Mental illness is being portrayed as an unfortunate illness to the victim Not only do we impose a negative connotation to the mental illness, we also attribute the same negative connotation towards the person By doing so, we are making it subconsciously more difficult for the person to recover. The person has to fight many challenges, some of which include having to prove to doctors that they are mentally sane, while slowly losing grasp on the real world because of denial. As an example, within the memoir, Girl Interrupted, the main protagonist undergoes the many challenges set out by society for mental illness. She has to, not only fight against the stigma, but also against her own self by herself. Especially after being set in an environment that confines those with mental illness, it is hard to identify what is considered normal behavior to compare theirs with.
The same occurrences appear in the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper.” The occurrences that appear in this short story are very relatable to Girl Interrupted because both scenarios of Confinement prevail. The protagonist in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is being held in a home which is mentally driving her more insane. As she attempts to tell her husband who is a mental health doctor, however, her husband is in denial and refuses to consider actual therapy to his wife who has been apparently normal throughout the entire time he‘s known her: His mindset was under the impression that only extraordinary people are more susceptible of having mental illness, so he disregarded his wife from ever having these distractions as he stated, “My darling, I beg of you, for my sake and for our child’s sake, as well as for your own, that you will never for one instant let that idea enter your mind!
There is nothing so dangerous, so fascinating, to a temperament like yours, It is a false and foolish fancyi Can you not trust me as a physician when I tell you so?” Those individuals fight the majority about whether they have a mental illness when everyone says otherwise Some are classified as foolish phases, and others are considered a slight mood swing. This leads to the victim becoming incredible since mental deterioration is a sign of losing one‘s thoughts, which could mean ‘crazy talk’ at any given time. This labels the person, and they feel their thoughts are neglected because of this sudden shift of mind In Girl Interrupted, the protagonist is confined into a Mental Hospital to help bring her back to a normal state of mind She, however, does not think it’s entirely for that purpose. She feels oppressed, secluded, and a slightly unreliable because of the fact that she has a mental condition.
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She’s in the hospital for two years which is being effectively being cutoff from society throughout that time. Both contributing factors lead to being more self-conscious and being wrapped around your mental thoughts until something happens. Being enclosed with nurses who do not treat the patients as equals, lowers the self-esteem of the individuals making them feel even less human than what they already think they are.Throughout the story, many individuals were introduced and the protagonist shows how she thought of them, and what had happened to them that led to them being administered into the hospital. The methods she used to describe the characters makes them feel apparently normal, until an event occurs which reminds the readers why they are institutionalized in the first place. Characters suicide partially because of the implication of re-entering society, being labeled as an insane person and cast away, or being questioned why they were first admitted in the hospital in the first place.
They’d have to recall their experiences to fulfill society‘s curiosity as to continue to be accepted by people and not be considered insane even though they are no longer so. After having experienced the treatments given through the hospital, the patients have a deep hatred towards normality, which is expressed throughout the story multiple times by many different characters. However, some find that being outside the hospital can be re-energizing; The motivation to not commit suicide is backed by the anticipation of one day being taken out into society and finally feel normal. Mental illness is a wide range of mental health conditions that affect the way one thinks, their mood and behavior. Confinement is a major method of attempting to help individuals cope with themselves and return to society as soon as possible, However, confinement can be a leading cause of the illness evolving away from what is considered a normal behavior.
Both the short story and the memoir effectively illustrate how it is to undergo a mental breakdown, and shows how effective the way of confinement can be, and whether it’s a good method to practice or if it’s causing deeper problems and just fixing temporary face issues, Issues that’d only appeal to society and not shame anyone or institute. The stigma is causing patients to be self-conscious of the way they look and behave The stigma of being excluded and being separated from society after being revealed to us through personal experiences tell us that being in control of one’s self is a much harder demand once one sees the way people react in hushed tones about them, An article named “Stigma of mental illness and ways of diminishing it” thoroughly explained how society thinks of those with mental illness As the article claims, “In two identical UK public opinion surveys, little change was recorded over 10 years, with over 80% endorsing the statement that “most people are embarrassed by mentally ill people”, and about 30% agreeing “I am embarrassed by mentally ill persons.”
Society hasn’t changed to attempt to help the mentally ill and aid them, but they remain excluding these patients and thereby making these individuals to become further outcasts than what they already are“ The same article explains how being socially excluded can cause a bigger breakdown without the support that it provides. It further says that the discrimination is highly impacted depending on the scenarios the patients are in, In Girl, Interrupted, the characters are discriminated against throughout the memoir. The nurses view them as crazies, and treat them as so, they’re harsh, and don’t consider the opinions of the patients. The patients are constantly supervised as if they’d be doing something wrong throughout the day, and their freedom is strictly restricted as to not influence their behaviors on others. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,“ the wife was put into a room and was ignored and her opinions cast aside without consideration because of the lack of credibility she had against her husband whom was a mental illness doctor.
The article does a well job explaining how the stigma is subconsciously affecting the patients more, causing them to take longer to recover. The article also explained how behaviors change depending on the environment the patients are in. If the environment is proactive and social, the have positive outlooks for the patient and that causes the patient to resonate with society and act more like a sane individual. Placing the patient in a poorly treated environment with more people with similar illnesses will bring poorer results and will cause the patient to not compile with the supporters demands and help. If left alone with no services to help them in any method, the stigma is amplified in the thoughts of the mentally 111 individual, which’ll lead to further avoidance of aid and the mental illness will develop deeper and deeper until the person has lost grasp on who they really were.
Stereotypes from society cause the general treatment on day-to-day life to be demeaning. As the article stated, “1998 survey, where 70% believed that people with schizophrenia are violent and unpredictable. At the other extreme, people with mental illness are frequently portrayed as victims, pathetic characters, or ‘rhe deserving mad.” Since those who need help are seen as violent, society excludes themselves more from the individual, and that leads to rash assumptions and poor assistance Another theme that was revealed throughout both the works was the effect of credibility on the patients. The patients want to show more about what they’re going through, and their opinions are disregarded by everybody because of the mental stigma of a crazed person telling the rational person what to do. As the research paper by David Whalen “Ethnography of Stigma Associated with Mental Illness” says, “There are incidents of mentally ill individuals losing their jobs for having spent time in hospital. in other cases, employees experience a loss of credibility and a concomitant loss of responsibility,” and this leads to the further exclusion of the patients throughout society.
The individual whom had undergone the medical treatment at a hospital has to deal with this new form of discrimination for having once been in treatment. As also said in the article, “A survey conducted in the United States found that more than half of employers would be reluctant to hire someone who is mentally ill, while a quarter of employers would dismiss someone who had not disclosed a mental illness,” this will lead to the individual thinking negatively about their situation and will cause a form of depression to emerge due to not being able to be socially accepted back into the workforce because of the many stereotypes that are associated with mental patients. However, further stigmatization coming from the employer can potentially cause the individual to feel oppressed about themselves and indulge deeper into their problem since acceptance is farther away than what the individual would like it to be.
The themes explored gives off a further insight of how the struggles go when being suddenly tasked to deal with the mental stigma that the majority of society unwillingly does towards the victims. The victims have to learn how to cope with the aggressiveness of society and then transition into devolving from their previous state of mind to a simplified and nearly non-existent social environment. Doing this causes mental stress and a higher mental breakdown chance to occur which is hurtful for the patient, The stigma on those around the individual is also changed. People may feel associated with the fact that they need to act differently due to them having this sickness by patronizing them and giving them the aid they might not feel is necessary to the state the victim‘s in.
