Mental Illness in The Ecology of a Cracker Childhood by Janice Ray

There was still a large lack of understanding that what caused mental illness the 1930’s, however people still wanted to treat mental illness so this brought more therapeutic ideas on how to cure it. In 1933, two neurologists at Yale Primate Laboratory, Dr. Fulton and Jacobson, performed experiments on two monkeys. They tested the intelligence of the monkeys before and after the removal of half the brains’ frontal lobes. They seemed to retain their skills and intelligence. Fulton and Jacobson wanted to take this a little further, they removed the other half of the frontal lobe. They discovered that the monkeys no longer became violent and frustrated when they didn't immediately get their treats after completing the intelligence test [9].

Jones acknowledges these points. However, he refutes them by saying that “it’s helped hundreds of people for everyone its hurt, and it can help far more if we learn how to use it” (Jones). In other words, when we channel violent media into heroic battles of good versus evil, it can empower a child in need. This rebuttal contributes to the objectivity of the essay. It shows that the author did his research so well that he can recognize opposing viewpoints and refute them.

It can be really over whelming for a person. For example Aaron Alexis the navy yard shooter had mental illness but never went and got treated for it like he should have. The navy yard shooter is a prime example of what happens you choose to ignore your mental health issues.

Nowadays, Americans find violence entertaining. It is recorded, viewed, and shared constantly. In Don DeLillo’s short story, “Videotape” a young girl recorded a man that was shot while driving in a car; the video was shown on the news repetitively. The short story revolves around a man at home attentively watching the video; he continuously called on his wife to watch the video with him. This videotape represents how everyone is being desensitized to violence, how there is a growing obsession with violence, and how quickly life can be taken away.

At first, the survivors requested that K-Mart stop selling handgun bullets, K-Mart later announced that they decided to discontinue the sales of gun ammunition altogether. For the next example, several individuals might disagree that this is not pathos but when Moore’s shares Tamarla Owens’ story. Tamarla is the mother of the six-year-old boy who shot and killed the six-year-old girl Michaela Roland in Flint, Michigan. Moore talks about how Tamarla was not home the morning of the incident because she was on her three-hour-round trip bus journey to Oakland country, to work at her two jobs at the mall, as part of the State of Michigan’s welfare program. Pathos conveyed in two ways to the audience; first, they are shocked, that how in the world did a six-year-old boy get a hold of a gun?

Doyle, Jim, and Peter Fimrite. "Caring for Mentally Ill Criminals Outside of Prison Is Dangerous." America's Prisons. Ed. Clare Hanrahan. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2006. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "Criminally Insane Taking over State Hospitals." San Francisco Chronicle 22 July 2001. Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 26 Feb. 2013.

Violent Media is Good for Kids, by Gerald Jones; a persuasive article written by a comic book author that analyzes how exposing children to violent media has positive effects in shaping a person. This article was written as a counter-argument to the negative response media received after a horrific mass shooting that took place at a high school. Jones defends violent media by telling of his own personal experience with it, thus glorifying it in the process. Jones argues in his article that violent media is a helpful resource for children and it does not necessarily harm them. Jones’ argument was effective and very convincing. He defends his stance by continuously stating the positives that violent media has had not only on him, but his own son as well.

Viewers across the nation are affected by the social media causing stress on the subject by bombarding the public with media stories, rumors and “a sense of mass panic”. Victims have to relive that horrible moment because the media wants to

"Jails and prisons hold three times as many mentally ill people as mental health hospitals" (“Mentally Ill Prisoners”). This horrifying statistic directly reflects the mistreatment and inequity faced by the mentally ill in society, and speaks on behalf of the “356,000 inmates with serious mental illness in jails and state prisons” in the United States (How Many Individuals). Mentally ill inmates are not only often unfairly sentenced for non-violent crimes, but they are commonly mistreated by prison staff, deprived of proper treatment for their illnesses, and ultimately their stay only worsens their condition, leading to their speedy return to the system upon the expiration of their sentences. The sheer number of people with mental illnesses

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, about one in four American adults suffer from a mental disorder. This means that 57.7 out of 217.8 million people over the age of 18 are ill; never mind that mental illnesses are the leading cause of disability in Canada and the United States. Holden Caulfield, the controversial main character of J.D Salinger’s novel Catcher in the Rye, spends much of the book wandering through the streets of New York City. Kicked out of boarding school for the umpteenth time, he does many odd things: he calls a prostitute, tries to befriend a taxi driver, drinks with middle aged women, and sneaks into his own house in the middle of the night. While many of these things seem outré, some may even go as

Before the 1999 Columbine tragedy, there was the 14-year-old boy in Paducah, Kentucky who, in 1997, went on a shooting spree at his local school. Parents of 3 of the shooting victims filed lawsuits against 25 media companies seeking $130 million in damages, citing that the shooter, Michael Carneal, learned how to shoot a gun by playing video and computer games. The lawsuits further implied that violent movies and internet pornography were to blame for the boy’s behavior (Holmstrom, par. 6).

Schizophrenia is a mental illness which affects millions of people throughout the world. Scientists have begun to understand more and more about the possible causes, predisposing factors, types, and possible treatments for schizophrenia. (Torrey, 1995) It is very rare for schizophrenic symptoms to appear before the age of 12 but it does occur. Recently, there has been a growing interest in childhood schizophrenia. It is less than one-sixtieth as common as the adult-onset type but the characteristics are very similar. Childhood schizophrenia also tends to be harder to treat and to have a worse prognosis than the adult-onset form. (Rapoport, 1997)

This tells the story of media people all over the world. That no matter how much you broadcast and write about these stories, if no one takes the time to listen, it would all go to waste.

The toxic aroma of despair fell upon Virginia Tech, April 16, 2007, when a gunman opened fired on the university’s campus resulting in thirty-three deaths along with more than a dozen injuries and a permanent wound to the community. Journalist and writer, Lilly Yulianti, posted an article one day after the tragedy identifying a newer form of journalism identified as active citizen reporters. Yuliantis' article, Praise for Student’s Footage of Virginia Tech Mass Killing, received a voice in an online news outlet where writings of new forms are welcomed. Time and incident met and a young man, by the name of Jamal Albarghouti, stepped on the school campus and with instinct noticed a chill in the temperament of the vast province of student life and possessed the instant sensitivity captured in a moment of time that would prove to be a rare form of documentation for the indecent events that occurred. (Rottenburg and Haisty Winchell 262-264)

Our textbook side notes about the teen boy “Malvo who was 17 years of age, when he went on a sniper spree in 2002 with another man named John Muhammad.” (Santrock 2013) Unfortunately, stories like theses are captured in national headlines all too often. As I