The societal roots and meanings of Jessica’s illness The meaning that Jessica gave to her illness inscribed itself in images of beauty and power that Western pop culture propagates. Jessica’s involvement in the toxic relationship with Michael fitted into literary and cinematographic clichés. Jessica liked the idea of being “a tortured soul” (Jessica, 2015). She glamorized the depression, the sadness because she thought that others would find appeal in her suffering: “I liked the sad beauty of a pretty happy girl who at the end of the day is lonely and miserable because she’s the damsel in distress who needs to be rescued by the tortured boy who’s so handsome and tough but really lonely. He needs the girl to swoop in, fix him and they love …show more content…
53). This phenomenon is a result of Byron Good’s “empiricist theory of language” (Good, 1994), widely applied in western medicine today. Good’s theory states that the meaning of the words that the speaker uses can be matched up with a precise, fixed meaning. Ironically, by trying to remove poetry and ambiguities in medical language, this theory has created some kind of poetry through the use of metaphors to describe illness and recovery mechanisms. Metaphors are significant and reflect the perception of a given illness. Jessica personified her eating disorder. However, the personification changed as Jessica’s take on her illness evolved. She originally referred to her eating disorder as Ed, a male monster bullying her. During her treatment, she realized with difficulty that Ed was “an angry me” (Jessica, 2015). She then started designating her illness with “she”. Jessica also used multiple metaphors to describe her experience. Her eating disorder was either her “armor and best friend” (Jessica, 2015) and “the soldier that worked hard” (Jessica, 2015) to achieve an ideal, or a “standing coffin” (Jessica, 2015) closing on her, suffocating her. She described the last few weeks before occupational therapy as “walking on eggshells very second of the day” (Jessica, 2015). Her frequent panic attacks …show more content…
69). Jessica’s story confirms Mattingly’s argument. She acknowledged that the reason for her relatively fast remission, besides her short history of eating disorder, was her “tendency to treat [herself] as a case study” (Jessica, 2015). As a case study, she extensively shared her story and secrets with other patients and documented her experience through summer journals. The positive effects of occupational therapy on her mental and physical health are undeniable: ”I think understand all the reasons why my ED happened to me. And I'm grateful that it did. I have learned so much about myself because of recovery. I consider myself luckier than a lot of people. I feel no guilt nor shame about my illness” (Jessica,
While most of the population has not attended medical school for six or more years, every patient still needs to understand what is wrong with them. Similarly, while readers of a medical narrative aren’t experts on the medical topics they are reading about, but they still need to understand the story. Books written about illness can be confusing for a reader who isn’t familiar with that condition, which makes the author's job to explain the condition, while still maintaining an interesting story line. Metaphors and similes help to bridge the gap of understanding between patients and doctors, and readers and authors. When someone is unfamiliar with medical terms, giving a scientific definition of a diagnosis does no good, that is
Our eyes unconsciously record thousands upon thousands of bits of information every second. Our brain then acts as a filter to sort out what it thinks is useful and what is not. By doing this, the brain guides us into seeing only what is important. We never see the full picture; just what our brain guides us to see. Metaphors act in the same way in that they guide how people view certain topics and issues. A specific metaphor that becomes accepted by a large enough population of community will determine how most people in the community view that issue. In a way the metaphor skews the perception of those who hear it. This was the case for the metaphors of cancer in the late 20th century which we can see through Susan Sontag’s piece, “Illness as Metaphor”. We can also see this manifested in metaphors associated with people diagnosed with Morgellons’ disease in Leslie Johnson’s narrative, “The Devil’s Bait”. Both pieces deal with how metaphors have shaped the outlook of patients of their respective diseases. Metaphors obscure and shift our understanding of disease and pain away from the full truth into a smaller and less understanding perspective. The similarities between the metaphor of cancer as death and Morgellons as a farce prove that metaphors of disease isolate patients diagnosed with those diseases.
Allie Brosh’s Hyperbole and a Half (2013) is a compilation of short personal occurrences that Brosh experienced in her life. This book takes on a unique format in that rather than just text, it is composed of short sentences and paragraphs combined with little drawings of the scenes described. Her frank language and juvenile drawing style allows all different types of readers access to the genuine heart that is portrayed during each snippet of time. While an enjoyable read solely for the depictions and sometimes-comic storytelling, the book also addresses very serious subjects such as depression and identity. Having been published in 2013, this book appeals to contemporary readers and it is necessary to analyze it in its historical context in order to understand its true significance. For many people, it is difficult to address serious concerns regarding mental health and this book makes it available in a form that is both casual and real. As opposed to medical journals or psychologists who will provide a scientific explanation, this publication provides people with a relatable experience that promotes comprehension rather than correct terminology. Ultimately, Hyperbole and a Half tells the story of a woman trying to cope with the difficulties and conundrums of everyday life, but its real significance cannot be understood without insight into the twenty-first century person struggling to understand and confront their own or another’s mental illness.
He needs a young lady for him to love and take care of his needs. He wants to deviate from his
Her initial description of pain and loss, gives an example of PTSD immediately following the event, “I sit in the dirt beside them quietly.(Staples 83).” This has helped me to realize that events that truly traumatize you can make you a different person for the rest of your life, and is a hard issue to wrap your head around. (STEWE-2) People who fought in the Vietnam War face very similar effects, “Memories of their terrifying experiences may involuntarily intrude on a daily basis(Psychology of Survivors).” This tells me that the effects of war are very severe and make people this way, and helped me see what the connections of a book tragedy and an actual, real life tragedy are. (SIP-B)
“She made me do it! She made Betty do it!” said seventeen year old Abigail Williams when accusing Tituba, a servant from Barbados, of witchcraft. Abigail is the person in the play, The Crucible, to do whatever it takes to stay alive and out of jail. The Crucible is a play inspired by the McCarthy hearings in the 1950’s. It focuses on the Salem witch trials and how the devils work is incorporated in the trials. Abigail was a walking and breathing problem during these trials because of her personality. She was stubborn, selfish, and persuasive. Her personality shows through out all four acts of the play in different situations, as does mine, but in a more minor way compared to hers.
The road to recovery was not an easy road back. I still do the same elementary things today that I had to do to achieve recovery. I realized that honesty and open-mindedness was a must. I had to surrender all—I wanted real success.”
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
To be able to participate in one 's own life, to do the things we want to do, and to competently perform the activities that form part of our daily, weekly or monthly routines, is a common goal for most people. This not only includes taking part in the basic activities of self-care, such as grooming and dressing, but also extends to our work and leisure activities. It is through doing things that we learn and develop as human beings. The occupational therapy profession believes that being prevented or hindered in some way from participating in the activities that are important to us could adversely affect our health and wellbeing.
“Hunger” is an article published in 1989 by social justice activist Maggie Helwig. In this article Helwig discusses the stereotypes behind eating disorders, and gives real life examples of the impacts an eating disorder can have on someone. She is able to incorporate many ideas that smoothly flow together to capture the audience’s attention, while also making the audience consider their thoughts and views on eating disorders. She ends the article by giving insightful information as to what it was like for her to suffer from an eating disorder, and why she chose to starve herself for eight years. Helwig uniquely incorporates logos, pathos, and ethos in her writing to completely gain the audience’s attention and influence their opinions on eating disorders.
Occupational therapy was founded on the principle that participation in meaningful activity is important to the health of individuals. Mental health is very important to the well-being of an individual and those around them. 450 million people experience mental and neurological disorders around the world. These disorders are the leading 5-10 causes of disability worldwide. As services for individuals with mental illness have shifted from the hospital to the community, there has also been a shift in the philosophy of service delivery. In the past, there was an adherence to the medical model; now the focus is on incorporating the recovery model. (2) Occupational therapy’s focus that taking part in engaging and meaningful activities benefits the mental well-being of the individual.
33). A study was conducted to review the effects of internal and external factors of attribution theory in organizations. The goal was to see how and why attribution had an effect on decisions made within organizations. Of course the internal factors are within the person and the external factors are factors in our environment. “Autocratic leaders are arbitrary, controlling, power-oriented, coercive, punitive and closed-minded” (Lopez, & Ensari, 2014, p. 21). They have a negative impact on employee job satisfaction as well because they are so structured and are not concerned with how employees feel in the work place. Employees want to feel that their leaders have some care and concern about their and their families’ well-being and the employees’ success with the organization. While employees see autocratic leaders as the so-called mean leader they have a total different view of the so-called charismatic leader. “The charismatic leader is viewed as a leader with strong qualities such as strategic vision, inspiration and unconventionality that lead the followers to strongly identify them” (Lopez, & Ensari, 2014, p. 21). It is almost like employees believe that an organization with autocratic leaders is doomed to failure because the leader has no personality and does not properly care for their employees feelings and emotions– which we know is not true – and conversely
Employing her essay with key terms like body image, anorexia, and bulimia among other disorders, the essayist has written her piece rife with appeals to pathos to define them; the essay’s introduction carries her readers into a girl’s mind who struggles with her appearance
The Lion King II, Simba's Pride, is a 1998 animated musical film and the sequel to The Lion King. It is directed by Darrell Rooney and Rob LaDuca. Darrell Rooney has also directed animated films such as Mulan II, Lady and the Tramp II, and Aladdin. Rob LaDuca directed the films Joseph King of Dreams, Winnie the Pooh and Micky's Adventure in Wonderland.
Laurell K. Hamilton spoke in great words that, “there are wounds that never show on the body that are deeper and more hurtful than anything that bleeds.” Hamilton embodied a central state of mind of a person who is mentally ill. The wounds mentioned are those caused, and worsened, by traumatic events and public perception of a person with a mental illness. The women in the short stories that have been read embody an internal injury caused by an outward force. In “Story of an Hour”, “Rose for Emily”, and “Yellow Wallpaper” it is impactfully shown how traumatic life experiences can lead to and worsen mental illnesses.