Alice In Wonderland Disorder

The Alice in Wonderland Syndrome (AIWS) is experienced mostly by children from ages 2-13. It is a hereditary disorder and occurs frequently in girls as compared to boys. Sufferers of this syndrome experience alteration of visual perceptions, such as shapes and

People with mental health issues have been viewed and treated in a variety of ways within western society throughout time. Historically if an individual displayed behaviours which disrupted their function in society and defied social norms they were viewed as lunatics, insane or even cursed (Cowan, 2008; Elder & Evans & Nizette, 2009). It is from these past issues that many people still have unreasonable thoughts about mental illness; their misconceptions have created unreasonable fears and negative attitudes toward those who experience it. This negativity brings for many the barriers of not only

Generally people with mental issues are cast aside in society. The mentally impaired are immediately labeled as different. Questions on what to do with these people are common. In literature they are seen being locked into a tower room where they are forced to live their days peeling back the yellow wallpaper. This confines the characters to a world where it's just them and their insanity. These characters are present in many different stories. Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and Shakespeare's King Lear are two prime examples of characters suffering from mental disabilities and disorders. Although they are not locked in a tower, the mental illnesses are apparent when studying the Mad Hatter, Alice, King

We have come to a point where we are very susceptible to the things that we see in the media every day. We believe the things that are being told to us through media because we have been pushed to think this way. Social media has the ability to manipulate the way in which topics are viewed such as mental illness. We have come to a point where we are less likely to question the things that happen in films because we have become comfortable accepting the information we gather through media. However if you actually pay attention to the way things are portrayed in films, a lot of the time there is little truth behind it. For some reason it has become the norm to make mental illnesses more dramatic and seem way more dangerous than they actual are. Mental illness in films is very rarely accurately portrayed in films, a lot of the time they are made to be way more dramatic than they actually are solely for the purpose to make the film

Mental illness is often wrongly portrayed in the United States’ media creating stigmatization and misrepresentation. Mental illness “refers to a wide range of mental disorders that affect your mood, thinking and behavior” (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2015). Examples of disorders include anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Any “negative attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors are called stigma” (Wilson et al., 2016, p. 2) and stigma can contribute to progression of mental illness because of its harmful effects due to misrepresentation in the media. In the recent years, the United States media has began to address the reprehension around the topic of mental illness, as it has began to develop into a rising problem in citizens across the nation. In the past, any portrayal of a figure or character with a mental disorder would be wrongly depicted, therefore, creating a distorted perception for the viewers (Stout et al., 2004, p. 1). Television shows have started to establish characters with mental illness in hopes to lessen the stigma behind ill characters due to the wrongful associations viewers may make. The way media viewers’ stereotype the mentally ill into categories can be harmful to the well being of those with disorders. Stereotypes can be so harmful that even medical professionals “contend that stigma is a major reason why one-fourth of the estimated 50 million Americans experiencing mental illness yearly will not seek

Based on the children’s literary work written by Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland is a fictional film that was directed by Tim Burton.  The film is set in Wonderland inside of Alice’s dream, so viewers are able to recognize the lack of order and the fantasies of children.  One of the major themes seen in the movie is childhood, specifically the development into adulthood, which is depicted in other characters besides Alice.  Alice, however, is used as the primary symbol for what children in the Victorian Age should not ideally act like, since they were expected to dress properly and attain a certain level of education.  Furthermore, Sigmund Freud’s dream theory and tripartite give further insight into the characters and what they represented during the Victorian Age. The id, ego, and the superego are applied to the unconscious and conscious mind states, and how the unconscious state is still somewhat available during a conscious state.  In Alice in Wonderland, psychoanalysis is used to portray the Red Queen as the id, the Absolem

The portrayal of people being sickly creatures has been used in Hollywood film for a very long time. This has been in the endeavor of putting the viewing public in the shoes of the patient and entertain them with over the top portrayals of disease. For patients that are women in particular this has been achieved by defining them along the lines of vague terms such as them being over emotional and unstable. Despite the advancement experienced by the society, women have not yet fully seen the goal of equality realize fruition. With the expansion of the psychiatric and psychological terminologies, there now additional ways via which mental illness can be ascribed as a weakness for men and women portrayed in Hollywood film. This is best

Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland creates a warped reality, causing each character’s identity to become confused. An exception to this confusion of identity is the Cheshire Cat, who shows an uncanny awareness of his own madness, giving him considerable control over his presence and allowing him to occasionally leave only a grin behind. Alice, contrarily, is strewn all over as she loses herself in Wonderland. In Wonderland, all are “mad,” but to Alice this is preposterous, even as she fails to explain who she is – both to herself and to others. Carroll’s juxtaposition of the Cheshire Cat and Alice in their first meeting scene exaggerates Alice’s insecure identity and its development throughout her adventures in Wonderland.

Mental illness is heavily stigmatized in mainstream media sources, such as articles, books and movies. The character who is suffering from a mental disorder, which is stigmatized is often exaggerated for the sake of entertainment. The stigmatization of mental disorders is unfair to those who have mental disorders. The viewers of media are viewing those suffering from the disorders as “psychotic” or “crazy”, which is inaccurate and unjust to those affected. The media representation of the disorder provides vague and inaccurate causes and treatments. In the movie series “The Dark Knight Rises” and television series “Dexter”, the characters Joker and Dexter are afflicted with the mental disorder antisocial personality disorder; in which it creates

One in every seventeen people in America suffers from a mental disorder. These disorders inhibit the afflicted person from functioning properly and coping normally with daily life. Many afflicted with a psychological disorder do not exhibit obvious symptoms, as medical advancements have made it possible for these disorders to be suppressed or even nonexistent. Today, however, harsh stigmas exist that unfairly categorize those with a mental illness as violent, unfriendly, and abnormal. The media and federal government are culprits in fabricating the unrealistic depictions of mental disability that define the portrayal of those who are mentally or psychologically disadvantaged.

“The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” -Malcolm X. It can be said without a doubt that media plays a massive role in how society views certain things. A negative media portrayal ultimately leads to negativity and stigma towards whichever group. One of the groups that is severely impacted by these dismissive representations is mental illness. The portrayal of mental illness in mass media as violent, amusing, or downright “nuts”, is inaccurate and vilifying, but can be resolved by the inclusion of mental health specialist in program planning.

There are many examples in the children's story, that really exhibit how Alices descends into her own madness. To start off, the Caterpillar, during the scene where Alice is with him at the mushroom, he plants a seed of madness into Alice. While Alice is speaking with the caterpillar at the mushroom, he tells her that she is mad and that everyone is mad here; here as in Wonderland. This means that to be able to be in Wonderland that she has to be mad, and this turns into a spiral of her discovering and feeding into her madness.

The Alice in Wonderland syndrome, also known as Todd’s syndrome, is a rare neurological condition of distorted perception that was first described in the 1950s. During these episodes, people believe their body or objects around them are either larger or smaller than normal. This is similar to what Alice from Alice in Wonderland experiences. The writer of this classic story, Lewis Carroll suffered migraines, and may have experienced the syndrome, which might have been an inspiration for his writing. Episodes of Alice in Wonderland syndrome are not hallucinations caused by drugs, but the experience is quite vivid and feels very realistic. The episodes are quite unpredictable, and usually very short. For example, out of the 81 people who experienced

However, Alice does not react angrily, but goes along with the peculiar conduct of the inhabitants, as it is a world composed entirely of her own visualization. Inside Alice's mind is a malconformation of worldly ideas, which could be categorized as characteristics of an insane personality. In the stories of Wonderland, Alice wanders in a state of "dim consciousness," engrossed in a world of her own entertainment. It is such a question asked by Lewis Carroll that makes us wonder whether Alice is insane or merely absorbed in a dimension devised by her innocence and allure of nature and people around her.

As a person grows older he loses a part of his childhood. One of those parts included is his ability to dream and imagine enchantments such as wonderland. When Alice told her sister of her dream of wonderland, it made the sister reflect on her own imagination. She could see herself in wonderland as “the whole place around her became alive with the strange creatures of her little sister’s dreams” (Carroll