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Psychiatry In American Life Summary

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In the 1961 article titled “Psychiatry in American Life” published in The Atlantic magazine, American psychiatrist and author Geer William wrote that “The typical state hospital does a good job keeping patients physically alive and mentally sick." (qtd. in Ford). Although many advances have been made in the field of mental health, one core issue remains the same. Which is the mentally ill being pushed into facilities that are seldom concerned with the patient’s well-being. ------------- During the 1950’s and 60’s, the American public began to question the effectiveness of these aforementioned mental hospitals. Stories similar to the one of Elsie Lacks that detailed overcrowding, patient mistreatment and malpractice flooded the media. “… It’s
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Institutionalization in the 1800’s was Dorothea Dix was a mover and shaker, who together with a few others in her era was responsible for alleviating the plight of the mentally ill. In the 1800's she found them in jails, almshouses and underneath bridges. She then began her major lobby with legislators and authority figures across the land, to get hospitals built in what was then known as the "Moral Treatment Era. " Things did get better, with ups and downs, of course. She visited widely, in the Midwest state hospitals in Independence and Mt. Pleasant, Iowa and Winnebago in Wisconsin ca.

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The 1800’s made steps towards equal opportunity and Civil rights, but laws had not fully established in comparison to today. Medical law makers quickly adopted the concept and between the 1960-1980’s large state-operating mental-health hospitals systematically dismantled. Problems generated, however when funding for the proposed community mental health centers was never implemented. (Reluctant Welfare State,

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Much adversity arose against institutionalization due to the fact that many patients with chronic mental illness were often institutionalized for life. The 1970’s started a trend of cutting funding to many of these institutions (while some still exist). This was the start of the mass influx of mentally ill criminals into jails and prisons. One example of the effects of deinstitutionalization PBS presents is Keith Williams. With no psychiatric institutions, Williams was forced to into imprisonment.

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787 Words | 4 Pages

During treatment, the criminally insane are cared for by nurses, psychiatrists and other hospital administrators. For the treatments to be effective, the hospital staff must adapt to the way of life in the psychiatric hospital. In the article “Inside a hospital for the criminally insane” by Caitlin Dickson, posted on The Daily Beast, Dickson shares her readings of a book written by Dr. Stephen Seager about the inside of the Napa State Hospital. Napa State Hospital is home to approximately 12,000 patients and a majority of the patients are rapists, killers and mass murderers (TheDailyBeast). Everyday the hospital staff endures violence and personalities of the patients.

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487 Words | 2 Pages

Founded in 1883 by James C. Hawthorne, the Oregon State Hospital previously referred to as The Oregon State Insane Asylum has contributed to the success of present day society’s perception of mental health. Legislature passed an act in 1880, which allowed the Oregon state government to run a psychiatric facility (Mental Health Ass). The late 1800’s placed individuals determined to be a burden to society within the hospital to receive treatment. Mental health is currently accepted within American society and viewed as a disease rather than a mental disturbance and danger to civilization.

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602 Words | 3 Pages

Many psychiatric hospitals have closed down, which the only option left for the mentally ill was to be taken in jails and prisons. In the documentary we learn

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He went on to explain that the people in those institutions are very limited to the things they are able to do and the choices that they can make. Simple choices such as what to eat, what to wear, and what to do in your freetime are made for the mentally ill by the workers. The patients are forced to take medication against their will and are also limited to everyday things such as being outside. There is so much dehumanization that occurs that the mental hospital doesn't feel like a place where the patients are receiving help. Instead, the patients themselves refer to being at the mental hospital as “doing time” as they would in

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Before the Mental Health Systems Act of 1980, people with mental health illnesses were confined to public psychiatric hospitals where they were neglected and poorly medicated. Patients’ needs were unmet due to the lack of knowledge and prevention services which led to a number of deaths of the mentally ill. Due to the lack of services, hospitals were not equipped with early detection or prevention programs that would have reduced the number of hospitalized patients. Before the federal government partnered with the state 's, funding was limiting which led to the government overlooking the individual needs of each community or state. Another problem that needed revision was aftercare.

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When stepping inside a hospital to receive help, one should expect care, treatment, and respect. However, shown in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and “Howl,” American society equates mental illness with inhumanity. In both texts, the characters are forced to live without basic human freedoms and a voice to change it. Society pressures the mentally ill into becoming submissive counterparts of the community by stripping away their physical freedoms, forcing inhumane treatment, and depriving them the freedom of expression. By pressuring confinement and treating the patients inhumanely, society strips away their freedom to express themselves.

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James, who had “no befits or insurance or any idea where he might find a doctor” (51). Gary Busch, who was tragically shot after appearing “to be experiencing a psychiatric crisis” (52). This helps to put a name and a person to the “over one million people suffer(ing) from mental illness” (53) in New York City. This number was staggering to me, as well as the fact that “close to 8,000 mentally ill people” are in NY prisons or jails. It was sad to read as well “that, nationwide, state spending on treatment for the seriously mentally ill is one-third less than it was in the 1950s” (55).

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The way mental health has been treated throughout history is constantly changing. We can see this in many different ways, but to see how this has consistently evolved, we need to look at and understand several different sources. Mental disability treatment is shown in historical contexts, through Steinbeck’s novel, and in statistics today. In the 1930s, mental illness was treated extremely harshly and a lot differently than it is handled today. During that time period, being emotionally unstable was at an all time high.

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Introduction Prior to the mid-1960 virtually all mental health treatment was provided on an inpatient basis in hospitals and institutions. The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 was established with its primary focus on deinstitutionalizing mentally ill patients, and shutting down asylums in favor of community mental health centers. It was a major policy shift in mental health treatment that allowed patients to go home and live independently while receiving treatment, (Pollack & Feldman, 2003). As a result of the Act, there was a shift of mentally ill persons in custodial care in state institutions to an increase of the mentally ill receiving prosecutions in criminal courts.

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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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Mental illness is anything but a new problem in America. The US has tried to “cure” mental illnesses since the nineteenth century. Early in the nineteenth century, America opened asylums for people suffering from epilepsy, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, alcoholism, etc. As time passed, psychiatrists became discontent with being caretakers, resulting in forced sterilization. Specific demographics such as immigrants, people of color, the poor, and unmarried mothers were targeted (“America’s Long-Suffering Mental Health System”).

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But most people use the third option: voluntarily signing themselves into treatment.” said Robert Evans. Everything I keep discovering about mental institutions is the complete opposite of what I’ve been learning and seeing in movies. Now this is making me more curious on what else I believed from the media that is actually a

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