‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ and ‘Regeneration’ both present studies of insanity that stem from social pressures on characters. Insanity is defined as a “state of being unsound in mind” and “applicable to any degree of mental derangement from slight delirium or wandering to distraction”. Throughout the texts, we do see characters with ‘unsound minds’, ‘mental derangement’ who appear utterly distracted or delirious. The massive social cause of this insanity for the characters in ‘Regeneration’ is The Great War of 1914-1918. The soldiers are being treated for shellshock at Craiglockhart. Their ‘unsound minds’ being the result of shell shock from the trauma of trench warfare, knowing that once they get better they will be sent back out to the front line to endure it all again. ‘Unsound minds’ are the conditions with which Rivers, the doctor treating these insane soldiers, in Barker’s ’Regeneration’, concerns himself. He knows that the young men from the Great War, brought to Craiglockhart, are the result of being constantly bombarded by shells, whilst sitting in a rat-infested trench that is knee deep in churned mud and rain water, drenching feet and uniform, knowing that if they are ordered ‘to go over the top’, through ‘No Man’s Land’ imminent death will probably result. Rivers knows, therefore, that there is a social cause for the insanity manifest in the young soldiers brought back form the trenches. Moreover, there is the double-edged sword that if he can help heal their mind, they will return to face further conflict. Barker explores the study of Rivers’ therapy with the insane and helps us see that the War itself is the culprit. The same symptoms of insanity described in ‘Regeneration’ amongst the soldiers, are seen in t...
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... he tried to eat, the taste and smell recurred’. In contrast, Blanche has problems with her shakes and reliving the internalisation of the “war” in her mind. ‘She sits down shakily, taking a grateful drink’
Works Cited
What’s in a Name?” A Brief Foray into the History of Insanity in England and the United States, Janet A. Tighe, PhD, http://www.jaapl.org/content/33/2/252.full
Donald Pease, Tennessee Williams: A Tribute, p840
Debbie Swan, An Unexpected Message from Our Past, https://www.k-state.edu/english/westmank/regeneration/homosexuality.swann.html
The White Feather Campaign: A Struggle with Masculinity During World War I, Peter J. Hart, Student Pulse (2010, Vol. 2 NO.) http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/151/the-white-feather-campaign-a-struggle-with-masculinity-during-world-war-i
Macro History and the World Timeline, http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/ch03-2.htm
Before Kirkbride's standardized methods for mental hospitals, those with mental illness suffered crude and inhuman treatment. Beginning in Colonial America society, people suffering from mental illness were referred to as lunatics. Colonists viewed lunatics as being possessed by the devil, and usually were removed from societ...
McGlinn addresses the third dialectic taking hold of Blanche: illusion versus reality. McGlinn points out that, like all the women in Williams’s plays between 1940 and 1950, Blanche “refuses to accept the reality of her life and attempts to live under illusion.” [Tharpe, 513]. Although McGlinn is accurate in noting Blanche’s conflict between gentility and promiscuity, the result of which is “self-defeat instead of survival” [Tharpe, 513], she fails to see that Blanche lives in both illusion and reality simultaneously, and it is this dialectic that is the slow poison which destroys her. This death-instinct gives us the fourth and last dialectic in Blanche: her struggle between death and desire.”
The film gives a historical overview of how the mentally ill have been treated throughout history and chronicles the advancements and missteps the medical community has made along the way. Whittaker recounts the history of psychiatric treatment in America until 1950, he then moves on to describe the use of antipsychotic drugs to treat schizophrenia. He critically summarizes that it is doctors, rather than the patients, who have always calculated the evaluation of the merits of medical treatment, as the “mad” continue to be dismissed as unreliable witnesses. When in fact it is the patient being treated, and their subjective experience, that should be foremost in the evaluation. The film backs up this analysis with interviews of people, living viable lives in the town of Geel, Belgium. I would recommend this film to anyone interested in the history of medicine and specifically to those examining mental illness. It provides a balanced recounting of historical approaches to mental illness, along with success stories of the people of Geel, Belgium. And although I had to look away during the viewing of a lobotomy procedure, I give credit to the power of the visual impact the footage
In the 1840’s, the United States started to build public insane asylums instead of placing the insane in almshouses or jail. Before this, asylums were maintained mostly by religious factions whose main goal was to purify the patient (Hartford 1). By the 1870’s, the conditions of these public insane asylums were very unhealthy due to a lack of funding. The actions of Elizabeth J. Cochrane (pen name Nellie Bly), during her book “Ten Days in a Mad-House,” significantly heightened the conditions of these mental asylums during the late 1800s.
Through the use of insanity as a metaphor, William Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, William Blake, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, introduced us to characters and stories that illustrate the path to insanity from the creation of a weakened psychological state that renders the victim susceptible to bouts of madness, the internalization of stimuli that has permeated the human psyche resulting in the chasm between rational and irrational thought, and the consequences of the effects of the psychological stress of external stimuli demonstrated through the actions of their characters.
The loss of her beloved husband kept Blanche’s mental state in the past, back when she was 16, when she only cared about her appearance. That is why at the age of 30 she avoids bright lights that reveal her wrinkles. Blanche does not want to remember the troubles of her past and therefore she attempts to remain at a time when life was simpler. This is reinforced by the light metaphor which illustrates how her life has darkened since Allan’s suicide and how the light of love will never shine as brightly for Blanche ever again. Although, throughout the play Blanche sparks an interest in Mitch, a friend of Stanley’s, who reveals in Scene three that he also lost a lover once, although his lover was taken by an illness, not suicide, and therefore he still searches for the possibility of love, when Blanche aims to find stability and security.
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...
Up to the 1600s, people with psychotic disorders were sent off in "ships of fools", locked in cages, "flogged into reason", or killed. The care for the insane at this time was the responsibility of nuns and monks (Noll, xviii).
...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.
War has a definite effect on the mentality of a soldier, so much so that many result in insanity during or after the leave of combat. Timothy Findley’s The Wars, portrays the “stupidity, futility and the horror of the terrible losses of the First World War, describing war as an image of the worst that can be within a man” (Anne Nothof Interview). Findley portrays mental aspects as well as physical, that lead to Robert Ross’ demises, specifically, the conditions of war, overall aspect of war taking someone’s life and the feeling of loneliness and silence.
By believing her own lie, Blanche disconnects herself from the reality in which she lives. She becomes so immersed in her lies that she herself is unable to tell where her fantasies end and reality begins. It is no longer a lie to maintain her appearance but a delusion that she believes in. In her mind she is not an aging women with few social contacts but a proper young lady with friends of high standings.
Two hundred years ago, Pennsylvania revolutionized the mental health care movement. Benjamin Rush, a Philadelphia doctor made a suggestion to his fellow colleagues about individuals suffering from mental disorders. Instead of treating individuals with mental disorders as a sign of demon possession or confused soul, treat their disorder as an illness. In the late 1800's, another Philadelphia doctor caught wind of Rush's idea to treat mental illness. Thomas Kirkbride believed the insane, as they were called in nineteeth century, deserved humane treatment. After this realization, the asylum movement took place in Pennsylvania. Individuals suffering from mental disorders were taken out of their inhumane circumstances an...
Insanity is the being in the state of mind of mentally ill. Redhill illustrates insanity through the people of Bellevue Square and Jean Mason. The three important settings, Bookshop, Kensington market, and Bellevue Square, is all related and emerge together as a place of paradise for Jean and the people referred to as,
Much of my skepticism over the insanity defense is how this act of crime has been shifted from a medical condition to coming under legal governance. The word "insane" is now a legal term. A nuerological illness described by doctors and psychiatrists to a jury may explain a person's reason and behavior. It however seldom excuses it. The most widely known rule in...
History shows that signs of mental illness and abnormal behavior have been documented as far back as the early Greeks however, it was not viewed the same as it is today. The mentally ill were previously referred to as mad, insane, lunatics, or maniacs. W.B. Maher and B.A. Maher (1985) note how many of the terms use had roots in old English words that meant emotionally deranged, hurt, unhealthy, or diseased. Although early explanations were not accurate, the characteristics of the mentally ill have remained the same and these characteristics are used to diagnose disorders to date. Cultural norms have always been used to assess and define abnormal behavior. Currently, we have a decent understanding of the correlates and influences of mental illness. Although we do not have complete knowledge, psychopathologists have better resources, technology, and overall research skills than those in ancient times.