought he would try it on the others with the disease. Leonard was the Dr. Sayer first patient to try the drug and the main patient he worked with. He video taped Leonard throughout the experiment and explained the disease and what was happening. During his journey, Dr. Sayers discovered that the patients would move to certain kinds of music, catching a ball or an object, or touch familiar objects. A while after using L-Dopa, they had seen a jaw dropping sight, Leonard was out of his catatonic state and was awake! So then they decided to use the drug on the other
Franklin, R. F. "The Awakening and the Failure of Psyche" American Literature 56 (Summer 1984): 510-526.
The Awakening is a novel about the growth of a woman becoming her own person; in spite of the expectations society has for her. The book follows Edna Pontellier as she struggles to find her identity. Edna knows that she cannot be happy filling the role that society has created for her. She did not believe that she could break from this pattern because of the pressures of society. As a result she ends up taking her own life. However, readers should not sympathize with her for taking her own life.
Dreams prove as a powerful, motivating force, propelling an individual forward into real achievements in life. Conversely, dreams can transpire as blatantly artificial. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Winter Dreams” depicts the story of Dexter Green, a young man who dreams of achievements and works hard in a real, non-illusionary world to win them. His work in this plain, unromantic world brings him ever closer to the dream world he so desperately wants, while at the same time the dreams show themselves as decaying or empty. Unfortunately, this does not cure him of dreaming and does not push him to abandon his dreams in favor of a healthier attitude. When Dexter embodies all of his dreams in the beautiful Judy Jones, her fickle attitude and the inevitability of her aging destroys Dexter’s dream world and dries up the source of his achievements. The author, using paradoxes, shows Judy Jones differently through Dexter’s eyes, and reinforces the theme of illusion versus reality.
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.
Oliver Sacks, MD, FRCP, was a neurologist and professor of neurology at NYU School of Medicine. He is also a best selling author, and is know by the New York Times as “the poet laureate of medicine.” He worked with music and music therapy and wrote Musicophilia: Tales of Music and The Brain (Knopf, 2007).
Ranging from caged parrots to the meadow in Kentucky, symbols and settings in The Awakening are prominent and provide a deeper meaning than the text does alone. Throughout The Awakening by Kate Chopin, symbols and setting recur representing Edna’s current progress in her awakening. The reader can interpret these and see a timeline of Edna’s changes and turmoil as she undergoes her changes and awakening.
In this paper the reader will be able to find a variety of different areas covered. A detailed summary of the movie 28 days directed by Betty Thomas in 2000 will start the paper. The diagnostic criteria of a psychiatric disease will be included along with rationales why the main character fits the diagnosis of disease. Included is the effectiveness or non-effectiveness of coping mechanisms. Pharmacological with classification and non-pharmacological treatments will be included in addition to discussion of ethical and legal issues. This paper will include whether it would be an acceptable fit for patients or families with the same diagnosis. Lastly, will be an overall conclusion of the information provided in the paper.
The nature of the disorder makes it difficult to treat, since patients are convinced that they suffer from a real and serious medical problem. Indeed, the mere su...
As a Psychiatrist, they are to proficiently understand the function of the human mind to be able to penetrate into their patient’s thoughts and feelings. These medical doctors are required to spend approximately twelve years gaining a better insight into the complex structure of the brain. They are trained to understand how specific sections of the brain work together to achieve varieties of functions and how a mutation can cause a severe malfunction (Zorumski and Rubin). As a result of the years spent training, Psychiatrists are to differentiate and categorize physical and psychosomatic stress caused by chemical changes in the special parts of the brain. Psychiatrists are also trained to use neurotic technologies such as deep brain stimulation. Additionally, the medical doctors are equi...
It is not until the Church’s power begins to fade that science could rise to the forefront for the understanding and treatment of disorders. However, science’s reasoning for schizophrenia failed sometimes too. For instance, an explanation of schizophrenia that developed in the 1900’s by Freud believed that schizophrenia evolves from conditions that are caused by a world that is exceedingly strident towards individuals either by parents that have been unnurturing to their children or if they have experienced a trauma. However, in 1948 Frieda Fromm-Reichmann expanded on Freud’s ...
...tation test where a person were to read the story without the knowledge that the real author is also the narrator and a character, it would probably be read as a detailed work of fiction. Because readers have the knowledge that Oliver Sacks is in fact a neurologist, it changes the meanings in the text. This is how the real author is distinct from the implied author; the implied author is what the reader can deduce from the material presented in the text, without any knowledge of the real author’s context. The knowledge that Oliver Sacks is in reality a neurologist also positions readers to accept the narrator’s version of events because they would be inclined to accept the privileged and authoritative narrative voice. The techniques of point of view, subjective narration and characterisation therefore position readers to accept the meanings presented in the text.
Lacan, J. (1997, 2002) "On a question preliminary to any possible treatment of psychosis" in Ecrits.
In comparison to other works such as Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn wherein the title succinctly tells what the story shall contain, Kate Chopin’s The Awakening represents a work whose title can only be fully understood after the incorporation of the themes and content into the reader’s mind, which can only be incorporated by reading the novel itself. The title, The Awakening, paints a vague mental picture for the reader at first and does not fully portray what content the novel will possess. After thorough reading of the novel, one can understand that the title represents the main character, Edna Pontellier’s, sexual awakening and metaphorical resurrection that takes place in the plot as opposed to not having a clue on what the plot will be about.
The problem arising applying M’Naughten is that, besides the diseases that would commonly been recognised as ‘of the mind’, like psychosis, there are others that the common belief wouldn’t include in the group if not for the ‘Rules’ ratio, for example, diabetes, sleepwalking and epilepsy. Moreover the disease is not required to have a mental rather than organic origin.