Form Versus Chaos
We are all acute schizophrenics. Consider Anna in Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook: Anna as mother, Anna as activist, Anna as writer, and Anna as lover combine to produce an Anna more complete than each individual element. Alone, each component breaks down the entirity of Anna, in a process of self-alienation. We, too, are an amalgamation of our experiences and multiple personalities, yet to deny any part of ourselves, even the fragments, is to deny our entire being. Seduced by anarchy in a world where “everything’s cracking up,” we must find our own truth, a balance between our fragmentation and the totality of our existence (1).
As in Gilman’s “Yellow Wallpaper,” an inert, threatening madness lurks
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The self is dwarfed by the imposition of an alter-reality—it is the constant self-reflective cogito imposed on us by the Other that alienates us from thetic self-consciousness. Imprisoned in the Other’s gaze, I am the product of not only my own experiences, but also of my fellow man’s, each of us responsible for all humanity—we are “half victim and half accomplice, like everybody else” (Sartre DH 184).
The Other not only imposes an arbitrary judgment on each character, but also reduces the private consciousness. Lessing suggests in her essay, “A Small Personal Voice,“ that “there is a terrible gap between the public and the private conscience, and that until we bridge it we will never be safe from the murderous madman or the anonymous technician” (10). The ideal, a harmony between the collective conscience and the inner self, is to not lose personal freedom under the of society. The opposite occurs in Sartre’s play “No Exit”—each character is partially illusioned from specific reality, in other words, his or her private conscience, as the collective conscience closes upon the individual. It is similar to what George Hounslow recognizes as “the gap between what I believe
The question of the self is one that appears throughout history and has been debated in myriad ways. Many people assert their claim as the correct one, though some are content to contemplate the self for the rest of their lives rather than remain at one conclusion. Humans are their own enigma, unable to understand the complexity of themselves. It is important to have some theory of consciousness in order to understand the actions of ourselves and others, therefore it is irresponsible to consider the matter a moot point. After consideration of works describing the physical processes of the brain, it seems that there is nothing more simple or wonderful than consciousness existing within the physical brain. Moreover, the concept of self is a construct of the mind rather than something that truly exists.
For he enters his own experience as a self or individual, not directly or immediately, not by becoming a subject to himself, but only in so far as he first becomes an object to himself just as other individuals are objects to him or in his experience; and he becomes an object to himself only by taking the attitudes of other individuals toward himself within a social environment or context of experience and behavior in which both he and they are involved.
Daphne Scholinski documents her experiences through multiple psychiatric institutions in her gripping and light-hearted memoir titled, “The Last Time I Wore A Dress”. Published in 1997, her memoir establishes a strong connection with readers, thereby allowing them to be present within her plot; watching her story unfold from above. By analyzing the plot, characters, themes, and setting of “The Last Time I Wore A Dress”, I seek to draw a connection between Scholinski’s memoir and the mental model of madness. In doing so, this paper aims to shed light upon the hardships faced by Scholinski and her survival through it all.
In Katie Chopin 's, The Awakening, the protagonist states possessing “[the] outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions”. In summary, Edna Pontellier divides herself into two distinct personalities: the outer Edna, which holds proper social values, and the inner Edna, who questions her actions. A product of an environment that has strict rules and regulation. This distinction is taken to the extreme with George Orwell’s, 1984, whose protagonist, Winston Smith has a similar distinction but the consequences are death and torture.
Throughout history, Georg Simmel and W.E.B. Du Bois have had a substantial influence on imperative theories and concepts developed in the area of social sciences. Two of the most significant and distinguished concepts fostered by both of these theorists are the concepts of “double consciousness” and “the stranger”. In this essay, I will be analyzing each of these works to draw upon differences and similarities concerning the two. The resemblances I will be expanding on are the usage of the paradoxical figure, which both theorists discuss in their theories, and the coexisting sensation of division from conventional society. The contrast between the two theories in which I will be exploring is the perception that conventional society
This self-incrimination will lead to more veneration from the public, not condemnation or analysis of his sins. The narrator’s assertion is ture because it is human nature to see society and act in society in reflection to a defining character. This assertion relates to the workings of the inner mind and how these expand to apply in the real world and in life.
Madness is what essentially haunts humans. Whether they are born with it or it is brought upon, it leaves a blurred rush of lunacy in its habitants minds. Competently so, a handful of these beings can write and express these tangled minds into compositions that leave the reader cognized and fascinated. Respectably, an author that always seems to come along any viewer’s mind is Charlotte Perkins Gilman, known especially for her controversial short story, The Yellow Wallpaper. The piece deals with a woman who is on a forced vacation from her conventional role as a wife and a mother, diagnosed and treated by her doctor as well as her husband for a slight case of depression. Her primary “treatment” for this is predominantly a week-long stay in an ugly, yellow wallpaper-covered secluded room where she sits and “rests” mostly alone for an extended period of time. In the story, Gilman confronts ideas of isolation from her main character’s world, drawing out attributes from wallpaper and its designs to represent the escape from the society in which she lives in. Alike, she also ties the ideas of loneliness into this character’s stream-of-consciousness by discussing her situation in a passive mindset. Moreover, by using different symbols and stream-of-consciousness, Charlotte Perkins Gilman illustrates the deterioration of a female’s mental health when forced into isolation in her short story, The Yellow Wallpaper.
The memoir begins on her thoughts on the mental hospitalization and illness and she recounts on her past and asks herself: how did she end up in there? She notices that people are curious about her hospitalization and even wonder if they would find themselves in the same situation. She explains that actually “it’s easy” to find themselves in a “parallel universe” of mental illness. The majority of people with mental illnesses do not enter this ‘parallel universe’ easily, as Kaysen reveals; alternately they encounter blunt impressions of a divergent universe in which differentiates with ours, along with time, the laws of Physics, and the perception of everyday objects. In the course of time, the fascination to pass over is completely
“It was hard to surprise me in those years. It was hard to even get my attention,” says Joan Didion. People experience psychological issues differently, whether it would be depression or anxiety. Many lose their identity in the process where they do not who they are anymore. As this is seen as a serious issue, unaware people take the concept lightly, assuming that mentally ill people are asking for attention. Two authors argue that claim, giving their point of view for being mentally ill and showing how it affects them as a person overall. In the personal narrative, “The White Album,” written by Joan Didion, she provides different problematic events that had happen between 1968-1971, where these events have been the cause of her psychological
With the mass expansion and popularity of social media, and celebrities, people have become less individual. This is how culture can be observed today, but internally every person is unique, with their own ways of thought and their own opinions. Kate Chopin, the author of The Awakening, creates the character Edna. Edna exibits an outward life that conforms with society,l and an inward life that questions if a “normal” life is worth living. This ideology is is hazardous to anyone who lives it and it must be avoided at all costs. Successful people often do not internalize their thoughts, When thinking of historically successful people the ones remembered are almost always those who outwardly displayed they controversial feelings and made a change. Holding in questions and feeling while outwardly displaying normality is one of the first signs of a mental illness and can lead down a dangerous road.
of “self and mind [being] social products” Henslin, J.M. (2013). I started to and now
The authors central thesis is, is there really a self ? The author is skeptical about this idea, his point of view is that we have no
According to Hegel, “the self conscious is itself and for itself” meaning that it has to come outside of itself, so that it can do two things. One is to cancel out the other otherness. The second is to try to become recognized. This recognition process is called Master and Servant self-conscious. The conflict between master and servant is one in which the historical themes such as dependence and independence are introduced. It sets up the realization of the self conscious through the recognition of and by another, through mutual recognition.
From the very beginning, it seems that the supposedly free ‘self’ is already a responding ‘subject’” (39). This dual-nature is evident in the main character of Asimov’s “Franchise,” Norman Muller.
Angela Carters, ‘Nights at the Circus,’ opens avenues to various interpretations, Most of which deal with themes based on Feminism and Magical Realism. This article deals with an essential aspect of the human psyche, ‘Individuation.’ A term coined by Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist.