It Is Not Too High Essay

Insane Asylums in the 1920-1930’s were disturbing places to live. Men and women were held in different wards, each ward had up to fifty patients (D’Antonio). Patients lived incredibly close to one another. Not one patient knew what

Hospitals are meant to help some people heal physically and others mentally. In the novel One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey published in 1962, readers are introduced to a mental hospital that has goals that do not align with helping people. Within the hospital, characters with varied personalities and opinions are intermixed with three main characters playing specific roles with supporting characters close by. With the characters’ motivations, themes develop such as the emasculation of the men in the hospital by an oppressive nurse. Symbols, such as laughter and the “combine”, are also pertinent to themes as the readers watch the men transitioning from being oppressed to being able to stand up for themselves causing change in hospital policy.

Throughout the book The Question of Hu by Jonathan D. Spence the Chinese man John Hu often has his sanity called into question due to several episodes where his actions appeared insane to a European from this era. Although the question of his mental state is never fully answered by the author it is clear that Hu’s oddities stem from more than just cultural differences. Of course, no human deserves to be treated the way Hu was treated in the insane asylum in Charenton, but Father Jean-François Foucquet would have benefited from hiring a different Chinese local as his copyist.

Sanity is in the mind of the beholder; one man’s reality may not be the reality of everyone. This becomes a sticking point when two men meet in either a psychiatrist’s office or in the depth of space in the short story “The Yellow Pill.” Since both men cannot be in reality, the story takes place in a comfortable office based on evidence from the story.

The documentary The Waiting Room is about a safety-net hospital located in Oakland, California. In the film, director Peter Nix follows patients, doctors, and staff throughout a typical day. Furthermore, the film displays how the staff is overworked, and how the American health care system is affecting millions of uninsured patients who try to cope with injury and disease. The film utilizes techniques from the observational mode such as long takes, crisis structure, and documenting unplanned everyday experiences to convey the cruel realities of Americans seeking hope and treatment.

In the next stanza, the poet describes “A figure walking towards cloaked in blue/ Beeping/ Tubes/ Needles.” The poem addresses the routinely and monotonous aspect of being in the hospital for long periods of time. It is a critique of the biomedical model and how the hospital system is created where patients are tended to by multiple doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals. The patients and healthcare professionals are unable to form a relationship that consists of what Kleinman describes as “empathetic witnessing” (Kleinman). Therefore, detachment between patient and health workers is developed and established, to which the patient cannot recognize or know the people assisting them. In addition, Grealy discusses this in her earliest accounts and appointments with doctors. She states that there is a layer of “condescension” and is an “endemic in the medical

The documentary The Waiting Room, is about a safety-net hospital called Highland Hospital located in Oakland, California. In the film, director Peter Nix follows patients, doctors, and staff all throughout a typical day at the hospital. Furthermore, the film displays how the staff is overworked, and how the American health care system is affecting millions of uninsured patients who try to cope with injury and disease. The film utilizes techniques from the observational mode like: long takes, crisis structure, and everyday experiences that unfold spontaneously to transmit the cruel realities of uninsured patients who go to Highland Hospital seeking hope and treatment.

Asylums of the 20th century were deplorable places created for insane people because of the ignorance of the medical community about helping or treating the mentally ill, the way the asylums were use to get the insane out of the way, and the sheer fact that the hospitals felt the need to withhold the information about what was going on inside the institutions from the public. Some Americans today may believe that in the last few decades we had treated our patients suffering with mental illness with dignity and respect. However, the conditions in which many of them lived and the treatment they received were worse than that of animals. Treatments of these patients were so inhumane that, in Athens, Ohio, an asylum nicknamed the Ridges, a female patient named Margaret Schilling disappeared from one of the active wards. Schilling went missing on December 1, 1978, and on January 12, 1979, her body was found on an abandoned top floor of ward N. 20. The ward had been used for sick, infectious patients, and had been abandoned for years. When searching for Schilling, employees had forgotten to search in ward N. 20. Eventually, when Schilling was found, a maintenance man discovered her body lying on the floor in front of a window. Her body had been laying there for several weeks unattended. According to Carolyn M. Zimmerman, Ünige A. Laskay, and Glen P. Jackson, her body was left laying for so long that it had begun to rot and had left a stain that can still be seen today. This

Wright, D. (1997). Getting out of the asylum: understanding the confinement of the insane in the nineteenth century. Social History of Medicine, 10, 13

The commoners enjoyed the security the wall provided and soon forgot about the outside world. But, the outside world didn't forget about them, especially the

Kaysen was only eighteen-years-old on April 27, 1967 when she was first admitted into the medium-security ward of McLean. Her voluntary admission came after an attempted suicide using fifty aspirin. During her time in McLean, Kaysen received treatment in many forms including- medication, therapy and analysis. She met a variety of all suffering from different psychological and psychiatric illnesses. A few of these fellow patients include: Lisa, Georgina, Polly, Lisa Cody and Daisy to name a few. Not only does Kaysen share stories with these fellow patients, but she also discusses everyday routines. For example, she went into detail about the “checks” that occurred at five, fifteen and thirty minute intervals to ensure the safety of the patients. She also described the weekly trips to the ice cream shop. Kaysen also went into detail about the staff that worked at McLean, including head nurse Valerie who was the nurse patients felt the most comfortable with. It was clear from her anecdotes that McLean had become a sense of home for Kaysen.

“Both the book and the movie are insightful views into societal problems such as stereotypes about the people who have mental disorders. But the film is largely out of date in terms of depicting hospital staff as manipulative or evil. From what I saw when I worked in a similar institution, mental hospitals are a calm, healing environments—as they should be” (Wind Goodfriend, 2012).

Like any piece of good literature, “Diary of a Madman” does not just apply to the time it was written. It can also be seen as a critique on the world today. However, the relation between the story and the modern world is not easily visible on the surface. One must dig deeper in order to see the parallels. Once one examines the symbolism that is used, it is clear that the story is relevant to today’s world just as much as it was to the world in which Lu Xun wrote it. There are many parallels between the story and our society, so many that this story could just as easily be a critique of our society as a critique of China in 1918.

Rushing by, nurses and doctors ran to the aid of their patients. I had been in hospitals many times as a child. Because of this, I associated hospitals with happiness and healing. I always loved visiting my mom and seeing the newborn babies. They were so innocent and precious. But walking through the hospital this time was completely different. I didn’t see the smiling faces of my family’s coworkers and the families waiting weren’t there to celebrate. I was on my way to see my grandfather and that one fact made everything different. The air was thick with sadness and anticipation. I sluggishly walked down the hall and entered the elevator.

Life can catch you off guard. It can sweep in and take you off your feet. My life never caught a breeze to just coast until recently. The memories I have, the pains I suffer, the troubles I endured, and the love I embrace. It all was a roller coaster ride from hell. My life took turns I would never expect. As for this, a barrier or “wall” exists among my life. I will demonstrate what the “ wall” serves in my division between society and individuality.