Monologue of a Disturbed Personality: Original Writing
The light is bright. Too bright in fact. Oh, wait a minute it’s the
walls and ceiling. This room is way too bright. The ceiling looks like
it reaches to heaven.
A doctor opens the door and walks slowly over to me.
“The Surgery went very well, Elizabeth” he said to me, dressed in his
overalls that are as white as snow and the clouds up above that I long
to see.
“Please, Doctor………” I replied. He was so rude not even to introduce
himself to me.
“Oh…sorry…yes. I am Dr. Black,” he replied in a soft, yet strong
voice. I replied instantly, “Err…yes Doctor Black I am quite aware
that I told your fellow work colleagues that I hate my foul name and
only my parents call me that. I wish for anyone else to please call
me, Lizzie.” I paused for a minute the silence was unbearable. I just
wished he would break this terrible silence. It feels like the clocks
have all stopped and somebody has flicked a switch and stopped the
time in this room only. I can hear people outside talking and the cars
on the nearby roads. I can hear the roaring of their engines. I can
hear the ticking of the old grandfather clock in the corridor. I can’t
get the ticking out of my head.
Then suddenly “Lizzie…well as I was saying the operation went well.
You will be out of here in a week to ten days.”
A few days went by. He came to see me each day to change my bandages.
I told him about my family and he has about his.
He is here again changing my bandages.
“Lizzie…have you been following my instructions because I fear
something is happening. “I am beginning to get scared.
“Doctor, what’s the matter…what’s happening…is it the operations…tell
me…I want to know!” I asked continuously. He just stood there and
stared at the ground for what seemed an age .Then he raised his head
so slowly I felt drowsy by the time he said “I am sorry to have to
“HE’S GOT THE WORLD ON TWO STRINGS”(pg21). Steve Lopez and Nathaniel Ayers go through a lot since Steve met Nathaniel a homeless man whole plays the violin in downtown Los Angeles. Nathaniel is a homeless man who has paranoid schizophrenia travels downtown Los Angeles pushing his cart with his violin in it. Steve is a writer works for the Los Angeles Times and is always looking for a story for he can write for his column. Both Nathaniel and Steve create a friendship even though with all the challenges but in the book The Soloist it shows how they created a friendship. Even though in The Soloist they talk about how mental illness is a choice, force medication to treat the illness, and the way people treat you.
Misery loves company and in Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener", Bartleby exhibits traits of depression and catatonic schizophrenia as defined in the DSM-IV; however the narrator's other employees also show symptoms of catatonia either influenced by Bartleby or by Melville's own mental state. The theme of mental disorder is prominent throughout the text and a close analysis of specific passages in concordance with the DSM-IV will first reveal how Bartleby exemplifies these mental disorders and secondly show to what extent the entire story serves to personify them.
In both novels novels A Streetcar Named Desire and Death of a Salesman, there is one major character in each novel that shares an almost unique characteristic with the other one; delusion. Both of the characters, Blache Dubios, and Willy Loman, respectively, live deluded lives in some shape or form, be it a delusion of self-perception, friends and family, or something else. One facet of delusion with both characters is how they rely on the people around them to maintain their delusions. They all use their surrounding characters actions and the way they interact with them as objects of which to reinforce and build their own delusions off of. Simply put, their delusion can only stay intact with the participation of the other characters in “playing along,” with the delusion.
More than two million cases can be found in psychological and psychiatric records of multiple personality disorders also called dissociative identity disorders. Dissociative Identity, formerly known as multiple personality disorder, is a condition in which, an individual has a host personality along with at least two or more personalities with each identity having his or her own ideas, memories, thoughts and way of doing things (Bennick). Personality disorders are a group of mental illnesses. They involve thoughts and behaviors that are unhealthy and inflexible. A person with a personality disorder has trouble perceiving and relating to situations and people. This causes significant problems and limitations in relationships, social activities,
In the book, “The Catcher in The Rye” by J.D. Salinger, the main character is very strange in numerous ways. His name is Holden Caulfield and boy has he got something wrong with him. He rambles on and on about nonsense for the first 20-something chapters of the book. He only likes 3-4 people in the book. He smokes and drinks heavily at the ripe age of seventeen. He has been expelled out of numerous prep schools, and feels abandoned and not wanted. He has some sort of mental illness and I think I know what it is. I believe that Holden Caulfield has a mental illness known as Borderline Personality Disorder, also known as BPD. The reasoning for my thinking is that Holden’s actions match up with the symptoms of this illness and the isolation he
All forms of psychopathology—from mild depression to severe schizophrenia—have had a complex, if not contradictory relationship with the public and even those considered experts in the field. After compiling research through both secondary sources and primary sources, there was an obvious sense of discourse between what was right and what was wrong, even within the basic idea of what designates someone as suffering or not suffering from psychopathology. As a result, it seems much less that there are experts in the field of psychopathology, but rather are experts in the field of theorizing about psychopathology. Such a claim does not discredit those who have studied psychopathology and are deemed experts, such as Dr. Thomas Widiger or Dr. R.J.R. Blair. They have, after all, dedicated their lives to the understanding of psychopathology, but it can be argued that complete understanding of the field can never be truly reached due to the subjectivity of it.
Schizophrenia in The Yellow Wallpaper. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s "The Yellow Wall-Paper," does more than just tell the story of a woman who suffers at the hands of 19th century quack medicine. Gilman created a protagonist with real emotions and a real psych that can be examined and analyzed in the context of modern psychology. In fact, understanding the psychology of the unnamed protagonist is well on the way to understanding the story itself. " The Yellow Wall-Paper," written in first-person narrative, charts the psychological state of the protagonist as she slowly deteriorates into schizophrenia (a disintegration of the personality).
Hamlet is considered a classic play that tells the story of revenge, written by, William Shakespeare. Before My Eyes is a novel, by Caroline Bock, that shows the truth behind believing what we want, not what we see. These two works have psychological illness in common. Hamlet and Barkley are both mentally ill; the Prince of Denmark is depressed and bipolar while the lonely and obsessive 21 year-old is schizophrenic.
Using narratives to gain an insight into human experience is becoming an increasingly popular method of exploration. Assuming that people are in essence narrative beings that experience every emotion and state through narrative, the value of exploring these gives us a unique understanding. Narrative is thought to act as instrument to explore how an individual constructs their own identity (Czarniawska, 1997) and explain how each individual makes sense of the world around them (Gabriel, 1998). It may also give us an understanding into individual thought processes in relation to individual decision making practices (O’Connor, 1997). It is evident from studies such as Heider and Simmel (1944), that there appears to be an instinctive nature in people to introduce plots structures and narratives into all situations, with an intention to construct meaning to all aspects of life in its entirety. The value of narrative is that it is a tool that allows us to understand what it means to be human and gives us an insight into a person’s lived experience whilst still acknowledging their cultural and social contexts. Narrative is thought to be significance as it is ‘a fruitful organizing principle to help understand the complex conduct of human beings (p.49)’ (Sarbin, 1990) The construction of a person’s narrative is thought to be dependent on each person’s individual awareness of themselves and the circumstances that surround them. However, a debate to whether a person is able to formulate a valid narrative in the face of a mental illness such as schizophrenia has emerged. Sufferer’s symptoms are often thought to interfere with their abilities to perceive within a level deemed acceptable to their society’s norms and therefore the validity ...
To define abnormal psychology is to define three parts: there must be an observable manifestation of abnormality. You must be able to observe the “disturbance in an individual cognition, emotion regulation, or behaviour.”(20) A clinical definition provided by the DSM-5. A disorder which is completely internalized with no observable component would not be considered abnormal. Secondly, this disturbance must be statistical different from what is regarded as societal norms. Smoking could be viewed as a disturbance that reflects a dysfunction. However, smoking is not regarded as abnormal because there are too many smokers, it is not a statistical infrequency. The last criteria to be met is that this disturbance must have a result or outcome and that result or outcome must be seen as harmful or negative to the individual or those observing.
Mental illness, today we are surround by a broad array of types of mental illnesses and new discoveries in this field every day. Up till the mid 1800’s there was no speak of personality disorder, in fact there was only two type of mental illness recognized. Those two illnesses as defined by Dr. Sam Vaknin (2010), “”delirium” or “manial”- were depression (melancholy), psychoses, and delusions.” It was later in 1835 when J. C. Pritchard the British Physician working at Bristol Infirmary Hospital published his work titled “Treatise on Insanity and Other Disorder of the Mind” this opened the door to the world of personality disorder. There were many story and changes to his theories and mental illness and it was then when Henry Maudsley in 1885 put theses theories to work and applied to a patient. This form of mental illness has since grown into the many different types of personality disorder that we know today. Like the evolution of the illness itself there has been a significant change in the way this illness is diagnosed and treated.
A way to think about a personality disorder is to think about someone who is complex because personality disorders are not a simple health concern. There is so much involved with these disorders. A person’s life can revolve around a personality disorder due to the fact that it is a mental issue. (Mayo Clinic, 2014). There is a stigma around the idea of mental disorder. People assume that a person with any type of mental disorder is dangerous or harmful. It will always be this way until the media changes how they portray mental disorders. (Arboleda, and Stuart, 2012) Did you know that in the overall population personality disorders affect more than 10% of people? (Lariviere, Desrosieres, Tousignant, and Boyer, 2010). Because this can happen to anyone, personality disorders need more awareness about what it is.
As children, we have all done things like play make believe. We would take on completely new personalities and change characteristics of ourselves, but only for fun. This is expected of children, they use their imagination to create new people and realities. The question is at what point in time was it appropriate to leave an overactive imagination in the past? When looking at a person with Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) one would say that a person never grew out of the role playing that is found so fascinating to a child. After years of doctors believing that patients with this disorder were possessed by demons and being rejected by behaviorists such as Sigmund Freud. MPD was diagnosed in its first patient in 1865. From then on Doctors
Mental disorders have baffled psychiatrists, physicians, and the public since the beginning of time. Multiple personality disorder, also known as dissociative identity disorder, is a severe form of dissociation, a mental process which produces a lack of connection in a person's thoughts, memories, feelings, actions, or sense of identity. Dissociation is characterized by the presence of two or more distinct personalities, or alters, that control a person’s behavior. “Nonetheless, some documented cases of MPD have noted patients having as many as one hundred alters” (“Multiple Personality Residential Treatment”). These different alters have their own age, sex, or race. Alters are alternative personalities, which are dissociated parts of the self that represent memories, emotions, and ways of relating to the person. They are able to function autonomously. The host is the original person, which is the one who is in charge of the body (“Dissociative Identity Disorder”). One can develop multiple personality disorder through various components, but luckily, there is a cure.
There are many different types of psychological disorders ranging from anxiety disorders, sexual disorder, dissociative disorders, even eating disorders. These disorders happen to affect many people all over the world. A dissociative disorder to me is when you have trouble understanding what reality is and when something isn’t real. You may have this disorder if you have double personalities. This could also fall under the category of a personality disorder, which by definition is a disorder characterized by a set of inflexible, maladaptive behavior patterns that keep a person from functioning appropriately in society. There are many forms of a dissociative disorder.