Women Writing on Madness - Book Report/Review Example

[teacher] Stories of Madness by Women from “Out of Her Mind: Women Writing on Madness” (Shannonhouse, ed. 2003) There are several interesting themes and topics presented in the stories we read from “Out of Her Mind: Women Writing on Madness.” (Shannonhouse, ed. 2003) The depression theses women experience seems ubiquitous, but the primary emotion expressed is typically fear or abject horror. Fears of punishment, real or imagined, is a common theme as are apprehensions surrounding treatments and generalized dread. In some cases their terror is reasonable, as in Ward’s bleak fear of electroshock therapy or Millet’s dread of the mysterious Prolixin. In the cases of “Renee” and Slater, the terror is created in the mind of the patient, part of her delusional state itself rather than something inflicted upon her by the outside world. Despite knowing that their anxieties are not based on anything in reality, neither woman can shake the fear or the depression which pervade their lives. All of the stories discuss various treatments they received, as well as their responses. Ward goes into detail great about shock therapy from the dissociated perspective of her protagonist Virginia, but the most common treatments discussed are medications. In the case of Slater’s Black Swans, the treatment (Prozac) is credited with “saving” the patient. (Shannonhouse, 146) The opposite is true of Millet’s The Loony Bin Trip, in which the medications are given to women against their will, controlling them with terrifying hallucinations, physical side effects of medications or physical restraint. Whether they appreciated their therapies or not, the medications had a profound impact on each of the women presented. In The Snake Pit by Mary Jane Ward, the narrator Virginia relates her depression and confusion using short words and choppy sentences. Her words are bleak, and her thoughts move haphazardly from one to another with little to hold them together. Virginia asks for advice about what to do from her real friends but they cant help her so she asks in her mind. Her delusions are no more helpful than real people: Dear Emily Post: Is it proper to go out park-sitting in a hoover apron? Answer: This is a custom entirely unknown to me, but if it is the general practice in your community it would be well not to be conspicuous. I assume the hoover apron is always fresh and that you would not lap the clean side over the soiled side and attempt in that way to maintain a false front. (Shannonhouse, 62) This stream of consciousness style of writing conveys clearly the confusion and dissociation Virginia experiences, both before and during her hospital treatments. She continues, upon her realization of what will happen during her treatment: "They were going to electrocute her [. . .] What had you done? You wouldnt have killed anyone and what other crime is there which exacts so severe a penalty?" (Shannonhouse, 68) Here the dread of treatment is likened to a punishment. In Autobiography of a Schizophrenic Girl, “Renee” understands that the dread which overwhelms her is imagined, though the dread is no less real. “Renee” doesnt know why shes afraid, but she is terrified and trapped in her own mind by “Fear, agonizing, boundless Fear, . . . not the usual uneasiness of unreality, but real fear, such as one knows at the approach of danger, of calamity.” (Shannonhouse 75-76) She speaks of her feelings in a more detached manner than Ward: “I kept close to the fence as though I were indeed a prisoner and watched the other pupils [. . .] They looked to me like ants under a bright light.” (Shannonhouse, 72) “Renee’s” imagery feels simplistic by comparison to Ward’s, suggesting perhaps the relative immaturity of the writer. In the case of Kate Millet’s The Loony Bin Trip, the punishment is once again a nightmare inflicted upon patients by their “caretakers”, this time in the form of medications. “Thorazine. . .punishment to darken the mind.” (Shannonhouse, 99) Later it is “Prolixin”, which she describes as being used to punish prisoners in northern Ireland. The “Prolixin” makes the women “each a prisoner in her mind and body.” (Shannonhouse 104-105) Millet reasonably asserts that it is the medicine which is supposed to help her that is responsible for her psychosis. “Thorazine is hallucinatory. I hardly need that while trying to maintain my sanity against this place.” (Shannonhouse, 99) Millet relates that she is already in a fragile state of mind when she is administered Thorazine, which causes hallucinations and anxiety among other unpleasant yet well-documented side effects. “Prolixin” was administered to patients in the evenings, to causing them to endure terrifying dreams during which they were awake but unable to move or escape the visions overwhelming them. “I suddenly remember it [Prolixin] is mentioned in the H blocks book. It is the stuff they force upon the prisoners in northern Ireland. [. . .] Political punishment, sadistic control. Old women show me blisters on their backs from the stuff, years of large doses.” (Shannonhouse, 105) Depression in The Loony Bin Trip, as in previously mentioned stories, seems to stem from the author’s lack of control over her own life. Being in a foreign country, Millet worries that her friends will not be able to locate her, let alone rescue her from her unremitting regimen of medications. The medication Lauren Slater takes in Black Swans (Prozac) greatly improves her life. “One day I was ill, cramped up with fears, and the next day the ghosts were gone.” (Shannonhouse, 145) The severe obsessive-compulsive disorder which dominated her existence was suddenly lifted from her mind or muted to a dull, easily-dismissed roar. “On Prozac, not only did the acute obsessions dissolve; so too did the blander depression that had been with me since my earliest memories. A sense of immense calm flooded me.” (Shannonhouse, 145) Slater sees her Prozac as a gift rather than a punishment until it stops working as effectively for her. Initially she finds this “punishment” terrifying, and she dwells in her depression for a time before coming to realize that her months of health had been a gift to her, even if that wellness did not last: “This thought calmed me. I was not completely claimed by illness, not a prisoner of Prozac, entirely dependent on the medication to function. Part of me was still free, a private space not absolutely permeated by pain. A space I could learn to cultivate.” (Shannonhouse, 150) Slater recognizes that she is still ill, but that by recalling the feelings she had when she was well she could continue to hope. All of these women expressed terror of some real or imagined scenario, and all mention some degree of depression. Each protagonist describes the feeling of being out of control of her own life, whether due to their illnesses (as in the cases of “Renee” and Slater) or their treatments, as in the cases of Millet and Ward’s Virginia. That lack of control lead to a general sense of hopelessness, which was likely a major contributing cause of each woman’s deepening depression. According to the DSM, “Delusions are erroneous beliefs that usually involve a misinterpretation of perceptions or experiences. Their content may include a variety of themes.” (DSM, 275) The delusions conveyed in each of these stories are terrifying to the women experiencing them, and again the lack of control seems to be an important factor in their respective fears. The medication induced delusions described in The Loony Bin Trip are especially terrifying, and support Millet’s assertion that she was not psychotic before they were administered. Millet finds herself eternally tormented by the same nightmare; “Totally conscious, horribly awake and yet rigid, locked in the dream. There is no way out of this fate, the same dream over and over, only worse.” (Shannonhouse,102). She does not mention suffering from hallucinations or any other symptoms associated with psychosis prior to being administered these treatments. All of the women are somewhat apprehensive of their visions, even when they do not experience the abject terror of Millet or “Renee”. Lauren Slater in Black Swans is terrified of and obsessed with something unknown. Her compulsions dictate that she engage in various rituals to quiet the voices in her head. These compulsions and the obsessions which precede them overtake Slater’s life both before she discovers Prozac and later, when after several months of health the medication stops working. The similar themes of being overwhelmed by hopelessness and out of control of their own lives appear throughout all of these stories. That lack of control could be causing depression in each case, even when the women in question are not actively experiencing psychosis, hallucinations, delusions or obsessive, repetitive thoughts. Each woman has the same ultimate desire: To be heard, recognized, and respected enough to be given the opportunity to exercise control over their own minds and bodies. Works Cited American Psychological Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 4th edition. Washingtion, DC: American Psychological Association, 1994. Print. Shannonhouse, Rebecca, ed. Out of Her Mind: Women Writing on Madness. New York: The Modern Library, 2003. Print. Read More