Chapter 22 in the novel Regeneration by Pat Barker is very significant to the development of the character Dr. W.H.R. Rivers, through the symbol of control throughout the book. In this chapter, Rivers returns to his home after witnessing Dr. Lewis Yealland’s horrific treatment of his patient Callan through the use of electrotherapy. Being displaced by the incident, Rivers finds it difficult to do any work because throughout the night recollections of the treatment continue to haunt him. After deciding to go to sleep, Rivers has a nightmare where he is treating a patient with electroshock therapy, just as Yealland did, except after attempting to shove the electrode into the patient’s mouth several times, he realizes that what he is holding is not an electrode, but a horse’s bit. Rivers awakens and reflects on this dream, noting that instead of trying to cure a patient of mutism by stimulating the patient with electroshock therapy, he was really trying to get his patient to stop speaking, and to rather become mute. The passages in chapter 22 serves to force the reader to question wether or not Rivers and Yealland are actually helping their patients, as well as to develop Dr. Rivers’s character by showing how he and Yealland are quite similar despite their differences in treatment through the exhibition of the element of control that both of these characters possess.
In the beginning of chapter 22, Rivers is obviously horrified by Yealland’s treatment of Callan: “As he read through what he’d written, he became aware that he was being haunted by images. The man in the corridor at Queen Square, Yealland’s hands, Callan’s open mouth, the two figures, doctor and patient, walking up and down, in and out of the circle of light round the b...
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...ss. Psychiatrists during World War I, including Rivers and Yealland, aim to achieve, either directly or indirectly, the curing of their patients to the degree necessary in order to justify their return to the battlefield; not for the sake of their mental stability. Both Rivers and Yealland are also very similar in terms of the degree of control and influence they have over their respective patients. While Yealland’s treatments are extremely radical, and Rivers’s are more conventional, they do necessarily achieve the same thing through the great amount of power they have. Chapter 22 gives readers important insight on what Rivers, Yealland, and other psychiatrists actually, instead of superficially, accomplish, as well as affiliating Rivers with Yealland; two characters that might appear to be polarized initially, that actually have more similarities than differences.
Hutchinson, Tom “Illness and the hero’s journey: still ourselves and more”, CMAJ. 162.11 (2000):p.1597 web (date accessed).
Noyes, Arthur P. M.D. and Kolb, Lawrence C. M.D. Shock and Other Physical Therapies. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Text and Criticism: The Viking Press. New York. 1973. Page 499.
In this book, Dr. Ernest Lash discovers he has a love for psychoanalysis after several years working as a psychopharmacologist. Justin, who has been a patient of Ernest for several years, tells him he left his wife, Carol, for another woman. While Ernest sees this as a good thing since the marriage between Justin and Carol as unhealthy, he is still slightly upset that Justin gives him no credit for his help in the situation. Justin then decided he no longer needs Ernest’s help.
Starting in chapter twenty-three until the final chapter, twenty- seven, Stoker mentions small, yet significant details that have a great influence on the outcome of the hypnosis. These small details illustrate how Stoker researched and understood how hypnosis worked and its final outcome. Analyzing these small details can hel...
At the beginning of Pat Barker’s Regeneration, she introduces readers to the war hero Siegfried Sassoon, who refused to fight on the grounds that the war had already been completed. Sassoon is declared mentally ill and is sent to the Craiglockhart War Memorial Hospital. At the hospital, Sassoon meets with Dr. W. H. R. Rivers. Dr. Rivers has the job of getting soldiers back to a state of good mental condition, which will enable them to return to the service. From the beginning of the novel to the closing, Dr. Rivers makes you wonder what he will do. Will he fight for the soldiers that are mentally struggling with the war or will he favor what the government wants him to do? Throughout Pat Barker’s Regeneration, she how much Dr. Rivers has
... the Madman, I have learned that redemption is possible, even given the most hopeless circumstances. After Minor committed a horrible crime, he fell from grace and lost his integrity. The once highly esteemed surgeon was reduced to being referred to as, “Poor Dr. Minor” (Winchester 161). Yet he was able to find restitution in contributing to the Oxford English Dictionary. He discovered a sense of purpose, in helping create the work, while he was locked away, isolated, and disheartened. Doctor Minor’s story is not solely a tale of murder and insanity, but also a message about hope and redemption.
The patients at Craiglockhart Hospital experience several different instances of doubting their masculinity in Pat Barker’s Regeneration. The men experience a variety of forms of emasculation as the plot progresses. Barker writes “The war that had promised so much in the way of ‘manly’ activity had actually delivered ‘feminine’ passivity, and on a scale that their mothers and sisters had scarcely known. No wonder they broke down” (Barker 107 - 108), which accentuates the theme of emasculation.
In Pat Barker's novel Regeneration, one of the main characters, Dr. Rivers, is presented with a patient who is not mentally ill at all, but very sane. In trying to "heal" this patient, Rivers begins to have an internal conflict about the job he is doing and the job he should be doing. He is fighting with himself until on page 149, he is in a church where they are singing a very popular hymn, "God Moves in a Mysterious Way." At this point, Rivers is able to begin resolving his conflict. By using this hymn, Barker is able to emphasize one of the novel's theme: in times of war, reflection on religion not only brings peace to a country, but can bring peace within yourself.
Throughout the story, O’Brien speaks about his adventure with man by the name Elroy Berdahl, the owner of the fishing lodge that O’Brien stays at while on he want to run away from his responsibility. O’Brien describe Elroy as “Elroy Berdahl: eighty-one years old, skinny and shrunken and mostly bald... His eyes had the bluish gray color of a razor blade, the same polished shine, and as he peered at me I felt a strange sharpness, almost painful, a cutting sensation, as if his gaze were somehow slicking me open.” O’Brien give the reader a clear idea about what Elroy looked like and how he the big influence on his, he eels Elroy can see the pain and desire inside of him. The circumstance of O’Brian has while he was their helping him to find and realize what his true believes and personality. The author of the story gives the audience the sense that our personal understanding of self is built on the role of relationship we have with others. There are many things that could influence the person choices such as family, friend...
Stepansky, Paul E., Ph. D. "Category Archives: Medicine in WWI." Medicine Health and History. February 11, 2012. Accessed January 13, 2014. http://adoseofhistory.com/category/military-psychiatry/medicine-in-wwi/.
...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.
Ernest Hemmingway’s, “In Our Time” is an oxymoronic approach to the constant presence of death and insanity contained within the topic of war and near death experiences. Not long after, “the turn of the century” the world through the use of the alliance system became consumed by the outbreak of the war in Europe. Officially dubbed as, “The War to end all wars”, participants marched obediently off to what they perceived to be a just and short war. In Hemmingway’s literary composition “In Our Time”, death, which often accompanies war, was a prominent topic. However, one could argue that war’s connection to death is not merely limited to death alone. It also has a strong connection to mental instability, which can present death through suicide
--------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] J.H.Newman ‘Difficulties of Anglicans’ Vol. 2, London 1891 pp. 246-7 [2] Sigmund Freud. Trans Strachey ‘An outline of Psychoanalysis’. Hogarth Press: 1949 pps.
White, David, and Daniel P. Murphy. "The Doctors' Trial - World War II." Netplaces. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. .
...tentially be cured with a one surgery. He uses this story of death to share that life is short. “Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by Dogma. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” He uses repetition and parallelism to drive his message home.