Imagine living in a dark and scary world. People are frequently trying to hurt you. Demons speak to you from the shadows. You fear you may kill people with your thoughts. Then imagine you had to step out of the house every day and function like everyone else. How would you accomplish such a thing? Is it even possible? Indeed, while it seems improbable, Elyn Saks shows us that it is not impossible. Saks holds multiple degrees from prestigious universities and has a satisfying career in higher education. She has a close group of friends who cherish her and a husband who accepts her for who she is. Not only is Elyn Saks a woman with schizophrenia functioning in the world, she is functioning perhaps better than most. How has she accomplished this seemingly implausible feat? Certainly finding her way wasn’t easy. Saks spent many years denying her mental illness and on many occasions her stubborn denial was almost her undoing. She wrongly thought that if she just fought hard enough, the invasive thoughts and terrifying feelings would go away. However, this determined streak which was at times so detrimental has also contributed her salvation. Her world, her ‘center’, which she has fashioned for herself is a resilient patchwork held together by her …show more content…
There have been many psychoanalysts in her world but perhaps none as impactful as her first, Mrs. Jones. With Mrs. Jones, Saks was, for the first time, able to let her demons out in a safe and controlled environment to then have them interpreted back to her in a way that made sense. “Me: ‘I am in control. I control the world. The world is at my whim. I control the world and everything in it.’ Mrs. Jones: ‘You want to feel in control because in fact you feel so helpless.’” (Saks, 2007, p.
Success in high school requires years of hard work and dedication to excellence. During her four years at Holy Trinity, Yasmeen Ettrick has proved herself to be a successful, and dedicated member of the Holy Trinity community. Yasmeen Ettrick
Schizophrenia is one of the most well known and surprisingly frequent psychological disorders today. Patients who have this disorder have problems separating reality from fantasy or delusion. Typically, the person with schizophrenia starts off with a small paranoia about something or someone and continues to get more and more problematic until he/she has trouble functioning in the real world because of emotional, physical, mental, or financial reasons. Because of this, most people who end up homeless have Schizophrenia because they are unable to keep a job, Nathaniel Ayes in the book The Soloist. Nathaniel was a cello player attending the Julliard school of music, one of the world’s most prestigious performing art schools, until he developed schizophrenia and was unable to continue. This book shows how much a disorder such as schizophrenia can turn a person’s life upside down in the course of as little as a few weeks.
...he success of his treatment, it’s clear that some-if not all is the result of her escaping from beneath the foot of her oppressors.
Alvin C. York who was an American war hero during WWI, was born on December 13, 1887, in Pall Mall, Tennessee. York was third out of eleven kids , he grew up in a small cabin and didn’t receive a lot of schooling as a child. When his father died in 1911, York, was forced to help his mother raise his younger siblings. Because of all the pressure he was under, of trying to fill his father’s shoes. York became a heavy drinker and was frequently involved in bar fights. York stayed a heavy drinker until 1914, when his friend Everett Delk was beaten to death during brawl in Static, KY. After that, he became a member of a Church. This is where York met his wife, Gracie Williams, through the church's Sunday school and singing in the choir. York then
Schizophrenia is perhaps one of the most treaded mental disorders, and often confused with multiple personality disorder, which is now known as dissociative identity disorder (DID). With hallucinations, false senses of reality, and delusions, paranoid thoughts that have no basis in reality, schizophrenia is the truly terrifying to not only those around the patient, but to the patient themself. For Professor Elyn Saks, a professor of law, psychiatry, and psychology at the University of Southern California, this comes as no surprise. As a chronic schizophrenic, Professor Saks recalled one of her worst psychotic episodes, which occurred shortly after her New Haven analyst, Dr. White, revealed to her that he was closing his practice. Saks described the news to be shattering, and the trigger to her psychotic episode. Saks continues to describe the psychotic episode, telling the audience hat her best friend flew out to be with her. Saks begins to quote from her writings: "...[f]or a week or more, I had barely eaten. I was gaunt. I walked
--------------------------------------------------------------------- [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.
In psychoanalysis the therapist takes on the role of the expert, listening and interpreting Ana’s free associations from her unconscious process. The therapist role is to discover what is real and what is not real. The therapist is not to have an agenda and to remain passive and only engage when interpreting something Ana has stated (Murdock,
Previously, the narrator has intimated, “She had all her life long been accustomed to harbor thoughts and emotions which never voiced themselves. They had never taken the form of struggles. They belonged to her and were her own.” Her thoughts and emotions engulf her, but she does not “struggle” with them. They “belonged to her and were her own.” She does not have to share them with anyone; conversely, she must share her life and her money with her husband and children and with the many social organizations and functions her role demands.
There is no one to listen to her or care for her ‘personal’ opinions. Her husband cares for her, in a doctor’s fashion, but her doesn’t listen to her (Rao, 39). Dealing with a mentally ill patient can be difficult, however, it’s extremely inappropriate for her husband to be her doctor when he has a much larger job to fulfill. He solely treats his wife as a patient telling her only what could benefit her mental sickness rather than providing her with the companionship and support she desperately needs. If her husband would have communicated with her on a personal level, her insanity episode could have been prevented. Instead of telling her everything she needed he should’ve been there to listen and hear her out. Instead she had to seek an alternate audience, being her journal in which he then forbids her to do. All of this leads to the woman having nobody to speak or express emotion to. All of her deep and insane thoughts now fluttered through her head like bats in the Crystal Cave.
BIBLIOGRAPHY Arasse, Daniel. Complete Guide to Mental Health. Allen Lane Press,New York, 1989. Gingerich, Susan. Coping With Schizophrenia. New Harbinger Publications, Inc. Oakland, 1994. Kass, Stephen. Schizophrenia: The Facts. Oxford University Press. New York, 1997. Muesen, Kim. “Schizophrenia”. Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia. Microsoft Corporation, 1998. Young, Patrick. The Encyclopedia od Health, Psychological Disorders and Their Treatment. Herrington Publications. New York, 1991.
Hallucinations and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder were the two main these presented in the film, and were both displayed similarily to what I had learned in the educational instruments I used. The symptoms and characterists of both shined through the character, and made me feel as if I were living her reality with her. The directors of this film made the reality of these physhological disorders come to life for the viewers. This film would be a great piece for educational purposes, which gives the public a better understanding and virtual reality for those who are unfarmiliar with these disorders or who would like to better educate themselves on the topics. This film was a bit more serious, therefore the subject matter was not treated in a humorous way whatsoever. The characters played serious roles, where dedication and perseverance were their main focus. Several scenes in the film gave viewers raw emotion and behind the scenes reality of the life Nina lives, day to day, with her psychological issues. Towards the end of the film Nina begins to experience more hallucinations. She believes everyone is out to get her, including her own mother. There are scenes where she visions the black swan through the mirror, as well as viewing herself as this even person in her dressing room. These hallucinations drive Nina farther away from her reality, and begin to take a toll on her mental
She continues in this sequel to talk about the abuse she faced and the dysfunction that surrounded her life as a child and as a teen, and the ‘empty space’ in which she lived in as a result. She talks about the multiple personalities she was exhibiting, the rebellious “Willie” and the kind “Carol”; as well as hearing noises and her sensory problems. In this book, the author puts more emphasis on the “consciousness” and “awareness” and how important that was for her therapeutic process. She could not just be on “auto-pilot” and act normal; the road to recovery was filled with self-awareness and the need to process all the pieces of the puzzle—often with the guidance and assistance of her therapist. She had a need to analyze the abstract concept of emotions as well as feelings and thoughts. Connecting with others who go through what she did was also integral to her
In this passage Diane Glancy portrays a woman’s descent into insanity following her husband’s death. The passage is written in 3rd person limited omniscient, but with glimpses of 1st person perspective from the protagonist. Using frequent references to the cold and confusing and unusual sentence structure, the author depicts the protagonist’s delirious reality.
...2004). Three major factors that can influence schizophrenia include stress, coping skills, and social support (Mueser, 2004). Stress can cause an increase in schizophrenia symptoms as well as relapses, although coping skills such as social skills can reduce the effects of stress (Mueser, 2004). Social support can also help lower stress and increase coping skills in these individuals (Mueser, 2004). In Nina’s case, her career is a continual stressor especially when she is chosen to be the Swan Queen. Her body is going through more strain with more demanding practices and her bulimic tendencies are not beneficial for her health. Nina does not have good support from her mother or others around her, making it challenging for her to lower her stress and develop good coping skills; Nina does not have social skills to be able to combat her progressing schizophrenia.
Conchita, Charly Carlyle Ph.D. “Alice’s (& Lady Gaga’s) Sense of Self in Wonderland: A Psychoanalytic Formulation.” nymphobrainiac.wordpress. 5 March 2010. Web. May 2015.