Crazy Like Us Chapter Summary

In an article from the Huffington Post, a mentally ill writer describes the progress made and the retractions from that progress due to mainstream media coverage. Stating that although medicine and therapy in the mental health field have helped the mentally ill make considerable advancements, social stigmas against the mentally ill remain prevalent. People are hesitant to talk about the mentally ill and media continues to reinforce these ill-founded stereotypes (Huffington Post). Society has made large scientific achievements which have led to greater care reform for patients. While the scientific advancements are a large step in the right direction, the article goes on to cover the impasse that social change is at regarding mental illness. He attributes the impasse to the media and its effect on the social standards and biases people have through constant negative reinforcement of the mentally ill. Mark Easton, a mental health researcher, delves into the effect of media on the social prejudice against the mentally ill: "I looked at the BBC news coverage of mental health since 1998 and there were well over 100 stories on their website about dangerousness, but hardly anything about innovations such as cognitive behavioural therapy, which has been a really extraordinary development in treatment for anxiety and depression" (The Guardian). Through his analysis Easton

Mental illnesses have a high prevalence amongst the United States population. Each year, tens of millions of individuals suffer and are affected by mental illnesses (National Institute of Mental Health, 1). These illnesses range from anxiety disorder, eating disorders, major depression, personality disorder, and many more. Yet, with the existing knowledge, mental providers and professionals, and the DSM-5, mental illness remains a growing mystery to the public. Literature has played a significant role in how mental illnesses are defined, their characteristics, and the portrayal of those who are mentally ill to the public eye. From memoirs on mental illness such as Susanna Kaysen 's Girl, Interrupted to Daphne 's Scholinksi 's The Last Time I

Generally speaking individuals view the symptoms of mental illness as being experienced and expressed in the same fashion across all cultures. They believe that a set channel of symptom expression is the same for every individual regardless of culture or ethnicity. Recent research into cultural expression of symptomatology has revealed that not every culture experiences mental illness in much the same way. In fact research has revealed that culture plays a large role in how mental illness is viewed and experienced (Wong, 2010).

A book that inspired me was Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand. It wonderfully blends the lifestory of a Olympian turned bombardier. There are three primary themes in this book: resilience, survival and service. At the peak of his athletic career in 1940, Zamperini was forced to put his Olympic dreams on hold, as the 1940 Summer Olympics were cancelled due to the outbreak of World War II. Instead, he enlisted in the US Army Air Force in 1941. The willingness to put his own interests aside in a time of need is truly inspiring, and should serve as an example for current and future generations about the importance of supporting your country. As a new enlistee, Zamperini was assigned to the No. 372 Squadron of the 307th Bomb Group, Seventh Air Force.

Before delving into the complexities of the gastric bypass operation, Gawande introduces the story of Vincent Caselli, a man who underwent the procedure after a lifetime of struggling with obesity and his appetite. Gawande informs the readers of Caselli’s development into adulthood specifically showing the effect obesity had on Caselli’s socialization. Gawande mentions how obesity changed Caselli’s health—halting his ability to move, drive, and sleep—effectively stopping his capacity to work once he developed skin infections. Caselli told Gawande about his inability to feel satiated even after eating, which led to his condition.

“Life is a drama full of tragedy and comedy. You should learn to enjoy the comic episodes a little more.” (Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle) This remarkable quote, that I live by, comes from The Glass Castle written by Jeannette Walls, which was published in 2005. This book is about the lives of Walls family that is constantly up and down. There are days where they go without eating and are thrown multiple complications as they struggle to become stable. Although this does not necessarily happen due to the fact that the family is always moving from place to place, sometimes leaving everything behind. This memoir should be the recommended book for summer reading due to that fact that it gives an exclusive view of the flawed life of the author providing the reader with an idea of how living in a dysfunctional family does not have to hold you back from success, it also acts as a huge reminder to the audience that the life they are living should not be taken for granted and should be embraced to the greatest extent.

They often have an intense fear of fat and gaining weight and often have distorted views of their own body image (Shapiro 2). Thus, they resort to severe food restriction, periods of fasting and even various purging methods for weight loss (Grilo 5). On the other hand, Bulimic patients often binge-eat and then looking for methods to get rid of the food due to guilt by various purging methods (i.e., self-induced vomiting, misuse of laxatives or diuretics and excessive exercise) (Grilo 5). Although many say that the media causes eating disorders, studies have shown that the media is not the main cause of eating disorders. The media does have a part to play in causing the rise in eating disorders in today’s society. From an early age, we are exposed to the western culture of the “thin-ideal” and that looks matter (Shapiro 9). Images on modern television spend countless hours telling us to lose weight, be thin and beautiful. Often, television portrays the thin women as successful and powerful whereas the overweight characters are portrayed as “lazy” and the one with no friends (“The Media”). Furthermore, most images we see on the media are heavily edited and airbrushed

In “The Globalization of Eating Disorders”, written by Susan Bordo in 2003, the author declares that eating and body disorders have increased rapidly throughout the entire globe. Susan Bordo, attended Carleton University as well as the State University of New York, is a modern feminist philosopher who is very well known for her contributions to the field of cultural studies, especially in ‘body studies’ which grants her the credibility to discuss this rising global issue (www.wikipedia.org, 2015). She was correspondingly a professor of English and Women Studies at the University of Kentucky which gives her the authority to write this article. “The Globalization of Eating Disorders” is written as a preface to her Pulitzer Price-nominated book “Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body” which was similarly written in 2003. Through the use of many logical arguments and evidence, Bordo successfully manages to convince her audience that the media, body images and culture have severely influenced the ‘so-called’ trending standard of beauty and how it leads to eating disorders across the world. However, certain flaws such as hasty generalization appeared during the text. Even though, Bordo had certain errors in reasoning, she successfully manages to convey her opinions on how media has had a severe impact on people’s vision of beauty through her structure, presentation, main ideas, objectivity and her appealing tone.

I had anorexia before but then they noticed and I had to start eating again. I don’t even know what compelled me to start shoving two fingers down my throat but I just did. The acids in my stomach would hurt my throat; I would be able to control it but then sometimes I couldn’t. People would tell me when I ate ‘too much’ that no one would end up loving a

Throughout recent years, mental illness has become a belittled and “taboo” topic in a multitude of different societies. As a result, a majority of the world’s population isn’t exactly clear as to how one should approach those suffering from mental instability. Unlike physical illness, where an entire system of doctors and hospitals and medical research developed in order to cater to those who were physically ill, mental illnesses do not get nearly as much attention. Some would argue that a physical illness proves to be significantly more detrimental to one’s day to day life. However, observation of mentally ill individuals proves that mental illness can be as equally debilitating (you probably know someone in your life who has died from the

There are many different opinions regarding eating disorders whether they are genetic, ethnic, cultural problems, or a culturally reactive problem. Stereotypes from the past believe that white middle class adolescents have the most related problems to eating disorders because of their anglo-saxon cultural backgrounds. Research has shown that imagery of the ideal Western body has had a chain reaction of body shape and eating habit conflict between all ethnicities, cultures, and sexes. The issue between the two viewpoints is whether the problems associated with eating disorders is cultural or culturally reactive.

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.

Prior to this class I did not know the severity of just how deadly eating disorders were. Growing up you heard about eating disorders and there may have been a few girls in high school that you knew were suffering from an eating disorder but that was the extent of what you knew. The fact that 8 million people are affected by an eating disorder is a staggering number that should alarm parents and peers alone. But although it affects this many people and has the highest mortality rate among psychiatric disorders it is rarely talked about until it hits close to home. As clinicians, this is a huge epidemic that we need to be well versed in especially since the stakes are so high.

One of the sociological themes that I have observed is conformity. Having conformed to the authoritarian rule of the mental institution, patients were forced to give up their rights and freedom. In addition, there were a few instances where social environment was shown to play a role in how mental illness is defined. This can be seen during a scene of the group sessions, where McMurphy gave a suggestion for the group to take a field trip to the opening of the World Series. Although it took a few sessions and much effort for the majority of the patients to agree but the suggestion was still rejected. Frustrated with Nurse Ratched’s actions of turning the classical musical record on instead of listening to his demands, McMurphy faces the television and begins to imagine that he is watching the World Series as if he

The Binge Eating Disorder is one of the main issues of our society nowadays. This disorder is suffered by a variety of people. It is not exclusive to people of a specific age or sex, but it attacks anyone who might be undergoing depression, has unhealthy and unsupervised dieting plans, and coping skill problems. As it is known that stress is common in our world today, it is not common knowledge how we are all on the verge of getting an eating disorder that is not as easily identifiable as the rest. The Binge Eating Disorder is not widely known among the society, however, its effects and coverage is growing as our population increases as well.