Schizophrenic Psycho??

Listeing to a Puddle of Mudd song entitled “Psycho” i found the lyrics quite interesting in relation to what we have been talking about in class and in reading “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” In this song POM writes that maybe they are the ones who are the “schizophrenic psychos” or the “paranoid flake-ohs.” i just think that it is interesting to see people still associated people that have a clear and unpreventable disorder being used as a psycho or someone who is dangerous, this is almost like stereotyping people that have mental disorders. I believe that what POM is trying to say in this song is that there is this girl who has a disorder that no one sees, and people are critizing him and telling him that hes is the psycho. I believe that it is this reoccuring message from the media that people with mental disorders are dangerous and scary that prevent people from learning the truth or wanted to find out the truth about a certain situation. I believe that schizophrenia appears to be a media target because of the stereotypical ”spliit-personalities” which in fact it isn’t. It is easy to make fun of something from afar which is why the media has no trouble putting labels on people with disorders, they do not have to personally deal with the consequences of their actions.

A Beautiful Mind

After going over many mental illness’s in health class as a way to get us to know our illness’s like the back of our hand we watched “A Beautiful Mind” which is a movie about John Nash, a man with schizonphrenia. I took from the movie that it is hard to live with or around something with a mental illness because they require much special care and as bright as John Nash was, still had immaginary people he talked to as a result of his illness. I think that dispite many other films portray mental illness as a joke, or something to look down upon. I believe that “A Beautiful Mind” captures the true image of mental illness and how hard is it is to deal with. In this movie John Nash believes that he is hired to crack a secret government code and prevent the entire country from being attacked by the soviets. He is hard at work almost everyday and is trying to crack a code he is imagining. I believe than rather than make fun of the mental illness by saying that he has split personalities, this movie helps the general public audience to better understand what this illness really is.

Hoax: “Duped or Stupid?

After reading this article I feel surprisingly angry, and the target of the anger maybe surprising to some people. I feel most angry at a combination of the manager and the victim.  As an employee of the fast food industry, it is quite obvious that hoaxes are a threat to your store and its employees, and that according to everyone company, strip-searches are strictly prohibited, its common sense. It is really hard for me to pity these people, sueing for a situation that should have never happened, yes, I realize that the hoaxer was impersonating a police officer, but you tell them to come and do the search themselves if it was so important. In todays society you should always question authority because there are so many people out there only looking to cause damage to others. Obviously what the Hoaxer did was terrible, and he played the Hitler role in these events. He was the overseer, and leader to these events with his guilible and scared subjects. This is similar to the Milgrim experiments and the manager was the teacher being told to continue on the “student.” From the legal side of this, the actions of one manager shouldnt allow the victim to sue because the manager was a victim as well, and if the student is claiming that he/she is a victim, then the hoaxer is a victim of society, a mental illness or any other excuse to less the offense. The fact of the matter is common sense should never be sacrificed, regardless of the situation, take a step back and rationalize, maybe consult with someone else. There is no excuse for the managers actions as well as the victims inability to say no, a job, especially in fast food should never be worth the hassle, or the need of therapy if something like this was to happen.

Fine line between going with the “flow” and going with the crowd.

Last class we ran a little experiment to see if we could intimidate freshman/sophomore’s into being conformists. Purposely posing false answers to questions we would see if the subject would change their accordingly. Honestly, I was really surprised to see one student follow all of our answers regardless, and then at the end say that she thought they were the correct answers with not even a questionable answer. I would expect that most people would be independant enough to make decisions that dont go with with the crowd, but this experiment obviously proved me wrong. I believe that this girl honestly didn’t want to participate in the experiment which is why she went with the crowd, but at the same time she didn’t go with the “flow,” which would be to answer the questions as prompted by the beginning of the test. I think the main difference between going with the crowd and the flow is that with the crowd it is more like blind obedience. A person doesn’t have to think in this situation, sort of like a socialist government, you do the job that you are told to do without thinking. Going with the flow would be what ever happens, happens, but having the ability to cope and decide how you will let whatever comes at you, effect you. In this experiment I would have thought that people in our school although intimidated by the upperclassmen and the outnumbering, would make the the right choices without the influence of peers or their choices.

I’m Insane???

I was on cnn.com and found an article about a man who microwaved his baby anywhere from 10-20 seconds. The article can be found here http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18807327/. The crazed man’s wife claimed that he was insane. This ties perfectly into our class discussion relating to the word crazy and what it means to call someone crazy or mentally disabled. The article states that the father was possessed by Satan as God was trying to stop him from becoming a priest. This don’t sound to me like a person that anyone wants to be their priest. In another example of a similar microwaving of a baby case, seen here http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/5650594.html, only got a sentence of 25 year instead of life because he claimed that he was mentally disabled too. I believe that normal people abuse the power to claim disability as a way to avoid more severe punishment. I believe that people shouldn’t be allowed to claim disability unless previously diagnosed by a certified doctor. I found it funny how basically everything we talk about in class becomes apparent in the news. I believe that this fits in perfectly to our class discussion and this is one of those “legal” examples of how people can claim disability to get out of a sticky situation.

Karen Horney

1)      What inspired Karen to develop his or her theory?Karen was the Dean of the American Institute for Psychoanalysis, which she helped to found. I believe that this is the reason that Karen developed her theory. Another reason that Karen might have wanted to develop this theory might have been her problems during childhood, such as her love for her brother.
2) What does Karen see as the guiding force of personality development?She saw the guiding force of personality is one’s self identifying them as who they want to be. She believes that people see an ideal image of themselves and shape their life accordingly.
3) What forces make personality development go awry?She believes that how a person was raised has a lot to do with how they develop and that if an adult has neurosis, they were probably abused as a child.
4) How does Karen suggest that a therapist treat patients? Karen’s theory offered three ways of dealing with neurosis compliance, aggression, and withdrawal. Compliance, used by patients that have basic anxiety, deals with acceptance and the feeling of love and being loved mostly in children.  Aggression deals with anger children feel towards adults in control and try to introduce personal admiration so they can deal with. Withdrawal is withdrawing from the power struggle and being self-sufficient.

Freudian Goggles are Kiling Me

Looking at a magazine laying on the counter waiting for my dad so we could start my physics project i noticed that there was an advertisement for a tv show. It shows a picture of what I assume to be the main characters of the show all at the bottom of the ad with noses extended out like pinochio, as if they are lying. The noses are all faced straight up in the air (phallic symbols) and as I was looking at them, I noticed that the sons “nose” was longer than the fathers, it was the longest in the family. According to our Freudian views we can already tell that the two males in the family will be battling for the mothers attention, and they would have a situation similar to that in “My Oedipus Complex,” which would be interesting to watch on a tv show between the battles between the father and son and the sons attempt to take over. Although i could be completely wrong about this show, the advertisment when viewed under Freudian goggles can clearly suggest that this is the plot for this new show.

Kbar RE: V For Vendetta

Uncanny-having or seeming to have a supernatural or inexplicable basis; beyond the ordinary or normal; extraordinary: uncanny accuracy; an uncanny knack of foreseeing trouble. (dictionary.com) In response to kbar’s post on the uncannyness of V’s mask in the most underrated movie of all time V for Vendetta, I believe that he makes a very valid point about the protagonists mask. The writer creates a motivated character without out the need of a face, his cause is what he lives by and what he fights for. I believe that this is his true face and the mask he wears is counteracting against the normal for uncannyness. I think it is genious to make such a different character that our perception of uncanny is questioned after viewing.

The Rocking-Horse Winner

The Rocking-Horse Winner at first appears to be your typical story invovling a crisis (shortage of money) and characters. When examined further, you can find disturbing fairytale polar opposites i.e “..who started out with all the advantages, yet she had no luck.” when the story is first read, you simply glance over this and don’t wonder why, but when viewing through Freudian glasses, you dipict a more disturbing image. Why would this girl who is graced with beauty, have so luck, her love turns to dust, she doesn’t love her kids. This repetition of negatives suggests a further laying problem than the wealth issue. This family covers up for their lack of money, power, buy having expensive taste to make it seem like they arent in fact poor.

Two and a Half Men

The other day while watching Two and a Half Men I found it funny that they were discussing that one of the main characters, Charlie had an oral fixation. This was discussed as he never felt attached to his mother growing up, and resorted to more childish stages of development. I thought that this was extremely ironic that i saw this after a class where we discussed that.