Mental Illness In The Works Of Edgar Allen Poe

““There is a particular kind of pain, elation, loneliness, and terror involved in this kind of madness.” (Jamison). With the stories of Edgar Allen Poe, most of his characters are very expressive of how they perceive themselves. Many of these characters see themselves as perfectly normal or sane. This can be seen by the characters justifying their actions or automatically mentioning how they are not mad. While their insanity does not justify their actions, mental states and illnesses are now viewed from a different perspective. At the time of Poe’s stories, mental illness was not talked about or even recorded as an illness but rather a state of craziness. Many of the characters throughout the stories we have read now have some sort of diagnosis explaining why

Poe’s stories are a great resource on what can happen to someone who has a mental illness and was not treated. In today’s society there are unfortunately several individuals that suffer with the same disorder of schizoaffective. There are only 0.3% of Americans who have this disorder. Unfortunately, it is rarely diagnosed correctly the first time; in these circumstances, this disorder can have life altering effects. These effects could end up harming the victim or others, as mentioned in Edgar Allen Poe’s story. People with this disorder go through an almost cycle of severe symptoms such as dangerous hallucinations, false beliefs, and even being almost possessed to the point where they lose themselves for a period. “The male participants experienced their symptoms differently. They felt persecuted and unable to control internal hostile impulses, which they thought were alien. This strengthened their anxiety and depression. Greg felt he was being watched and ridiculed by everyone, and even physical objects or animals were hostile toward