Memoir Of The Insane: A Narrative Fiction

The Quiet Room: A Journey Out of the Torment of Madness is an insightful book which revolves around Lori Schiller, who at age 17 started her downward spiral into psychosis induced by schizophrenia, and subsequently recovering enough by her early thirties to regain control over her life. The book is a culmination of Lori’s experiences and those close to her during her treatment. In her note to the reader, Lori explains that the variation of ‘voices’ in the book is to give an accurate recollection of her life since her illness and subsequent treatment distorted her memories. Lori and her family’s experiences progress in a mostly linear progression from before the schizophrenia appeared with her slowly loosing independence as the schizophrenia began to reign out of control. The experiences in the book revolve around mental hospitals, healthcare workers, as well as societal stigmas from both her family and acquaintances that Lori and her family encountered about mental illnesses.

In 1973, psychologist David Rosenhan published “On Being Sane in Insane Places” which documents the results of studies he and his confederates conducted at 12 different psychiatric hospitals across the United States. The studies were an examination into the reliability of psychiatric diagnosis methods. Rosenhan’s research focused on testing the hypothesis of whether or not psychiatrists and medical staff can distinguish the sane from the insane and if the characteristics that lead to diagnoses relate more to the patient or to the environment and context in which they’re being assessed. (Rosenhan, 1973) The study was divided into two main parts. Participant observations and comparative information studies were noted as well as they gave valuable insight into the treatment of psychiatric patients, conditions in psychiatric hospitals, and the effect that diagnostic labels had on how patients were perceived by staff. Ultimately, the study discovered that psychiatrists could not reliably distinguish the sane from the insane and insight was gained into how diagnostic labels and environmental context play a strong role in the perception of behavior.

This book is comprised of nineteen chapters, 153 pages that are aimed at an audience of sociologists, and academicians in all areas of criminal justice administration. Its major themes are that of violence and disorganization as experienced by inmates in the 1980 New Mexico State Prison Riot and, in precise ways, it discusses the impact of such violence in the day-to-day experiences of those involved – the inmates and prison staff. This riot lasted only two days and more precisely, 36 hours, but the turmoil experienced by the inmates and prison staff during that time will last a lifetime. This book should alert prison officials of the need to run prison facilities in a humane way, but this book demonstrates almost the opposite.

It’s a struggle to get out of bed sometimes, I often just sit there struggling to comprehend the sequence of events which have taken place over the past year. I mean, I’m used to this now, its normal to me, but the fact that this has happened and that I am now ‘disabled’ as people would put it is hard to get my head around. And every time I look down I’m reminded of the pain and the struggle I faced, it’s a physical scar which links me to my grueling past, a physical and emotional journey.

In Ken Kesey's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Kesey shows the reader the idea of sanity versus insanity. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest is about the struggle between chaos and order. There is no freedom without a little chaos, yet to maintain the order there must be oppression. McMurphy upsets the routine of the ward by asking for schedule changes and aspiring resistance during therapy sessions. He teaches his fellow inmates to have fun, and encourages them to embrace their human desires. He does this by convincing them that not only are they sane, but they are man (real people), in contrast nurse Ratched as an authoritarian. He soon discovers due to this that he is not only trapped behind physical walls but mental ones as well. Many patients

Mark Twain said, “The way it is now, the asylums can hold the sane people but if we tried to shut up the insane we would run out of building materials.” Sometimes the world needs insane people because they are actually the genius’ in the world. However, society does not usually deal well with people who stand out from it. The most logical reaction for people who look or act different than the rest of the population is to outcast them and lock them up somewhere until they can function properly in society. In the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, the idea of what makes a person insane and sane is heavily debated.

Suddenly I gain consciousness. Unable to open my eyes, I feel a cluster of dried sticks poking my back as if I was lying on a bed covered by pins. A constant ringing noise almost blankets the sound of the leaves dancing with the wind around me. With a gentle sigh I allow myself to build enough energy for me to open an eye. My eye began to follow a path towards the only light source it sees, the fire from a wooden torch gripped with my left hand. I open my other eye and began to force my lean body to a kneeling position. The smell of decomposing leaves irritates my nose as I gaze at the identical oak trees surrounding me like a wall of armoured gladiators. Using my wrinkled hands and injured legs I crawl towards

In the story “On Being Sane in Insane Places” by David Rosenhan, an experiment was performed to distinguish the “sane” from the “insane”. Rosenhan’s experiment was “being sane in insane places”. In 1970 David Rosenhan a psychiatrist and eight perfectly healthy and sane “pseudo patients” fake their way in into psychiatric hospitals across the United States. Martin Seligman states “David just called me up and said, ‘are you busy next October?’ I said.

William Styron, the author of the book Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness had said, “Depression afflicts millions directly, and millions more who are relatives or friends of victims. It has been estimated that as many as one in ten Americans will suffer from the illness.” According to the World Health Organization, they predict that depression will be the number two health cause of death worldwide in 2020, and two-thirds of people suffering from depression do not seek necessary treatment. Depression is a mood disorder that causes endless feeling of sadness or a loss of interest, which is the outcome of the changes in brain through the effects of neurotransmitters. Another major mental health illness, that is real concern, is anxiety disorder.

On November 3rd, 1900, a little girl with no name, no emotion, and no family found a letter on the front step of her small basement home. She felt attached towards it and she didn’t know how to describe the sudden rush of emotions. She looked around her isolated block just in case. She felt and automatically knew that someone is after it, so she hid it in her home.

The two stories provided both involved a diary written by upper class men plagued with paranoia who subsequently descended into utter madness. Nevertheless, this is the only major similarity that I discovered when reading Memoirs of a Madman by Russian author Nikolai Gogol translated by Claud Field and Diary of a Madman by Chinese author Lu Xun translated by William A. Lyell. Out of the many differences that showed threw out the stories, the two differences that caught my attention the most were, the way that they were triggered into believing that cannibalism was real (Xun) and one believing he was a king (Gogol). With both characters showing signs of psychotic disorders, I believe that Gogol’s character Ivanovitch might have inspired Xun to create his own madman with the words "...I discovered that Spain and China are one and the same country..." (Gogol, n.d.). With a connection made with his homeland from the Russian author Xun created a

John entered, unaware of what lay ahead. He had never seen his grandma, as she lived in an insane asylum. He was alone. There was silence throughout the building. John was scared, so he tried to turn back. The door was locked. Suddenly, hundreds of hands grabbed John, pulling him back. He tried to scream but hands blocked his mouth. He was locked in a closet. The only sound was footsteps leaving the room. John tried unlocking the door when he realised he was no longer human, he was a fly trapped in a closet. The only company was a creepy doll.

Mathew Winston claims humorous narrators are irrational and full of multiple selves by stating “Traditional comedy assumes that the self, or, less abstractly, each individual finds fulfillment as part of a larger whole, in the company of complementary and like-minded individuals” (394). Readers and characters are consciously aware of the irrationality. Furthermore, in “Schizophrenic Narrative” by Lee R. Edwards, he views schizophrenia in narratives as purely linguistic and a “locus of both a challenge and fascination” (28). In a suitable manner, readers are incorporating this maddening disorder due to the stylistic mode the authors are using, “by virtue of their inability to define, express, or experience themselves as self-sufficient monads” (Edwards 28). Especially, when reading a story told by an unreliable first-person narrator who is humorous. This idea of schizophrenia is not only in the narrators, but also the readers. Reading is the act of reading words on pages, seeing images brought by writers, and coming up with more words and images in one’s own head. Seeing it purely in that context, it is irrational, but of course, reading too, is a way people can live, understand, and think through another life—real or not.

It smelled horrible, like burnt hair and earth as I lie on the hot concrete. Dirt and dust found its way into my nose and throat and lodged itself there, leaving me to cough up blood and what felt like my own insides. My head was on fire—had I been shot

Lu Xun’s story “Diary of a Madman” serves to demonstrate his discontent with traditional Chinese cultural, not only by the fact that it clearly addresses the incidence of cannibalism that is believed to have occurred but also symbolizes the oppressive nature of Confucian principles.Lu Xun’s madman has the ability to recognize the oppressive elements of Chinese Confucian culture serves to mock established but out-dated traditional scholarship and symbolizes the greater wisdom of cultural reform, especially as it is advanced by modern intellectuals of the period.