Uncovering Dorothea's Life With Mental Illness

Lizzie Borden is a very known serial killer but not by killing plenty of people, but only killing her father and step­mother. Along with her time period, the late 1800’s, it was very unknown for women to be killers and were seen as the “weaker sex”, which is also one of the reasons why Mrs. Borden was so popular for this case. But how do you get away with a murder of your parents? Lizzie Borden was born on July 19th, 1860 in Fall River, Massachusetts. First born, Emma Borden, was very prepared at age of 6 to have a baby sister (Alice) and teach her how to love and would protect her from anything.

While the concept behind the story is simple, as it is based from the experiences of a real person, the authenticity of a mad-woman’s words make her memoir all the more valuable. While the story is non-fictional, thus making it impossible to critique, the author’s decision to publish her experiences can still be supported. Today, the stigma that follows mental illness is one that can only be considered detrimental, forcing a large population of people to remain ignorant of the psychiatric disability that torments so many. It is this social blacklisting that makes Girl, Interrupted such a valuable cornerstone in educating the public, allowing its thousands of readers to perhaps understand the significance of disorders such as Borderline Personality Disorder and Sociopathy for the first time, which happen to be the respective afflictions of Susanna, who suffers from fits of depression and fear, and Lisa, who tormented a new patient to the point of leaving the hospital, quickly causing her to succumb to addiction once

The reader immediately thinks of Mark Kinney and so does Susan McConnell. Right after her mom reads to her it a clinical description of psychopaths.

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.

A mentally ill teenage named Jessica Roger was born to Joan and Kevin Roger. As a young girl Roger’s mother was verbally abusive to her and her sister, she even went as far as trying to kill her husband. When little Roger was about eleven years old her mother left them with their alcoholic father. Roger ended up in prison for biting her sister and other acts because of her disorder, eventually she committed suicide while serving her time in a place where she just didn't belong. Although her mother showed remorse after her death and said, “she accepts blame, maybe too much, for what happened to her Jet”. On the other hand her father was unapologetic for his drinking “I still drink. It’s legal”. Roger sent her parents countless letter of how she was feeling but they didn’t do anything until after her death. Are you wonder how a mentally ill sixteen year old girl ends up on prison?

To illustrate the mental institute, the narrator describes remembering “the trapdoor… and find the girl tied to a bed (Ellison 74).” Many medical facilities have a seclusion room where they isolate patients who are violent or self-destructive, with medical restraints, according to Gale Springer from the American Nurse Today. The girl tied to the bed symbolizes the use of medical restraints and “her clothing torn to rags (Ellison 74),” suggest that the girl was doing harm upon herself or to others. One may think the narrator’s comment on “everything was fixed (Ellison 75),” was about the constant visits to the “bingo hall” looking the same. In the perspective of a mental institute, an

Dorothea Dix was a woman who stood for the treatment and housing conditions of prisoners and the mentally ill.She observed and documented what she had seen and experienced. Her documentation changed her audiences minds and started the reform.

Throughout history, thousands of people have influenced today's society by their works and words. Dorothea Dix, for example, was a reformer of the mentally ill who changed the way mental institutions are run today. Dix, born in 1802, was an author, reformist, and teacher during her life who helped create dozens of new institutions across the US and Europe; challenging the idea that people with mental disturbances could not be cured or helped. Although some believe that Dorothea Dix created a new issue by introducing the idea of mental illness as a defense, in reality, she was important in our history because of her impact on the institutions and female education.

Dorothea Dix was a woman of many passions. She was fond of helping others and always put effort into everything she did. Many found this odd because it was told that she had a “cold” personality and was anti-social. Dix was a dedicated teacher, leader of female nurses in the Army, and an activist.However, Dix was most famous for advocating better treatment for the mentally ill in prisons.

Imagine, if you can, being mentally ill in the 1840’s. You have been caged without any heat or locked up without clothing. Most of the time would have had painful physical restraints. All because of an illness you could not control. It wasn’t until a woman named Dorothea Dix was so appalled by these conditions that things started to change for those who were mentally ill. She spent over forty years of her life campaigning to get better care and living conditions for the insane and homeless.

To begin, Dorothea Dix was a key player in bettering the treatment for mentally ill patients.  In the mid-1800’s, many mentally inept people dwelled in prisons.  This was because the people of the time didn’t exactly know how to properly treat or deal with these mentally ill people.  Initially, Dix worked as a nurse and teacher for prisoners, where their living conditions were less than adequate (History.com Staff).  Altogether, seeing what was happening to these abused people made her feel as though she had to do something to help.  While working at the prison, she saw firsthand what these people had to face.  One of Dorothea Dix’s reports accounted that, “prisoners [were] flogged, starved, chained, physically and sexually abused

People like to assume when they are happy others must automatically be happy as well. And a lot of the time, it is because we are not being exposed to the inhumane and dark experiences that some persons face behind closed doors. Now more than ever, are people like social workers fighting to make sure we stand up and advocate for anyone in need. Especially making sure that persons who can’t advocate for themselves get the treatment they truly deserve. Through the altruistic efforts of Dorothea Lynde Dix, she advocated for the mentally ill and for prisoners around the United States, Canada and Europe.

There before committing suicide she vowed to kill anyone who physically abuses of anyone. So great was her desire to obliterate the men and women, that she returned from the dead as a vengeful spirit, and bent on killing all those that abuse of anyone and that knew of her. “She is human, but not human”, the man had told my friends grandma. She has cold black eyes that weep blood; she walks without ever actually seeming to move anywhere. She stalks her victims like an animal. Pursing them to their homes where she tears your heart out of your chest. She takes your teeth which she will polish and keep as a memory. No matter where you go or run she will find you; she is faster than any mortal. With his head in his hands the man explained that Los Ojos Negros follows you until you tell someone else about it. Two days later my friend got home after school, he found his front door wide open. As he walked inside he saw a trail of blood leading to the kitchen. There on the floor was his grandma; she had been torn limb to limb. That’s when my friend called me, he came over a little while later, and I could hardly believe it. It all seemed too far-fetched. But before I could utter a word

The narrative begins with Veronica’s taking four packets of sleeping pills and with a description of her reasons for wanting to end her life and for choosing this particular method of doing so. As she waits for the pills to take effect, Veronica reads an article from a magazine that triggers such a strong reaction in her that she decides to write a letter of protest to the magazine's editor, realizing as she does so that the letter will probably be taken as her suicide note. At first she finds the thought amusing, but then as the sleeping pills begin to take effect, she becomes less amused and more uneasy, finally reacting with fear to the idea that she is about to die. Veronica does not die, but comes to consciousness in the notorious lunatic asylum, Villete,

November 16th, 1942, was the day Carmin was sent to an asylum for the bad thing she did. This asylum was in the middle of a crowded forest. It had mold growing on every wall on the outside. When you go inside you hear screams of agony echoing through the wide halls of the asylum. Carmin was immediately sent to go change into an old hospital gown. She had no idea where she was but she didn’t ask questions. The nuns stripped her from head to toe, washed her aggressively with burning hot water, then threw her hospital gown. The nuns rushed her to her cell. In this cell there was a thin bed with one thin sheep blanket. The only light there was a light bulb hanging from the ceiling. The cell was smelled like a rotting body. Camrin sat on the bed singing to entertain herself.