Trauma, By Daniel Gilbert, And Martha Stout 's The Mind 's Eye

Since birth, a little girl by the name of Melody was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. That is a disorder that affects movement, muscle tone, and motor skills. It causes reflex movements that the person can’t control and it causes muscle tightness that can affect a part of the body if not the whole body. Ever since she was born, she was loved and cared for but she wasn’t able to say a single word. The book’s title is “Out of My Mind,” by Sharon M. Draper. It focuses on a disabled girl and her thoughts. Most fiction books have author’s purposes and this book’s author’s purpose is to entertain and inform.

Traumatic events often threaten the effectiveness of the brain’s ability to function correctly in everyday life. Events of the sort can become harmful to the brain, which, in turn, negatively affects the body. Trauma can be defined as a deeply distressing, upsetting, or disturbing experience (Collins English Dictionary). At least 70 percent of Americans have suffered through a traumatic event in their lifetime, although, around only 20 percent of them have developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), in which a person suffers in response to a traumatic event for a prolonged period (“Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Fact Sheet”). This paper will address the longevity of these effects on the brain as well as the effects on the physical well-being of the body and seeking to which aspect proves to be more harmful overall.

The brain is considered the most complex organ in the body. It is responsible for controlling motor function, the body’s ability to balance and the ability to translate information sent to the brain by sensory organs. The mind is described as the faculty of consciousness and thought. It’s where our feeling and emotions originate from and defines who we are as a person. The brain is composed of the visual cortex, which is responsible for processing visual information. In blind individuals the feature that makes up visions still exists in the visual cortex. These features are now used to process information received from the other senses. However, blind individuals are able to view the images because what’s in their mind.

Neural Plasticity is a characteristics which is sustainable throughout life and is the ability to respond and change to experiences as well as the environment (Comb-Orme et al., 2011). According to Combs-Orme, Egan, and Neely-Barnes, neural plasticity means that neuron connections and neurons may develop throughout life. Neural plasticity indicates at the significance of several psychosocial aspects (Comb-Orme et al., 2011). Researchers Combs-Orme, Egan, and Neely-Barnes explain how the ability to store and organize information as well as develop the solution to issues is cognition. The development of cognition advances from less complicated to a more complicated process which initiates at birth until death. Cognitive development depends on neural plasticity’s part in adapting to environmental stimulants (Comb-Orme et al., 2011). Integrating cognition and memory into social work is important for understanding the methods for policy as well as direct practice. Phillips and Shonkoff explain that stress is a set of adjustments taking place in an individual’s body and brain which is set off by a stimulus or risk that is considered traumatic. According to Adolphs, Tranel, and Buchanan believe that the amygdala is an important aspect in emotional memory. The processing of memories may change within the brain depending on if a traumatic event occurs (Comb-Orme et al.,

Trauma is an event in an individual's life which is "defined by its intensity, by the subject's incapacity to respond adequately to it, and by the upheaval and long-lasting effects that it brings about in the psychical organization" (Dodge, Kenneth A., John E. Bates, and Gregory S. Petit). In Toni Morrison's, The Bluest Eye, it is demonstrated very clearly how just one unresolved act of trauma can lead to an almost never-ending cycle of tragedy in a community. The cycle of tragedy is easily transferred from parent to child, and its effects can be easily worsened by a lack of support from other people in the community.

“What doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger” (p. 28). In the scientific novel Survival of the Sickest by Sharon Moalem with Jonathan Prince, self-acclaimed “Medical Maverick” Dr. Moalem makes in-depth analyses of current human diseases that, ironically, may have led to the survival of mankind in the past. He presents a novel concept that greatly contradicts what have been universally accepted beliefs surrounding biology and the process of human evolution for a long time. With the use of myriad scientific studies and research, he formulates surprising theories about a positive correlation between disease and humanity. Moalem narrates the scientific world’s findings that strongly exemplify his assertions, however arbitrary they may seem at first. Three of the diseases that he examines, hemochromatosis, Type 1 diabetes, and favism, could have been particularly useful for resistance against other illnesses and survival in a historically harsh environment.

Whenever someone experiences a traumatic event, especially at a young age, they tend to experience severe mental challenges including PTSD, and many other symptoms. In most cases such as war and the holocaust “the trauma quite obviously, did not end at liberation” (Bettelheim). Through the use of frightful imagery, A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, and Night by Elie Wiesel, express the demand to become impervious to human emotion in order to survive barbaric and savage events.

In “The Victims” by Sharon Olds it describes a divorce through the eyes of the parents’ children. The first section is shown through past tense as the speaker is a child and the last section is shown in present tense with the speaker already being an adult trying to make sense of past events. The word “it” in the first two lines carries a tremendous weight, hinting at the ever so present abuse and mistreatment, but remaining non-specific. The first part generates a negative tone toward the father who is referred to as malicious by the mother who “took it” from him “in silence” until she eventually “kicked him out.” Through the entirety of the poem the children are taught to hate their father. Who taught them? Their mother showed them that their father was a villain and were taught to have no sympathy for him but “to hate you and take it” and so they did so. Although the poem never directly states what the father did to receive the family’s hated, the speaker gives examples as to why he is hated.

Inequality was a big issue back then, when there was not a clear understanding of what it was. The novel “A Lesson Before Dying” by Ernest J. Gaines was set in 1948 before the Civil Right Movement. It shows the problems and successes of African-Americans. The short story “None of this is Fair” by Richard Rodriguez was about how Affirmative Action benefited the minority making it unfair for white students to succeed. In the novel, Grant is a black person and educated, he is different from the other black people that are supposed to work only on the field. In the short story Rodriguez was a Mexican-American student and during his time there was a program called Affirmative Action. This program was designed to help the minority groups get job

It impacts the maturation of specific brain areas at particular ages, the physiological and neuro-endocrinological responses as well as impacting the ability to coordinate cognitions, behaviours and emotional regulation. Therefore, the effect of trauma is different in different developmental stages. Ornitz (1996) has listed critical periods of major structural changes in brain development in accordance with Piaget’s stages of cognitive development. This includes the periods between early childhood (1.5-4 years), late childhood (6-10 years), puberty and mid-adolescence. This ensures that there are widespread implications of trauma in childhood especially in terms of the age at which exposure to trauma occurs as well as the areas of the brain affected. For example, the volume of the brain shows a rapid increase in first two years (Matsuzawa et al., 2001), a time when the development of attachment also takes place. Moreover, this growth is more experience- dependent (Schore, 2001). Children below the age of two also show a greater right brain than left brain

The repetition of these traumatic events and the stress caused by these events can manifest itself in physiological and psychological disorders which, over the course of the 20th century have changed names and

The effects of trauma can be looked at into two separate categories however, they both are interrelated: neurodevelopment and psychosocial development. From the onset of birth, we are born with 100 billion neurons, much more than we will ever need and much more than we will ever have. Between these neurons, trillions of synapses are created. Depending upon the early life experiences in relation to attachments with caregivers and our environment, some synapses will be strengthened whilst others will be discarded.

In Martha Stout’s essay “When I Woke Up Tuesday Morning, It Was Friday”, she discusses how a person who has suffered a traumatic experience is most likely to dissociate their individual self from that situation and block it from their mind completely. This form of a solution allows the person to forget the experience and not feel the pain. In “Immune to Reality” Daniel Gilbert describes how every human being contains a psychological immune system, which works to shield us from horrible experiences that threaten our happiness. When experiencing a traumatic event, the psychological immune system responds by “cooking up the facts”, meaning taking the facts of the situation and turning the negative aspects of it into positive views. At first

In Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss gives life to The Four Corners of Civilization through his storytelling. Storytelling gives the author an opportunity to show their experiences and reflect their beliefs within the world they are creating. During the time this book was being written, there was the Iraq and Afghanistan War taking place which had been sending many soldiers back home with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Rothfuss parallels this disorder within his book through the main character, Kvothe, when he experiences trauma and he shows how Kvothe copes with the persisting trauma through grief theory, “four doors of the mind” (135) . His four doors of the mind is similar to the Kubler-Ross Model, which is widely accepted by practitioners, but challenges it by believing the mind copes with pain through the central idea of numbing. However, this mindset of categorizing emotions experienced within grief can be destructive behavior towards any griever rather than helping them cope; stages of post-loss grief do not exist.

What if I had chosen to keep speeding instead of slowing down when the police car came into view? This is a question I would not dare test myself, but it is an undeniable fact that as humans, we tend to ask ourselves that question every day. It may not pertain to a significant matter, in which case the answer becomes irrelevant. Sometimes, the “what if” question demands significant consideration, because of the possible ramifications it may have on your life. In Brain on Fire, by Susannah Cahalan, Susannah writes about the month and time thereafter in which she was diagnosed with anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis. Susannah was fortunate have been diagnosed with that illness and I say that with a grain of salt. What if Susannah had not been accurately diagnosed? Had Susannah being diagnosed with schizophrenia, she might not even be alive today. Stepping away from that idea, though, let us assume she did live. If Susannah had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, her life would have never returned to normal. Understanding the importance of correctly diagnosing and treating diseases not yet well documented, having the necessary knowledge of NMDA receptors, and overcoming the stigma on mental illness are all keys to providing care and for patients to recover.