In 1959, Daniel Keyes released a short story that later emerged in 1966 as a book focusing on the life Charlie Gordon. Flowers for Algernon, a science fiction, heartbreaking novel focuses on the psychological aspect of Charlie Gordon’s life. This book/movie was hailed for being ahead of its time on scrutinizing the problems in the treatment of people afflicted with mental disorders. Flowers for Algernon, is still acknowledged as a classic, revealing the stigma society places on mental disorders as a whole. Centered around, Daniel Keyes novel, the movie Flowers for Algernon focuses on the main character, Charlie Gordon. Charlie, a 32 year old mentally disabled man is specifically chosen to experience an experimental psychological surgery
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In the book, the character was treated by surgically removing a part of the brain where surgeons believed was the area of the brain that caused his disorder, and somehow this “cured” Charlie’s intellect for a significant period of time. The problem is surgically removing the brain or using shock therapy does not cure most mental disorders at all, most of the time it makes the condition worse. The surgical techniques used on, Charlie, were the worst possible ways to treat and cure patients with mental disorders and people with Phenylketonuria disorder. Surgical techniques such as frontal lobotomies remove different parts of the brain where scientists believe the various types of mental illnesses occurred would solve the problem. Surgeries similar to the one mentioned in the book stigmatize that by removing different parts of the brain would be a cure for all procedure for a mental disorder. Even electroshock treatments were used as a way to “cure” a mental disorder, but such treatment caused harm to the patient. Frontal lobotomies usually were overdone, many surgeons removed too much brain tissue from the patient that caused the patients to be in a worse mental condition than they already were before. Unlike Charlie where the procedure made him highly intelligent for a …show more content…
Although it does scrutinizes the major problems with the treatment of those with mental disorders, it still belittles those with mental disorders as if they are not “fully human”. Even though the book does not outright say what disorder, Charlie is diagnosed with, his characterization of mental disorders as a whole is based on stigma’s that were created by those who do not understand what it is like to live with a mental disorder. Thankfully, overtime psychologist have grasped a better understanding of mental disorders and what treatments work best for those who are afflicted with these disorders since the 1950’s. By spreading knowledge about mental disorders into society, one can hope that people will gain a better understanding of what it is like to have a mental disorder and be apt to not fall into the trap of believing the stigma’s that movies and books present to us about such
In the book, the character was treated by surgically removing a part of the brain where surgeons believed was the area of the brain that caused his disorder, and somehow this “cured” Charlie’s intellect for a significant period of time. The problem is surgically removing the brain or using shock therapy does not cure most mental disorders at all, most of the time it makes the condition worse. The surgical techniques used on, Charlie, were the worst possible ways to treat and cure patients with mental disorders and people with Phenylketonuria disorder. Surgical techniques such as frontal lobotomies remove different parts of the brain where scientists believe the various types of mental illnesses occurred would solve the problem. Surgeries similar to the one mentioned in the book stigmatize that by removing different parts of the brain would be a cure for all procedure for a mental disorder. Even electroshock treatments were used as a way to “cure” a mental disorder, but such treatment caused harm to the patient. Frontal lobotomies usually were overdone, many surgeons removed too much brain tissue from the patient that caused the patients to be in a worse mental condition than they already were before. Unlike Charlie where the procedure made him highly intelligent for a …show more content…
Although it does scrutinizes the major problems with the treatment of those with mental disorders, it still belittles those with mental disorders as if they are not “fully human”. Even though the book does not outright say what disorder, Charlie is diagnosed with, his characterization of mental disorders as a whole is based on stigma’s that were created by those who do not understand what it is like to live with a mental disorder. Thankfully, overtime psychologist have grasped a better understanding of mental disorders and what treatments work best for those who are afflicted with these disorders since the 1950’s. By spreading knowledge about mental disorders into society, one can hope that people will gain a better understanding of what it is like to have a mental disorder and be apt to not fall into the trap of believing the stigma’s that movies and books present to us about such