In the first 35 pages, Norah Vincent introduces us to her research, explains why she decided to get into it, and then begins her narration of her first stint in a mental facility.
In her preface, Vincent talks about the depression she suffered soon after completing her research of “Self-Made Man”, and how that sparked the idea for a new ethnography for her to pursue, seeing as she had deemed it a good idea to check herself into a facility. She finishes her introduction saying that she hopes to “inform and entertain” those who read this book.
Her ‘adventure’ begins at a facility called Meriwether, a place that seems to fit most stereotypes of mental hospitals: full of ‘dangerous’ people, people who can no longer connect with society, people doomed to live in their own world. Vincent, almost lightheartedly, talks about some of the patients she comes in contact with, including Nil, whose end goal was to become nothing, and the doctors she faces within her first 36 hours there.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Neil Brooks, Quizzer, 1-35
1. What do you think mentally ill means?
I think that mentally ill is a term or diagnosis that is thrown around too much. I think that it is difficult to believe that based on a few tests, a doctor can declare somebody mentally ill. Just because someone has a few problems doesn't mean they have to be locked up for evaluation or take a hand full of pills every day. I believe that there are some people who suffer from mental illness but it is a diagnosis used too often.
2. How long do you think you could last in a mental hospital, and what would be your main reason for wanting to leave?
I honestly think I wouldn't be able to last more than a few days. I think I would want to quit right away but I may be able to push through for a couple days. The biggest issue for me would be to have my freedom taken from me in the blink of an eye. I can't stand being in a room for more than a few hours now, so locked in a hospital I would probably lose it.
3. If you were in her situation when they took her to the unsecure holding room, would you have ran?
Even though it sounded pretty terrible there already, i think if I had a reason to be there I would push through. It would be easy to just give up that quick but I think I could tough it out for a couple days. I would have taken her strategy and suppressed the anger and just take the hospital's tests.
4. Do you think if you did this you would "go in will and turn ill overnight" like Norah claims happened to her?
To some extent I believe that and to some extent I do not. I believe that being admitted there would shake me mentally. It would definitely shake some things up, but I don't think it would immediately turn me "ill". I find it very hard to believe that a few hours anywhere could change the status of my mental health.
I think that mentally ill is a term or diagnosis that is thrown around too much. I think that it is difficult to believe that based on a few tests, a doctor can declare somebody mentally ill. Just because someone has a few problems doesn't mean they have to be locked up for evaluation or take a hand full of pills every day. I believe that there are some people who suffer from mental illness but it is a diagnosis used too often.
2. How long do you think you could last in a mental hospital, and what would be your main reason for wanting to leave?
I honestly think I wouldn't be able to last more than a few days. I think I would want to quit right away but I may be able to push through for a couple days. The biggest issue for me would be to have my freedom taken from me in the blink of an eye. I can't stand being in a room for more than a few hours now, so locked in a hospital I would probably lose it.
3. If you were in her situation when they took her to the unsecure holding room, would you have ran?
Even though it sounded pretty terrible there already, i think if I had a reason to be there I would push through. It would be easy to just give up that quick but I think I could tough it out for a couple days. I would have taken her strategy and suppressed the anger and just take the hospital's tests.
4. Do you think if you did this you would "go in will and turn ill overnight" like Norah claims happened to her?
To some extent I believe that and to some extent I do not. I believe that being admitted there would shake me mentally. It would definitely shake some things up, but I don't think it would immediately turn me "ill". I find it very hard to believe that a few hours anywhere could change the status of my mental health.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Vocabulary: Pages 1-35-Alecia
1. Contemptuous: showing or expressing disdain; scornful. (Page 4)
2. Efflorescent: blossoming (Page 5)
3. Recluse: a person who lives in seclusion from the world; shut off (Page 6)
4. Inexactitude: the quality or state of being inexact or inaccurate (Page 10)
5. Commodious: spacious and convenient; roomy (Page 16)
6. Disconsolately: hopelessly unhappy, gloomy, cheerless (Page 18)
7. Amok: to run (Page 20)
8. Subterfuge: to escape a consequence, to hide (Page 21)
9. Furlough: a temporary layoff from work (Page 26)
10. Charlatan: a person who pretends to have more knowledge that he or she really possesses (Page 30)
2. Efflorescent: blossoming (Page 5)
3. Recluse: a person who lives in seclusion from the world; shut off (Page 6)
4. Inexactitude: the quality or state of being inexact or inaccurate (Page 10)
5. Commodious: spacious and convenient; roomy (Page 16)
6. Disconsolately: hopelessly unhappy, gloomy, cheerless (Page 18)
7. Amok: to run (Page 20)
8. Subterfuge: to escape a consequence, to hide (Page 21)
9. Furlough: a temporary layoff from work (Page 26)
10. Charlatan: a person who pretends to have more knowledge that he or she really possesses (Page 30)
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Journal 1-Voluntary Madness: 2/24/09
Krissy has base knowledge about mental hospitals and asylums because she did a year long research project on schizophrenia. While Krissy had a lot of knowledge, Neil has a very limited knowledge when it comes to mental hospitals and mental illness. Norah Vincent, the author of Voluntary Madness, willingly admitted herself in a mental hospital for 18 months. She suffers from depression and was in a mental hospital before.
Some common biases about this subculture are that all of the patients are violent and unsafe for society. Many have problems with addiction and most outsiders view all of the mental hospital patients as crazy. Most people in the hospitals are probably totally harmless yet they have this negative cloud hanging over their head because they are in the mental hospital. Some people would be afraid of them if they encountered them on the street and the mental patients are looked down on.
As a group, we want to learn what the mental hospital system is really look contrary to every one's outside biases. Sometimes the biases will be true, yet we want to really see "behind the scenes". We want to see what really goes on inside a mental hospital, behind closed doors, to see what these patients have to go through each and every day. It will be interesting to see Vincent's experiences while in the mental hospital because she will be living there, instead of just doing research and writing about her findings. Also her encounters and experiences with her fellow patients, and to see if she can successfully blend into the crowd and be deemed "mentally ill".
We decided to choose this book overall because it was a very bold, out there thing for a person to do. Krissy picked this book because she did a research project on schizophrenia and she was interested in the topic. Alecia chose this book because she has always been interested in psychology and the way the brain works; coinciding with mental patients and if their brains function differently than everyone elses. Neil picked the book because it is a topic that is very interesting to him. He knows little about mental health and mental health facilities and would like to get informed.
This topic is significant to us now because it gives us better insight to how our social structure treats people with mental illnesses. Many people have biases and stereotypes that may not be true about mental patients, and we are interested in finding out if they are true or not. We are interested not in what these doctors claim in front of a board, but what actually occurs to these people once they are admitted to a mental hospital.
Some common biases about this subculture are that all of the patients are violent and unsafe for society. Many have problems with addiction and most outsiders view all of the mental hospital patients as crazy. Most people in the hospitals are probably totally harmless yet they have this negative cloud hanging over their head because they are in the mental hospital. Some people would be afraid of them if they encountered them on the street and the mental patients are looked down on.
As a group, we want to learn what the mental hospital system is really look contrary to every one's outside biases. Sometimes the biases will be true, yet we want to really see "behind the scenes". We want to see what really goes on inside a mental hospital, behind closed doors, to see what these patients have to go through each and every day. It will be interesting to see Vincent's experiences while in the mental hospital because she will be living there, instead of just doing research and writing about her findings. Also her encounters and experiences with her fellow patients, and to see if she can successfully blend into the crowd and be deemed "mentally ill".
We decided to choose this book overall because it was a very bold, out there thing for a person to do. Krissy picked this book because she did a research project on schizophrenia and she was interested in the topic. Alecia chose this book because she has always been interested in psychology and the way the brain works; coinciding with mental patients and if their brains function differently than everyone elses. Neil picked the book because it is a topic that is very interesting to him. He knows little about mental health and mental health facilities and would like to get informed.
This topic is significant to us now because it gives us better insight to how our social structure treats people with mental illnesses. Many people have biases and stereotypes that may not be true about mental patients, and we are interested in finding out if they are true or not. We are interested not in what these doctors claim in front of a board, but what actually occurs to these people once they are admitted to a mental hospital.
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