In the screenplay “Eighteen Seconds” by Antonin Artaud, we explore the possibility that madness can be forcefully imposed onto a mentally healthy character simply by being repeatedly told that he is. One can still be a well-adjusted individual despite being labelled as mad, but as soon as news of this label has time to fester and spread, that individual’s mental state can be changed to great negative effect. The society and its conformist nature does play a big role in causing madness and the aggravation of it. Interestingly, the society’s maltreatment towards the mentally ill in ways such as insults, shunning and sometimes straight-out physical violence are detrimental to those already mad, but they can be just as effective in pushing a normal
It is hard to comprehend how and why people lose their sanity and become mad. I will address how the mind’s struggles caused by individual genes, stress and social-cultural influence affect the lives of Naomi, a 24-year-old college student with schizophrenia and Eric, a 27-year-old classical musician with severe depression. Their thoughts and behavior surprised me as this is my first time exposed to what these mental illnesses are. The relation between the mind and the body and the fact that the emotions affect the functioning of the body and vice versa explains the how and why a person become insane.
Hamlet, we first learn, is an intelligent student. Now by the end of the play
Madness: A History, a film by the Films Media Group, is the final installment of a five part series, Kill or Cure: A History of Medical Treatment. It presents a history of the medical science community and it’s relationship with those who suffer from mental illness. The program uses original manuscripts, photos, testimonials, and video footage from medical archives, detailing the historical progression of doctors and scientists’ understanding and treatment of mental illness. The film compares and contrasts the techniques utilized today, with the methods of the past. The film offers an often grim and disturbing recounting of the road we’ve taken from madness to illness.
...ng this novel, I am certain that I am correct in that. For someone else to disregard your own free will due to perceived madness is madness in and of itself. Viewing clips of the popular movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, there were multiple scenes that made me cringe. On scene in particular, showing the horrendous effects of electro-shock therapy, or ECT, on Randle McMurphy's iconic personality, I realized that this is a practice still conducted today and one that I find extremely undesirable. It is said that ECT is "a relatively safe and effective procedure, providing relief from serious psychiatric symptoms;" however, how far is too far (Seiner, Morales, and Bolton)? While the story presents the optimistic view that people may not be as crazy as you think, it also raises startling questions regarding the unethical treatment of institutionalized individuals.
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...
The functioning of the average human mind has intrigued and plagued philosophers and thinkers over centuries, one of the most curious and fascinating studies have been made into personages with dual personalities, schizophrenia being one of the factors. Similarly, in the book, The Strange Case, as well as in the film, Psycho, the books are taken place in late Victorian London, but Psycho is in late 60’s in the USA. The respective authors in these two texts portray that duality of human nature exists in society and humanity through the use of characterization and setting.
Mark Drolsbaugh, a Deaf guidance counselor for the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf and author of the book Madness in the Mainstream, presented on Thursday, February 25 at McDaniel College. Deaf events, such as the lecture by Mark, occur around two to three times a semester. The American Sign Language (ASL) Department of McDaniel College hosts these events. The topic of the presentation that night was about the disputes of education with deaf children attending mainstream schools and was subsequently titled “Madness in the Mainstream”. Mark starts by discussing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and how it guarantees equal education for all. Consequently, children who are
In this project, I will consider whether the current law defence of insanity is ineffective, out-dated and in need of reform. I will do so by considering few criticisms of the insanity defence under the M’Naghten rules by academics like Peter Blood and others, as well as by reviewing possible law reform in the Insanity and automatism Scoping paper.
Throughout history society has depicted the “outsider” as the non-conformist. This non-conformist persona usually has negative attributes attached to it, therefore, no one wants to be correlated with it. For this reason, it is believed that the non-conformist poses danger to society because they may cause a collapse in its structure. Yet, a “mad” society meaning a society that poses danger to the outsider creates justification to their non conformity. In Emily Dickinson’s poem “Much Madness is Divinest Sense” she demonstrates how a “mad” society causes destruction on the non-conformist.
The ramification of this was that the scientific dominance of psychiatry was able to use more ‘humane’ methods, including drugs and shock therapy to help rehabilitate its patients. This is seen in one of the more harrowing moments of the film whereby McMurphy reveals shock treatment and Forman has Nicholson physically retch and jerk his body around on a bed whilst loud, synthetic music is played over the top. The doctors and nurses in this scene are shown to restrain Nicholson as his fit intensifies. This sets up the vital idea that those who are in a position of power do not simply remain unaware of the torment this supposedly humane treatment has on its patients but also restrain those who do not conform and try by every means to make them adhere to what is socially accepted. The sustained link in western civilisations between delinquency and madness is illustrated by McMurphy’s relocation from the “Pendleton Farm for Correction” (Forman) to the asylum. This allocation is a transition through the blurred border between where felons are imprisoned and transformed to where the psychologically unstable are also transformed. Reason and Law stick together to punish those who demonstrate: “…outbreaks of passion that suggest the possible diagnosis of psychopath…” (Kesey 46) Those individuals who “…fight and fuck too much…” are reprimanded for their anti-social
Many have feared where the line between sanity and insanity blur into one when an amount of trauma creates hallucinations in the subconscious. Throughout humanity’s earlier days, mental illness could not be determined by a physical diagnosis. The concept of how a sane person can turn insane brings wonders yet curiosity into the subconscious. Yet, the possibilities were expressed through the ideals of literature in a place where little to no knowledge could burst into bountiful amounts on the subject of insanity. One author in particular writes about a woman who explains through first person her journey from sane to insanity. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story
Madness is seen throughout society and is incurable. The stories we read clearly have universal theme of this. In my essay, I will provide examples of how these stories have madness in them.
Most people gather what they know about mental illnesses from television and film. Unfortunately these media portrayals are inaccurate and create stigma. They depict people suffering from mental illnesses as different, dangerous and laughable. Characters are often addicted to drugs or alcohol, are violent, dangerous, or out of control. Horror film characters like Norman Bates in Psycho, Jack Torrance in the Shining, or Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs associate the typical 'psycho- killer' with people who suffer from a mental illness. But dramas and horror films are not the only film genres that create stigma. Comedies like What About Bob and many others not only stigmatize, they also make fun of mental illnesses and the people who suffer from them. This paper will discuss how the film Me, Myself & Irene is an inaccurate, offensive and stigmatizing portrayal of an individual suffering from schizophrenia. It also discusses what can be done to counteract the stigma created by these types of films.
... but the torment of being labelled insane. The eventual anxiety attack, characterized by irrational behaviour such speaking frequently, and later foaming, raving, swearing and violent actions towards his chair, which is, ironically, the typical behaviour of the insane.
To begin with, the argument will be focused on the concept of "madness." Then, the paper will illustrate the limits of a comic conception of life through this excerpt.