Topic for English dissertation - mental illness

[mariarose]

Hi, I'm new and not 100% sure this is in the right topic but I hope it is...
I'm studying Adv. Higher English and am required to choose 3 books (can be by different authors) to write a 3500-4000 word dissertation on. I have to choose a common theme and research it, look at how each author presents it etc...

I was thinking of doing The Bell Jar, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Girl, Interrupted. They all follow the theme of mental illness and mental institutions. I'm considering looking at how all books approach the way mental institutions were run in the sixties and how the characters individually portrayed their surroundings and/or their effectiveness at being 'therapeutic', or looking at society's definition of society as portrayed by the narrators in each book, however I am unsure if these themes are any good, has anyone any suggestions, comments, feedback? Would be much appreciated, thanks

[Scheherazade]

Hi Maria,

There have been some discussions on these books. You might find some useful:

http://www.online-literature.com/for...ad.php?t=25954

http://www.online-literature.com/for...ad.php?t=20138

http://www.online-literature.com/for...ad.php?t=13320

[dfloyd]

but I am familiar with the other two. I think your theme of mental illness is a good one. When Sylvia Plath stuck her head in a gas oven and committed suicide, she probably could have been saved except for society's stance on mental illness in the 60s. She needed help, but it just wasn't available. In Ken Keysey's book, the protaginist had a frontal lobotomy which made him into a vegetable. Today, a Dr. would be sued or possibly face prison for performing such an operation, especially in a public hospital.

He wrote no books on mental health, but Hemingway was led to sucide by the clinicians at the Mayo Clinic. He was suferring from a persecution complex, talking about the government and the IRS being after him. After taking multiple electric shock treatments (where an electric current is run through the brain), Hemingway couldn't follow the plot of Tom Sawyer. He had lost his memory. The result was his suicide. This therapy is no longer used, but it shouldn't have been used in 1960-61. Today, drugs would be used to treat such problems.

Another book featuring mental illness is Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night.
Nicole, the wife of Dr. Dick Diver, is treated by Diver for a mental condition close to schizophrenia, brought on by her rape and continual sexual contact by her father. I imagine that in writing his famous novel, Fitzgerald looked upon some of the mental illness exhibited by his wife, Zelda, who eventually died in a mental institution, although she died in a fire, not because of medical practices which were dangerous and unsuitable for any treatment of mental disease.

There are plenty of real life experiences which were mostly disastrous because of the medical theories of the time. John F. Kennedy's sister was given a frontal lobotomy upon the advice of a doctor. She spent the rest of her life a vegetable. The bad reputation of brain surgery for fixing mental problems prompted Dorothy Parker to quip, "I'd raher have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy."

[mariarose]

Thank you so much, all those references to Hemingway etc sound totally relevant, even if I'm not doing those particular books, I'm pretty sure I can definitely reference and incorporate them into my dissertation as they give a good background on the effects the mental institutions at that time had on peoples' illnesses, how treatments could be used as a source of power and the very vague definition of 'sanity'. I might also reference a psychological study by Rosenhan in the 1970's "On being sane in insane places" which was sort of part of the anti-psychiatry movement of the 60's, focusing on how a sane person can be classified as insane in those asylums which highlights how these institutions could easily misdiagnose or mistreat patients.

[dafydd manton]

There's a book called Put Away, by an American psychiatrist, Jonathan somebody, I'll try and find out tomorrow, but it would help tremendously. Printed in about 1970, though.

[mariarose]

thanks, anything like that which sounds relevant would be really appreciated