Mental Illness :: essays research papers

Mental Illness is a term used for a group of disorders causing severe disturbances in thinking, feeling and relating. They result in substantially diminished capacity for coping with the ordinary demands of life. (Mental Illness Defined) There are some different perspectives on the causes of mental illness. The perspectives include the biological, psychodynamic, humanistic and existential, behavioral, cognitive, and sociocultural. Advances in brain imaging techniques have helped scientists study the role of brain structure in mental illness. Some studies have shown brain abnormalities in certain mental illnesses. Some people with schizophrenia have enlarged brain ventricles. In addition, a variety of medical conditions may cause mental illness. Brain damage and strokes can cause loss of memory, impaired concentration and speech, and unusual changes in behavior. Brain tumors, imbalance of hormones, deficiencies in diet, and infections from viruses are other factors. Freud believes th at mental illness is caused by unconscious and unresolved conflicts in the mind. Both the humanistic and existential perspectives view abnormal behavior as resulting from a person’s failure to find meaning in life and fulfill his or her potential. The behavioral perspective explains mental illness, as well as all of human behavior, as a learned response to stimuli. Despite all of these different theories, most modern day psychologists agree that mental illness is caused by a combination of these things. (Mental Illness)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Schizophrenia results not from a single cause, but from a variety of factors. Most scientists believe that it is a biological disease caused by genetic factors, an imbalance of chemicals in the brain, structural brain abnormalities, or abnormalities in the prenatal environment. In addition, stressful life events may contribute to the development of schizophrenia in those who are predisposed to the illness. Approximately 1 percent of people develop schizophrenia at some time during their lives. It is estimated that about 1.8 million people in the United States alone have schizophrenia. (Schizophrenia) The prevalence of schizophrenia is the same regardless of gender, race, and culture. For many schizophrenic patients the symptoms gradually become less severe as they grow older. About 25 percent of people with schizophrenia become symptom-free later in their lives. A variety of symptoms characterize schizophrenia. The most prominent include symptoms of psychosis—such as delusions and hallucinations—as well as bizarre behavior, strange movements, and disorganized thinking and speech. (Brain Disorders: schizophrenia) Many people with schizophrenia do not recognize that their mental functioning is disturbed. Usually a family member points it out.

Barbie Doll: Society’s Whims Are Not To Be Fulfilled

In the poem â€Å"Barbie Doll,† author Marge Piercy utilizes four well-developed stanzas to depict a scornful view of American society. Applicable to all time periods, â€Å"Barbie Doll† narrates the short-lived life of a young girl despised by society for her appearance. Barbie Doll is like a fairytale, full of plasticity, fakeness, and fantasy. However, unlike a fairytale, â€Å"Barbie Doll† ends with society applauding the funeral of a princess that was torn apart into pieces and then worshiped. Written with varying tones of sadness and depression, vivid imagery, and compact concrete details, â€Å"Barbie Doll† presents a fact that society for centuries has blinded from view. Women, from the development of civilization to present-day modern America, have always endured oppression and humiliation from a patriarchic society. In â€Å"Barbie Doll,† the young girl is repressed by society for her â€Å"great big nose and fat legs. † The society in which this young girl lives views a â€Å"perfect† woman as one who possesses flawless beauty, helps children grow, cooks food, and irons clothes. In fact, society is so intent on morphing young girls into motherly, selfless, and sympathetic individuals that they were only allowed to play with â€Å"dolls that did pee-pee and miniature GE stoves. † Despite being â€Å"healthy and intelligent and possessing strong arms, abundant sexual drive, and manual dexterity,† the young girl is seen by society as incomplete, and abnormal. It is because of this continuous repression that the young girl’s â€Å"good nature† runs out. She herself loses faith in her appearance as society mocks and mocks and mocks her looks. Only when the young girl finally killed herself by â€Å"[cutting] off her nose and her legs],† and was laid in a fake casket with a fake dress and a fake nose, did society finally applaud the â€Å"true† beauty that this young girl possessed. Men want women to have â€Å"perfect† bodies and â€Å"perfect† faces; as a result, the young girl in â€Å"Barbie Doll† sacrificed herself to society’s demands. It is this fake perception and these fake ideas, this idea of perfection that gives â€Å"Barbie Doll,† a term applied in our world to display â€Å"plastic perfection,† its title. Tone also plays a crucial role in â€Å"Barbie Doll. † Each stanza begins heartily nd subtly and ends with a blunt phrase that leaves shock in the reader’s mind. For example, the third stanza starts off like a normal fairytale, detailing the setting in which the protagonist lives. However, when this fairytale approaches its final resolutio n, it takes an entirely different turn; abruptly moving from an ideal, perfectionist world into a world of darkness and misery, the fairytale turns into reality. This repeated undulating motion of tone allows the reader to understand the young girl’s dilemma. The young girl, like the tone of the poem, is wading through a wave of emotions. She does not know whether society is telling the truth about her beauty or if she really possesses such unattractiveness. In a way, she is stranded between a tidal wave of repression sent by society and a wall of concrete built by her conflicting emotions. The young girl can neither swim away nor stand back; she can only surrender herself to society. The young girl possessed all characteristics any person in the modern world of today would value. However, society shunned her thoughts into a black hole and essentially transformed her mind to think contradictory to itself, like the idea of doublethink in 1984. Continuous blames upon the blemishes of her appearance and the insurmountable pressure from society were far too much for her to bear and as a result, she snapped. The last stanza of this poem gives the final say to the main idea. Despite the extent to which the young girl went to satisfy her peers, society only viewed the young girl with passion after a â€Å"turned-up putty nose† was placed upon her face. Placed in a â€Å"casket [made of] satin,† the young girl seems to have finally obtained the respect that she had wanted all of her life. Never did society satiate at the sight of a living, perfectly healthy person but instead society itself received satisfaction only when the young girl was created into a flawless toy or a â€Å"Barbie Doll. † Ironic as it may seem, the only option left for the young girl to obtain happiness was to face the saddest event in one’s life, death. It is for this reason that the young girl felt â€Å"consummation† only after her death. In her mind, it was a happy ending, freedom from the tortures that society had presented before her. â€Å"Barbie Doll† emphasizes that we as individuals should not allow others to judge for us but we ourselves should be the judges. Taking the young girl as an example, by letting society judge her beauty, the young girl became tangled into the web of society’s harsh words. These words were so sharp that the young girl’s entire state of mind was altered to think of herself as inferior and imperfect. If we allow others to judge for us, then we may very well end up in such a drastic situation. Society can lead a person to become unstable; that person can lead himself to become a doll, a plastic doll full of lies, without feelings, and without hope, a â€Å"Barbie Doll. †

A Subaltern’s Love Song Essay

â€Å"A Subaltern’s Love Song† is a rhapsodic poem that details the poet’s real-life infatuation. Betjeman does not use the military definition of subaltern here, but instead is referring to someone in an inferior position. The author struggles, somewhat happily, against his love interest as she continually bests him at tennis. In Literature, poems can often be very difficult for one to comprehend and interpret the author’s perspective. Many people grew only being exposed to the basic â€Å"Roses are red, violets are blue† form of poetic expression, so anything that fails to employ simple rhythmic phrases can be somewhat aloof to some people. Poetry is one of the most artistic forms of literature because it influences the author to express big thoughts and imaginations in somewhat of an abbreviated writing style, in contrast to essays, short stories, and many more. A Subaltern’s Love Song by John Betjeman is an example of poetry that takes the reader on a journey of music and a love story. It was not until I actually read through the poem once did I realize that the title â€Å"A Subaltern’s Love Song† would actually allude to the character of this poem. The context of this poem is most certainly romantic, and indicative of a love story, however the form of the poem actually has a rhythm to it. I am not exactly certain if the author purposefully paralleled the word â€Å"song† in the title with music, but it was something that stuck out to me and was one of the things that did capture my interest in this particular poetic work. Due to the fact that I am a one who enjoys reading love stories, my imagination was most certainly ignited by reading this poem. Another thing that particularly stuck out to me about this poem was the use of ambiguity regarding the soldier and the love interest. The author was successful in my opinion with his use of ambiguity to â€Å"raise questions and suggest outcomes. † (Clugston, 2010) All of the aforementioned components of â€Å"A Subaltern’s Love Song† allowed me to be an active and responsive reader while I was reading this. The archetypal approach is the best analytical approach that can be used to describe this poem. The poems does not direct it attention to only one sole approach. Because the poem is not just limited to the author’s feelings or way of thinking but it is delivered in a manner that the author has you thinking of different ways to show your love. The archetypal approach is being used in line five where it states â€Å"Love-thirty, love-forty, oh! Weakness of joy† (Clugston, 2010). It relates the weakness to as getting older in life and taking a chance on love. This also shows his progress through life in which he learns to love and finally ask for marriage. Were in the last stanza of the poem it sums up the whole meaning of the poem. A good poem should write in such a way that it does not immediately reveal all of its secrets. But neither should the language be couched in such arcane and esoteric terms that discovering its meaning become impenetrable. Poem is not a synonym for puzzle. When the inherent message of a poem becomes impossible to understand, then it becomes a more of an ordeal than a pleasure. The references should, in my view, be accessible to scrutiny in such a way that its treasures are unlocked upon careful and considered reading. A deliberately confusing poem serves no purpose other than to prove what a smart Alec the poet is. A Subaltern’s Love Song is a perfect example of a well-structured poem. Upon first reading this seems little more than a clever poem written about a few posh twerps with too much time on their hands. But, there is so much more going on. It’s a love story that was not directly stated and I enjoyed the reading.