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Girl Interrupted Analysis

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Recommended: Mental health stigmas in our society

Girl, Interrupted is a movie about a young lady named Susanna who is institutionalized after having taken aspirin with a bottle of vodka. In this reflection, I shall highlight notable scenes in the movie, which illustrate important sociological concepts and themes. The first scene that caught my attention was when Susanna was admitted. The administrative staff is processing her papers then asks for her signature: Susanna: “I guess I’m puzzled as to why I have to be in a mental institution.” Staff: “You put yourself here.” Susanna: “My parents put me here.” In this scene, Susanna has a different interpretation of her actions as compared to that of her therapists and parents – to her, what she did seemed normal but the people around her think …show more content…

Furthermore, since personal perception and social perceptions of mental illness affect each other, programs and policies implemented should not only be focused on providing care for mentally ill individuals but must also cultivate a healthy attitude towards mental illness in the society in order to reduce stigmatization of mentally ill patients and thus make it easier for them to seek help and re-integrate back into society. Such programs and resources should be available and accessible but individuals who need and want them should not be afraid to access them but rather, empower them to take ownership of their own wellbeing. Corbiére, Samson, Villotti and Pelletier (2012) maintain that education and advocacy can help dispel wrong stereotypes and incorrect presumptions about mental illness. Such measures would also help the public look after those who are vulnerable to mental illness and therefore encourage them to seek …show more content…

The National Mental Health Blueprint is a guideline for policy implementation regarding mental health: 1) education and advocacy for mental illness is provided by the Health Promotion Board (HPB) to empower Singaporeans to improve their mental well-being and understand the signs and symptoms of mental illness, catered to various age-groups; 2) management of mental illness is under an integrated mental health care system through collaboration between institutions (i.e schools, family clinics and family service centres) to identify vulnerable individuals and the implementation of Community Mental Health Teams (CMHT) to encourage mentally ill individuals to stay in the community as much as possible instead of being confined in the hospital ; 3) social programs were implemented that provide vocational rehabilitation and help persons with mental illness find jobs according to their abilities; 4) manpower development programs created through sponsorship of mental health professionals to upgrade their skills and; 5) research is done by the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) research division to further understand the mental health landscape in Singapore and improve treatments

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Sarah Wilkes: Prompt 1 There are many negative stigmas in regards to seeking treatment for mental illness. Is it possible that people around the world choose to not seek treatment due to these stigmas? Or does one’s cultural beliefs keep them from seeking treatment as well? Negative attitudes and beliefs toward people who have a mental health condition is common in America and countries around the globe.

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The family would always ask “why us?” or “maybe it’s a curse” or “she was fine for years”, and the list would go on and on. (225) She didn’t feel like she belonged and her family

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Throughout recent years, mental illness has become a belittled and “taboo” topic in a multitude of different societies. As a result, a majority of the world’s population isn’t exactly clear as to how one should approach those suffering from mental instability. Unlike physical illness, where an entire system of doctors and hospitals and medical research developed in order to cater to those who were physically ill, mental illnesses do not get nearly as much attention. Some would argue that a physical illness proves to be significantly more detrimental to one’s day to day life. However, observation of mentally ill individuals proves that mental illness can be as equally debilitating (you probably know someone in your life who has died from the

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Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen The book Girl interrupted is a humorous nonfiction Autobiographical book about the author Susanna Kaysen experience in side a mental intuition with others in which she encountered. The story takes place in 1967 Massachusetts inside McLean Hospital. Kaysen, who voluntarily enters a mental institution after visiting her psychiatrist and discovers she is having a problem and offers her a place to “rest”. She plans on staying just a few weeks but ends up stay a total of 18 months were she meets many of other mental ill patients and is later diagnosis with Borderline Personality Disorder.

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In the book Girl, Interrupted, by Susanna Kaysen, one of the biggest focal points is mental illness. Mental illness can be tough to talk about, simply because the phrase “mental illness” encompasses such a wide range of conditions and conjures up images of deranged people, but it is very important, especially in this book. There is a certain stigma that people who are put into mental hospitals because they have medical problems or are insane and a possible danger to society. While this is sometimes true, it is far more common for patients to need help for a disorder, but just don’t know where to go or what to do, and can end up putting themselves or someone else in danger.

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Suicide is a very complicated event, and there are usually many different reasons why an individual decides to take his or her own life. Often, it involves a number of different people. In the case of Lydia Lee from Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng, it technically was her own fault that she drowned in the community lake. However, many people in her daily life did play a role in her decision to go out to the lake in the first place, especially the members of her family. Even though Nath and James both did play a very significant role in Lydia’s decision to commit suicide, Marilyn should be to blame for Lydia’s death because she put too much pressure on her, she disregarded her feelings, and because she never promoted a healthy social life.

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The ideas that the world has about mental health nowadays does not help. By trying to prevent mental health and getting help from people who really need it is something we need to do. There needs to be an institution to help people who need it and to provide and sanctuary for the people who can not get

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Being a woman in the early twentieth century, she simply followed what her husband told her. She did not have her own voice and kept her thoughts to herself. With that being said, it is as if her identity is simply that of the average woman during her time. However, the days she spends in confinement go by, the identity of that woman drifts away and she is overtaken by the identity of her own mental illness. As said in Diana Martin’s journal on “Images in Psychiatry”, while the narrator in isolation she becomes “increasingly despondent and nervous”.

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Susanna has issues in all types of relationships in her life, regarding that she does not have a concrete relationship with her parents, and does not seem to have any friends, due to her clear fear of abandonment. In the beginning of her stay at McLean, Susanna viewed the other patients as crazy, and truly had mental illness, unlike her. Ultimately she was able to develop friendships with the other patients, resulting in them helping each other throughout the movie. Susanna self destructive behavior stems from her troubling childhood caused by emotional problems from her parents. An example of what has caused

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Susanna also introduces Georgia, her roommate, Daisy, a seasonal patient, and Cynthia, a patient with serious depression. Lisa Cody shows that even in a hospital girls can still be very cruel. Lisa Cody quickly became friends

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Susanna’s roommate is Georgina, who is in the hospital for having pseudologia fantastica. Lisa starts to take Susanna under her wing and helps her to get to know the ropes. Susanna has sexual interactions with her boyfriend and with one of the orderly at the hospital in the same day, which is seen as promiscuous. Being promiscuous is a sign of her disorder (Mangold,1999). Once Lisa is moved out of the ward Susanna is in, the two of them decide to escape and sell Valium to get money to go to Florida.

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These problems could be avoided if we learned how to take action in this type of situation. Thesis Statement: My three arguments on why mental health should be talked about more often are how mental illnesses affect Canada, how the government can solve this issue, and how you can help. body-paragraph one: Mental illnesses affect Canada deeply through lost of job days, money, and

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Polly suffered from a sever case of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that chartered by delusions, hallucinations, apathy, and a “split” between thought and emotion. She was sweet but had breakdowns when someone mentioned her burns or anything relevant to them. Yet Susanna met some of the girls by her self. The first girl Susanna met without Lisa introducing her to them was Cynthia.

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Stigmatization of mental illness existed well before psychiatry became a formal discipline, but was not formally labeled and defined as a societal problem until the publication of Goffman’s book (1963). Mental illnesses are among the most stigmatizing conditions, regardless of the specific psychiatric diagnosis. Unlike other illnesses, mental illness is still considered by some to be a sign of weakness, as well as a source of shame and disgrace. Many psychiatric patients are concerned about how people will view them if knowledge of their condition becomes public Mental health stigma can be divided into two distinct types: • social stigma is characterized by prejudicial attitudes and discriminating behavior directed towards individuals with mental health problems as a result of the psychiatric label they have been given and has those types stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination Stereotypes are based on knowledge available to members of a group and provide a way to categorize information about other groups in society Prejudiced persons agree with these negative stereotypes, and these attitudes lead to discrimination through negative behaviors toward mentally ill individuals those negative perceptions create fear of and social distance from mentally ill persons. • perceived stigma or

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Why do the people of today still associate stigma, shame and blame with mental health issues? Mental health issues are extremely and widely misunderstood. Despite the fact one in four people are likely to experience some kind of mental health problem a year in the United Kingdom. “Mental health is a person’s condition with regard to their psychological and emotional well-being and it affects how we feel, think and act. It also helps to determine how we handle situations such as stress, how we relate to others and how we make decisions.

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