On Being Sane In Opening Skinner's Box, By Lauren Slater
In the book “Opening Skinner’s Box”, Lauren Slater discusses many complicated ideas relating to certain experiments of recent times. In every chapter, she focuses on one specific experiment and poses many controversial thoughts. One of the chapters I found most interesting was the second chapter titled “Obscura”. In it she walks readers through the experiments of Stanley Milgram and questions the purpose, results, usefulness, and morality of the experiments. To begin, the purpose of the experiments seem to be off to me.
“The Cardboard Room” by Teresa Pitman is about a teenage girl who comes from a judgmental family. Particularly, they are not fond of a refugee family, who according to them do not belong. When assigned to work on a project with a member of the family, Eric Nye, she begins to understand how someone’s appearance does not define who they truly are. After spending more time with Eric and his family she quickly realizes that people should not be judged and criticized for their circumstances. Eric informs the protagonist about events that happened back home and the struggles it took to get where they are today.
Joseph Wesbecker is a run of the mill case of a man influenced with affected disorder and furthermore with unfortunate background of brutality and mass murdering in the work environment. Genetics have played a key role in his life starting at his birth, that his genetics qualities were inclined with a level of mental sickness. As he age events begin to evolve which unfortunately kept him from building up an ordinary childhood with the important psychological and other factors which would have helped him adapt a better life.
It was a gray day. The sun did not shine; it could not pierce the layers of powdery black skies along with the fog. The thick mist that was not really rain, or fog covered the southeastern corner of New Jersey. It was depressing, just like most days in the area surrounding the Overbrook Asylum. On the outside, Overbrook was a welcoming place where patients were treated with care along with respect; the inside was very different.
Taking a Stand for the mentally ill Thesis Dorothea Dix took a stand by recognizing the importance of establishing mental institutions. Her philosophy saved mentally unstable people from the harsh treatments they once received in jails Background The conditions that the mentally ill lived under in the mid-19th century were unfitting. Unstable individuals were imprisoned and mistreated. People who suffered from insanity were treated worse than criminals.
Situational effects and personality come into conflict when discussing behavior. Personality is someone’s “usual pattern of behavior, feelings, and thoughts” (Twenge, 2017, p.20). It remains constant throughout different situations, but some situations can be stressful enough to make a person act out of character. The transition between a person’s normal personality and behavior to a more evil, sinister behavior fascinates a man named Philip Zimbardo, who conducted the infamous Zimbardo Prison Experiment, or Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE). Zimbardo is an American psychologist at Stanford University and the mastermind behind the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment (The Story).
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, considers the qualities in which society determines sanity. The label of insanity is given when someone is different from the perceived norm. Conversely, a person is perceived as sane when their behavior is consistent with the beliefs of the majority. Although the characters of this novel are patients of a mental institution, they all show qualities of sanity. The book is narrated by Chief Brodmen, an observant chronic psychiatric patient, who many believe to be deaf and dumb.
In the book “One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest” Ken Kesey shows that the “insanity” of the patients is really just normal insecurities and their label as insane by society is immoral. This appears in the book concerning Billy Bibbits problem with his mom, Harding's problems with his wife, and that the patients are in the ward
They all would say that they were hearing a voice in their head that would say thud. On just that sentence alone they were sent to asylums and being diagnosed as schizophrenic or manic depressive. Rosenhan’s experience in the asylum, entailed that patients were not helped with their psychological disorders, let alone acknowledged at all. They were considered invisible. The nurses would turn their heads when patients would spit out their given medications.
“What does a sane man do in an insane society?” (qtd. Heller). Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 attempts to answer this question, which in turn begs the questions what is insanity and what is sanity? Heller creates many situation which present the insane society.
To be insane is to be irrational and disconnected from reality. In the novel, 1984, the modern view of being sane in Oceania's society is actually insane. The main character, Winston Smith, tackles a brainwashed society and a corrupt government who proclaims him as insane. Winston, however, is sane because he actually remembers the past, distinguishes the immorality of the Party and tries to ameliorate Oceania. Winston is of sound mind proven by his ability to remember the past, while the authoritarians of Oceania believe anything the Party tells them.
The story “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” by Ken Kesey is seen through the perspective of a schizophrenic patient in a mental hospital pretending to be deaf, dumb, and mute. Because of his clear mental illness, it is difficult to tell in the story what is true and what is just in his mind. Throughout the story, the intentions of the patients and staff are questioned by whether they are acting morally. The issues brought to light by the story are using cruel and unusual punishments on mentally ill patients, fighting authority, and putting a human out of his or her misery by killing them, and if these actions are morally correct.
The goal of most mental hospitals is rehabilitation of the human psyche. To be cured of a mental disorder is nearly impossible, but the purpose of these hospitals is to attempt to suppress the id of a person’s subconscious. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey utilizes the psychoanalytic theory and his own life experiences to depict his dynamic character’s dreams, hidden subconscious thoughts, basic desire of their id, and reality of their ego. Kesey uses his character’s dreams to reveal their subconscious desires, express what they wish they could accomplish but are limited due to society’s rules, and showcase what they secretly desire when their subconscious goes unchecked during their sleep.
The movie “One flew over the cuckoo’s nest” gives an inside look into the life of a patient living in a mental institution; helping to give a new definition of mental illnesses. From a medical standpoint, determinants of mental illness are considered to be internal; physically and in the mind, while they are seen as external; in the environment or the person’s social situation, from a sociological perspective (Stockton, 2014). Additionally, the movie also explores the idea of power relations that exist between an authorized person (Nurse Ratched) and a patient and further looks into the punishment a deviant actor receives (ie. McMurphy contesting Nurse Ratched). One of the sociological themes that I have observed is conformity.
Even of the patients are mentally disable and some cant express clearly, they still manage to form a strong social bond with the regular people. During the 1970’s President Kennedy passed a health reform act in which psychiatry was reevaluated, and insane asylums were shutting down. The given number 160,000 was lowest at the time as more asylums designed to isolate patients were converting to a therapeutic haling centers
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