Sanity within Insanity My expedition through the complex and challenging roads of psychology started with a spark of insanity. Fortunately, this spark did not belong to me. Instead, in 1966 a man named Charles Whitman started a series of insane events that would eventually guide me to the magnificent structure of the human brain, and would convince me to dedicate my life to studying psychology. In 1966, Charles Whitman, who was only twenty five years old at the time, took an elevator to top floor of the University of Texas Tower and Austing, and committed a mass murder, which resulted in thirteen people’s death, as well as leaving thirty three others wounded (153, Eagleman). Whitman was shot to death by the police, and he left a suicide note …show more content…
In his suicide note, he also requested his brain to be examined during autopsy because he felt as if something was wrong with his brain (154, Eagleman). During the autopsy, the medical examiner discovered a brain tumor, which compressed Whitman’s amygdala, causing abnormalities within his emotional regulation (155, Eagleman). I read about Whitman’s case while I was still in high school. I remember being impressed by how the human brain can change who we are so effortlessly; the idea of being able to understand the human brain and behavior was so awakening to me as a teenager. As a result of my eagerness to learn more about these topics, I’ve decided to study psychology with my main focus on cognitive and behavioral neuroscience. Then I realized that the only way to relieve my thirst towards the human brain was to study it in college’. Because studying the human brain allows one to learn more about their self identity, to make sensible assumptions about the human behavior, and to …show more content…
Making rational assumptions about the human behavior is important because it guides people about how to predict, understand, explain, and control behavior (Psychology Today). In other words, an individual trained in the field of psychology gains huge insight about the human behavior. Consequently, she/he can interpret certain behaviors and detect the problematic ones. In fact, this is the main principle of psychology. I personally enjoy my knowledge on psychology to regulate my personal relationships through predicting, understanding, explaining and rarely controlling the behaviors of others. For example, when I used to work as a tutor for middle school children, regulating their behavior often allowed me to connect them on a different emotional level. I was able to help my students to focus on schoolwork without making them feel overwhelmed. Considering these reasons, it would be accurate to state that learning about psychology is really helpful in terms of making rational assumptions about the human
The World of Psychology. (2002). A Pearson Education Company. Boston, MA: Samuel Wood & Ellen Green Wood p. 593
"Deinstitutionalization: A Psychiatric "titanic"" PBS. WGBH Educational Foundation, 10 May 2005. Web. 01 Dec. 2013.
D. Brett King, Wayne Viney, & William Douglas Woody, (2013). A History of Psychology, Ideas & Context. 3rd ed. United States: Pearson.
While this writer had some rudimentary knowledge of the impact serotonin had on the brain, "Why? The Neuroscience of Suicide" by Carol Ezzell piqued my curiosity on the role levels of serotonin and the process by which it is absorbed in the brain affect suicidal patients. This article was recently posted on the Neurology and Behavior website as supplemental reading for neurology and behavior's spring semester 2003 class. In this article the writer Carol Ezzell weaves her own personal experience with informative reporting of groundbreaking neuroscience research on suicide. Through further research I discovered various articles on a group of scientists from Columbia University doing research on the difference in people's brains whom have attempted suicide and or succeeded.
Whether they have loved or loathed his poetry, each writer or critic who has encountered "Leaves of Grass" has had to come to some sort of reckoning with Walt Whitman. The Good Gray Poet, the grandfather of American poetry, has been deified by some and labeled a cultural and artistic barbarian by others. While Whitman freely admitted in his preface to the final publication of "Leaves of Grass" that the work was faulty and far from perfect, some critics see no redeeming qualities in Whitman's art. Henry James goes so far as to say, "Whitman's verse...is an offense to art." (James, p.16) James chastises Whitman for extolling and exploiting what James feels are truisms. To James, Whitman's poetry is completely self-aggrandizing; it lacks substance and coherence. Through an examination of a specific poem, "The Wound Dresser", the claims of James and other negative critics can be refuted.
In times past and recent, a person may have expressed their gratefulness to another person with a statement such as, no one expected to lose their life when they woke up today. This case of Phineas Gage is still a modern mystery to some people, in as much, the fact that he survived this horrific incident was a true blessing and a wonder for all to see. At a period in history where the brain’s activities and functions was in high debated, scientist wanting to prove their theory and every situation that involved the brain an avenue in which they used to fuel their research, Phineas gave them an enormous amount of evidence. In making the point that the brain has different lobes that has control over their respective areas and motor skills of
The introduction of the book introduces Dr. Robert Hare’s research on psychopaths. He and two graduate students wrote a paper detailing an experiment they preformed on a group of random adult males. They recorded the brain waves of the group doing a simple language activity.
David Berkowitz, otherwise known as the “Son of Sam”, was notorious for his crimes committed between 1976 and 1977 that ended the lives of six innocent victims and wounded several others in New York (“David Berkowitz Biography”, n.d.). At first, police did not make a connection between the murders because there was nothing unusual about them; all the victims were shot with a 40 caliber gun, not fairly unusual during this time or place especially since the killings were over an extended period of time. Police finally made the connection when Berkowitz began to live behind notes that were meant to tantalize authorities since they had yet to catch him (“David Berkowitz| Son of Sam Killer,” 2015). Often times, the psychological structure of a human
Westen, D. (1998). The scientific legacy of Sigmund Freud: toward a psychodynamically informed psychological science. Psychological Bulletin, 124(3), 333.
Trying to understand the healthy minded and its implications on the individual in a healthy way is important to understand the thoughts of individuals and how they can either be manipulated or changed. These thoughts can cause a individual a significant amount of harm and frustration throughout their lives. It is in a psychologist best interest to research and understand these thoughts and behaviors and use the most strategic way of changing them. This is a very good way of understanding some of these thoughts processes that individuals go through and change as they grow and adapt to the world. If there are better ways of thinking and if they can be helped it is a psychologist duty to try and implement it into society for us to be better as a whole.
Fifty years ago, a person breaking the law would either be called crazy or a criminal. Today, the mental health community has much more specific diagnoses. However, the explanation of certain behaviors may be difficult because there is much overlap among mental conditions. In Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho, the protagonist, Patrick Bateman, is apparently simply a psychopath. However, Bateman can be diagnosed with other mental illnesses such as Asperger’s syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, narcissism, and antisocial personality disorder. In both the book and film adaptation, Bateman’s actions can be understood more accurately when analyzed in light of modern psychology.
Maher, B. A., & Maher, W. B. (1985). Psychopathology: II. From the eighteenth century to modern times. In G. A. Kimble & K. Schlesinger (Eds.), Topics in the history of psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 295-329). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
The brain is arguably the most complex part of a human being and is linked to motivations, feelings, and actions. Therefore, when actions of individuals differ from “normal” actions, the brain is brought into question. Repeat killers commit actions that are not “normal” when compared to the general public and therefore research on their brains has been conducted. When comparing scans of everyday citizens’ brains as opposed to the brain of a convicted serial killer, the differences are clear. The two scans differ widely with the prefrontal gray matter of the average person’s, dwarfing that of the murderer’s (Adams). Pr...
Nevertheless, by insisting “the business of psychiatry is control and coercion, not care and cure” or that it is “human activity governed by human interest” (Szasz 18-19), Szasz neglects to add to the solution. In turn, adding more confusion to the melting pot of stigma the public eye has to sort through while searching for answers. Furthermore, without physical proof of such acts of coercion or control by any person(s) or entity, Szasz is in turn, feeding careless propaganda to the public and the media as well as other professional and medical communities. In 1951, a humanistic psychologist by the name of Carl Rodgers, organized a few propositions that would later be a foundation in most cognitive therapies for the next few generations. Rodgers argues that:
As a self-published author, Walt Whitman was one of America’s most significant nineteenth century poets. Through his poems, he was known for “chanting praises to the body as well as to the soul, and found beauty and reassurance even in death (poetry foundation).” In his famous poem “I sing the body electric”, shows how much appreciation he has for the body and made a connection to how both the body and poems make the soul. Thus, the ending of the poem shows important characteristics of Walt Whitman’s writing and belief.