Mental Illness In Elyn Saks The Center Cannot Hold

“The Center Cannot Hold” is written by Elyn Saks who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. In this autobiography Elyn Saks tells her story about dealing with mental illness. She details her journey throughout her childhood and school years. She sets an example of how she moved pass her diagnosis with schizophrenia and used her career to bring attentiveness. She provides a descriptive account of how mental illness, can affect anyone.

Schizophrenia is an ominous word often associated with psychosis, delusions, as well as paranoia. Society supposedly understands how horrible symptoms like these make schizophrenia one of the worst mental diseases that one could live with, and the story of Elyn Saks is definitely no exception. In the memoir The Center Cannot Hold, Elyn R. Saks brings her readers through the harsh realities of living with schizophrenia, while also dealing with the stresses associated with high school, getting a college degree, while still maintaining relationships with family and friends. Saks had inadequate care as a child when her symptoms first began showing, and being transferred through countries following school, and being passed from doctor to doctor

While Plath fictionalised the account of her time in the mental institution in The Bell Jar, Sussana Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted, set in 1967, is a memoir of Kaysen’s experience in the mental institution. There is a sense of ambivalence in the mental institution that seems to be oppressive yet liberating for Kaysen. In the beginning Kaysen describes a “parallel universe” which is a metaphor for mental illness and how easily one can slip into this universe that separates the sane and the insane, which is very strange. She highlights how this universe has a different set of rules and there is a cruel irony of how a person is aware that they have left reality behind and are aware of what is happening. When Kaysen is sent to the doctor for her failed

She worked hard but was not respected by her husband. The environment in which she lived was extreme. In the beginning the sheriff states it drops below zero at night in the house if the fire is not kept going at night. It’s so cold; someone could get pneumonia (968). She lives in these harsh conditions.

Ken Kesey uses his novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, to describe the lives of patients in a mental institution, and their struggle to overcome the oppressive authority under which they are living. Told from the point of view of a supposedly mute schizophrenic, the novel also shines a light on the many disorders present in the patients, as well as how their illnesses affect their lives during a time when little known about these disorders, and when patients living with these illnesses were seen as an extreme threat. Chief Bromden, the narrator of the novel, has many mental illnesses, but he learns to accept himself and embrace his differences. Through the heroism introduced through Randle McMurphy, Chief becomes confident in himself, and is ultimately able to escape from the toxic environment Nurse Ratched has created on the ward. Chief has many disorders including schizophrenia, paranoia, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, and, in addition to these illnesses, he pretends to be deaf and dumb. This combination of many mind and life altering diagnoses leads to an interesting point of view, and a deeper look into the lives of people living with the

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.

Today , in the 20th century , there is a shortage of care for the mentally ill and some are in jails and the streets because of the government won 't help their needs . So , you may be thinking it is no big deal and it may not affect you , but it does affect half million people out there . The patients who died in asylums , many years ago who were treated like animals .

Seeing her mother again, and what she’s done with her life after years of separation shocks her, shown with “When she looked up, I was overcome with panic that she’d see me and call out my name... And mom would introduce herself, and my secret would be out.” [Walls, 3]. She grew up, escaped, and put her poor childhood behind her.

She described the house with details, “the ceilings were yellowed with grease” and she loved the weight of the air in the kitchen, which is “dense with the smell of countless meals cooked” (7). Yet, what she loved about the kitchen is not the greasy wall and the smells, but what they symbolizes, her father. Her father was the chef in her family and there is a great amount of memories with him in the kitchen. At that time, she only sees her father’s good qualities, such as kind, gentle and loving, she even calls her father “man of tricks” and “magician”. She apparently regards him as a role model seeing that she “walk proudly” after she was praised by him and was “overjoyed” when her feet kept time with his father’s step

Mental Illness in the 1800's: something needed to be done If you had a mental illness in the 1800's you'd be put into an asylum which usually had horrible conditions. Thanks to Dorothea Dix that is not how we treat mentally ill people today. Dorothea Dix reformed society by showing the gov. how people were treated in these asylums and wanted to make the conditions better by, for example putting in libraries.

When Eleanor first sees the house her reaction is the “house [is] vile. She shivered and thought, the words coming freely in her mind, Hill House is vile, it is diseased; get away from here at once” (Shirley). Shirley carefully establishes the setting for her reader as the

I find it hovering in the dining-room, skulking in the parlor, hiding in the hall, lying in wait for me on the stairs.” (654) While believing that something is in the house, she also states that she sees a woman watching her in the daytime “I see her in that long shaded lane, creeping up and down. I see her in those dark grape arbors, creeping all around the garden.” While the main character states that a woman is watching her in the daytime, she also claims that she sees someone in the wall paper trying to pull her in, resulting with the woman locking herself in the bedroom and tearing the wallpaper down while her husband furiously and desperately begs for her to unlock the

It was a “normal-sized house”, with three bedrooms, one for her parents, one for her brothers, Ted, who was eight years older than her, and John, who goes by Jack, who was five years older than her, and one for her. In her bedroom,

When they are looking for a house they need to think about all the members of their family, will there be enough for all of them. In the story, “ The Latehomecomer” it says, “we need a new home- the apartment is too small” . Another thing they need to look at is the way the house is built, they need to make sure the house is not falling apart, make sure it will last long enough. In “The Latehomecomer” It says “ it was a poor neighborhood with houses that were ready to collapse” Also they need to think if it will be a good home for themselves and their family, will they be able to call this house home. In the story, “The Latehomecomer” it says “ Together we had scoured the city looking for a suitable

The articles The Myth of Mental Illness and Road Rage: Recognizing a Psychological Disorder addressed the issue of mental illness in two completely different contexts. Both authors agreed that societal context plays a large role in classifying what is “mental illness”. In The Myth of Mental Illness, Thomas S. Szasz was critical and sceptical of the definition of mental illness. Mental illness was defined as a deviation in behaviour from psychological, ethical or legal norms. He then proceeded to ask the reader, “Who defines the norms and hence the deviation?” He claimed that it is the society that decides what is considered as the norm, implying the significance of society in the classification of mental illness. In Road Rage: Recognizing a