Mental Block

Power can mean many different things to many different people. Some people use the power they have in positive ways and some people use it in negative ways. In an article regarding power by van Vugt, he discusses five ways having power can be negative (van Vught, 2013). Those five ways are power makes you selfish, it makes a person lack empathy, makes a person overconfident, other people do not like a person when they have power, and power could make a person die young (van Vught, 2013). However…

Alliance on Mental Illness called “Depression Is,” Ingrid Vasquez shares her story of her journey through depression and how her culture disrupted her mental illness. This blog is part of a series titled “You are Not Alone,” which gives individuals who have mental illness the opportunity to share their stories and impact the lives of others, whether that impact be to professionals (i.e. doctors, researchers, therapists), those who can relate to the situations (i.e. others with mental illness or…

The documentary titled “Pleasure Unwoven: A Personal Journey About Addiction” was an interesting look at the theories behind addiction that classify addiction as a disease and the previous theories that discredited addiction as a disease. One part of the documentary that I learned the most from was the part that discussed the “choice argument” for addiction. Another part of the documentary that I learned a lot from was their discussion of the biological aspect of addiction and addictions effect…

“Psychologists called it ‘learned helplessness’ when a person believes, as I did during my youth, that the choices I made had no effect on the outcomes in my life,” (237). J.D. Vance’s memoir, Hillybilly Elegy, focuses on social development and issues pertaining to his family and the society in which he grew up in. His writing focuses on chronological events from his childhood up into adulthood, each life stage sharing a similar situation; an undependable mother, a guiding grandmother (Mamaw)…

In the article “A Suicide at Twelve: ‘Why, Steve?” of Richard E. Meyer, the author narrates a whole life of a young boy whose name is Steve Dailey. Through the article, we could see the whole life of Steve from the day he was born to the day he chose a rope and bough to end his life although nobody, who lived around him, understood the reason why he had to kill himself. Therefore, the author still keeps a question “Why, Steve?” for the article. “Steve Dailey was born on July 30, 1961, in the…

disorders on the patients admitted to the hospitals. He sought to find out the validity of diagnoses and if insanity is in patients themselves or is caused by the environment they are in. Rosenhan’s research proved that the labels associated with mental illness, particularly schizophrenia, have a significant impact on the way patients are treated. To conduct his research, Rosenhan and eight sane pseudopatients were admitted to psychiatric institutions. One participant was a psychology graduate…

the attitudes toward and the treatment of mental illness in the United States that was most significantly marked by the passing of the Community Mental Health Act of 1963 (CMHA: Public Law 88-164). The Community Mental Health Act––passed under President John F. Kennedy’s administration and notable innitiative––was revolutionary in proposing the implementation of two novel concepts that largely contributed to the deinstitutionalization of those with mental illnesses. First, the act called for…

The power of stigmatizing mental illness Stigma within mental illness is a multifaceted issue that is debilitating, not only for the mentally ill, but to society as well. Stigmatizing those with mental illness is prevalent and potent; it does not build a society, but separates it. Misunderstandings about mental illness reinforce stigma and causes disassociation between society and the mentally ill. By creating social gaps, society makes it difficult for people with a mental illness to accept the…

misunderstanding of mental illnesses and how individuals experiencing symptoms are affected. Many people associate disorders with certain aspects, such as the ups and downs of bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, only due to mainstream media such as the news and television. These mental illnesses manifest themselves differently in each individual with the given disorder. Society needs to work on better understanding the true symptoms of an individual with these mental illnesses. As time…

streets, talking to everyone he met, especially children. He rarely made sense to us.” (81) People in a society are given labels according to their social class and status, this includes speculations of mental state. In Reading in the Dark, Seamus Deane challenges the stereotypes of sanity and mental wellbeing accompanying social status, he portrays this message through the use of character actions. In this paper I will be focusing primarily on the characters of Crazy Joe and the narrator’s…