Psychology in the Media
In 2009, Gayle Forman published the teen novel If I Stay. I have recently read this book and it occurred to me that I could use it for this paper. In If I Stay, Mia Hall is an average girl, going to school, doing her homework and staying out of trouble, but she has one specific talent that catches everyone’s eye; she can play the cello. Her love for classical music is like no other love in the world. She eats, sleeps and breathes the works of Beethoven. One morning she wakes up and there is snow everywhere. School was cancelled, so her and her family decide to go visit their friends who have recently had a baby. (12) As they are driving, another car swerves to avoid the ice and ends up hitting them head on. (13-15) Everybody …show more content…
As people come to visit her (grandparents, friends, boyfriend, etc) Mia is in a state where she is almost like a ghost. She is standing there, watching the paramedics tend to her and doctors try and get her out of this coma. (13) She is extremely confused. Mia can see and hear everyone, but they cannot see her. At the end of the novel, Mia’s boyfriend, Adam, is sitting by her side telling her that he will do anything if she would stay. At that moment, Mia opens her eyes and the book ends. (230-234) If I Stay deals with the variations in levels of awareness. Sigmund Freud says, “consciousness is not an all-or-none phenomenon.” It is said that some stimuli can still penetrate awareness. (Weiten, 1995) “But am I dead? The me who is lying on the edge of the road, my leg hanging down into the gulley, is surrounded by a team of men and …show more content…
It really doesn’t make sense to me, but when I relate it back to psychology, I start to understand it more. Nothing contradicted what I have learned from the book. I read this book before school even started and I had no idea that this could actually happen to a person. Once I started taking Psychology, I noticed that this book related to psychology a lot. It makes more sense to me now that I know about different variations of consciousness. I really enjoyed this source of media. It amazed me in ways that I cannot explain or even begin to describe. It is absolutely fascinating how our mind works. It is almost hard to believe that you can still hear, see, feel etc. when in surgery, a coma or even asleep. It was very heart wrenching. I would recommend this book 100%. It is an amazing story and has amazing ways of showing psychology as well. This section of our class was probably my favorite because I can relate to it. I recently had cataract surgery and when I went back to surgery they put me under, but I could still hear all of the doctors talking and I even talked back a few times. It just blows my mind what the brain can
In 2009, Gayle Forman published the teen novel If I Stay. I have recently read this book and it occurred to me that I could use it for this paper. In If I Stay, Mia Hall is an average girl, going to school, doing her homework and staying out of trouble, but she has one specific talent that catches everyone’s eye; she can play the cello. Her love for classical music is like no other love in the world. She eats, sleeps and breathes the works of Beethoven. One morning she wakes up and there is snow everywhere. School was cancelled, so her and her family decide to go visit their friends who have recently had a baby. (12) As they are driving, another car swerves to avoid the ice and ends up hitting them head on. (13-15) Everybody …show more content…
As people come to visit her (grandparents, friends, boyfriend, etc) Mia is in a state where she is almost like a ghost. She is standing there, watching the paramedics tend to her and doctors try and get her out of this coma. (13) She is extremely confused. Mia can see and hear everyone, but they cannot see her. At the end of the novel, Mia’s boyfriend, Adam, is sitting by her side telling her that he will do anything if she would stay. At that moment, Mia opens her eyes and the book ends. (230-234) If I Stay deals with the variations in levels of awareness. Sigmund Freud says, “consciousness is not an all-or-none phenomenon.” It is said that some stimuli can still penetrate awareness. (Weiten, 1995) “But am I dead? The me who is lying on the edge of the road, my leg hanging down into the gulley, is surrounded by a team of men and …show more content…
It really doesn’t make sense to me, but when I relate it back to psychology, I start to understand it more. Nothing contradicted what I have learned from the book. I read this book before school even started and I had no idea that this could actually happen to a person. Once I started taking Psychology, I noticed that this book related to psychology a lot. It makes more sense to me now that I know about different variations of consciousness. I really enjoyed this source of media. It amazed me in ways that I cannot explain or even begin to describe. It is absolutely fascinating how our mind works. It is almost hard to believe that you can still hear, see, feel etc. when in surgery, a coma or even asleep. It was very heart wrenching. I would recommend this book 100%. It is an amazing story and has amazing ways of showing psychology as well. This section of our class was probably my favorite because I can relate to it. I recently had cataract surgery and when I went back to surgery they put me under, but I could still hear all of the doctors talking and I even talked back a few times. It just blows my mind what the brain can