What I Am Learning from/with My Students

This semester's Good Books class has been wonderful. I am learning so much from and with my students. The choice to add in My Friend Dahmer and 72 Hour Hold has been beneficial. With Derf Backderf's book -which I have already talked about in this blog - students talked about Dahmer's drinking and loneliness and wondered why the people who knew him didn't intervene, or at least ask questions about his erratic and disturbing behavior.

With Bebe Campbell Moore's book, those who read it commented more on the relationships of the characters, especially between Keri and Trina and Ma Missy, and less about the mental illness of bipolar disorder that caused so much stress in their lives. It's interesting to me, as well, that no one really talked about the fact that the book was the only one in the course that featured African American characters.

Thanks to a former student (one who took Good Books with me a few years ago) who pointed out the lack of diversity in my selected course materials, I have done more research on how mental illness is perceived in African American communities. Here are some of the things I've discovered (again, thanks in part to that student who did a directed study with me on issues of race and mental illness in young adult literature).

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, African Americans are not receiving as much from our mental health care system. For instance, only one-third of African Americans who need mental health care are receiving it. Moreover, African American individuals are more likely to leave treatment or stop medications than others. Problems with misdiagnosis, lack of access to resources, and cultural stigma associated with asking for assistance from a frequently mistrusted health system often interfere with individuals being appropriately treated for mental illnesses. One other issue, which is shared with Latino/a community members, is strongly held religious beliefs which may hold options for therapy or medication in less esteem than prayer. The American Psychiatric Association offers a great resource on "Mental Health in the African American Community." See here for more.

Bebe Moore Campbell was an incredible advocate for mental health awareness and the reduction of stigma associated with mental illness, especially in African American communities. Her death in 2006 was a blow to all of us; however, because of her legacy of amazing literature and the NAMI groups she founded in California, we are more informed and better poised to change the stigma associated with mental illness in this country. Here is a link to the NAMI statement about her death and the importance of her advocacy.

I'm glad I know more about mental illness thanks to the books I've read. More importantly, I'm fortunate to have taken away some insights from my students about these texts, including these:

• Mental illness is something we don't talk about often, but talking about the issue is how we begin to overcome the fear.
• Shusterman's novel demonstrated that mental illness isn't something that typically happens all of a sudden but progresses over time.
• Campbell's book showed some of the ridiculous problems people have getting help for mental illnesses and also highlighted the fact that some doctors have bought into a system that is about money and not about recovery.
• Books - fiction and nonfiction -  can help us to develop empathy for those who are living with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, depression, PTSD, drug/alcohol addiction, and other disorders. Literature can also help us learn more about what having a mental illness means not just for the person with the illness but also for family, friends, and neighbors.
• We need to pay attention to our relatives, friends, and neighbors, and offer to support them and help them seek treatment if they have a mental illness. And we need to fight for better access to care for all people.

Thanks for listening. :)

MENTAL ILLNESS in SERIAL KILLERS: The Lovely Bones and My Friend Dahmer

Students in my Good Books class last week read Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones or Derf Backderf's My Friend Dahmer. Reading their postings led me to do a lot of research about mental illness in serial killers.

According to the FBI's "Serial Murder: Pathways to Investigation" report, myths about serial killers (that "all serial murderers are white males who are evil geniuses, and travel around the country killing multiple victims for sexual gratification") perpetuate stereotypes and can interfere with effective investigations (7) . A study of 480 cases of serial murder (from 1960-2006) involving 92 male offenders resulted in the following information: over 75% of victims were female and of those, about half were between the ages of 14 and 29. Before being arrested, about one-third of offenders had been diagnosed with a psychiatric illness, with personality disorder and psychotic disorder as the most common - 42.9% and 19% respectively(16). Most offenders knew their victims and used a ruse or con approach (16). Over 80% of the offenders were motivated by sex (18).

SERIAL MURDERS: PATHWAYS FOR INVESTIGATIONS

Jeffrey Dahmer had not been diagnosed with a mental illness before arrest and targeted male victims. He did use a ruse or con approach and was motivated by sex.

George Harvey has not been diagnosed with a mental illness (not arrested) and targeted female victims. He also used a ruse or con approach and was motivated by sex.

While Dahmer was apprehended, tried, convicted, and sent to prison, Harvey eluded apprehension and disappeared.

The Lovely Bones was turned into a film in 2009.

My Friend Dahmer premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last month and is scheduled to be released in theaters in fall 2017.

I'll be watching.

Interview with Backderf about film

Rowdy was born mad. Reflections on anger in Alexie's "Diary of a Part-time Indian"

Sherman Alexie's narrator, Arnold Spirit, Jr., in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, tells us that his best friend Rowdy was "born mad." He writes,

He was always crying and screaming and kicking and punching. He bit his mother's breast when she tried to nurse him. He kept biting her, so she gave up and fed him formula. He really hasn't changed much since then. Well, at fourteen years old, it's not like he runs around biting women's breasts, but he does punch and kick and spit. He got into his first fistfight in kindergarten. He took on three first graders during a snowball fight because one of them had thrown a piece of ice. Rowdy punched them out pretty quickly. And then he punched the teacher who came to stop the fight. He didn't hurt the teacher, not at all, but man, let me tell you, that teacher was angry. "What's wrong with you?" he yelled. "Everything!" Rowdy yelled back."

I reflected on this description for a long time because it's so hard for me to understand.

I have been mad. Really mad. Raging, screaming, losing it-mad. My anger is not pretty. And it is not let loose very often.

However, I have never been in a fight. I have never used my fists to punch another person.

I have not ever, in my recollection, been in a physical altercation myself other than to try to stop a fight.

When I was a teacher, in Wylie, Texas, I did try my best to break up a fight between some young adults at my school. They started out in the boys' bathroom adjacent to my classroom's back wall. I heard them through the concrete, yelling and hitting. They moved next into the hallway: two young men beating on another boy. It was loud, and it was scary. I had to do something.

As a female teacher, especially in the South, I was not expected to do anything other than stand, hands on my hips, and yell for help. Right. Not when they are bleeding on the carpet right in front of my room.

I grabbed the smaller one and pushed him up against a locker. By then, another teacher or coach (I don't remember) came and got the bigger one. Two of the three were expelled. I went to the expulsion hearing. There were no parents in attendance, which in many ways was almost as scary to me as the fight itself.

I don't understand Rowdy's physical expression of his anger. But I am trying to understand his position. Alexie writes, "Rowdy fought everybody. He fought boys and girls. Men and women. He fought stray dogs. Hell, he fought the weather. He'd throw wild punches at rain. Honestly."

I need to review Junior's description of "THE UNOFFICIAL AND UNWRITTEN (but you better follow them or you're going to get beaten twice as hard) SPOKANE INDIAN RULES OF FISTICUFFS."

I need to remember that early in the book, Junior tells us that Rowdy's had a horrible summer: "His father is drinking hard and throwing hard punches, so Rowdy and his mother are always walking around with bruised and bloody faces."

I need to think about why a young man who is taught that violence is acceptable would use his fists to express his anger.

Thanks for listening.

Schizophrenia as a Monster: Toby Allen's Artistic Representations and Lori Schiller's Voices

I want to share some beautiful pieces of art by TOBY ALLEN that are his interpretation of Schizophrenia and Paranoia as monsters.

Toby Allen's Monsters

Allen states that he has anxiety, noting, "It effects me every day of my life and can be a real burden but I have learnt how to keep it mostly at bay." He also points out that he created the images because he wants "to make people aware of how damaging these illnesses are and how much of a burden they can be to those who suffer from them."

(Note: He has a collection of images crafted for each of various mental illnesses).

Reflecting on Lori Schiller's experiences in The Quiet Room for what must be the twelfth time I am teaching the book in this class is challenging. Yet, each time I go back into Lori Schiller's text, I am drawn to a different aspect of her description of her experiences with schizophrenia. In Chapter 3, Lori describes how her fear of the Voices increased during her time at Tufts University and how she frequently felt paranoid, afraid that her professors and classmates could hear the Voices and "now knew the terrible secrets about me they were revealing." She began to believe the Voices that her friends thought she was "scum" and that people were talking about her and would begin taunting her.

Her experiences fit with Toby Allen's description of the Paranoia monster, who "uses its tall ears like a radar, scanning the area for any activity" and feeding on "feelings of anxiety of fear which they unintentionally create within their victims," working with other monsters like Schizophrenia, who "like mafia gang leader[s]" are "rarely seen and like to hide in the shadows."

Lori's monsters seem to work in tandem, with the Voices hiding in the shadows but creating anxiety and paranoia in her mind in a very intentional way.

The Quiet Room WordCloud

I copied blog passages from 20 of my 32 Good Books students in response to their reading of The Quiet Room by Lori Schiller (with Amanda Bennett). I then created a Word Cloud to see how their responses looked when combined- the more frequently occurring words appear bigger. :)
I'm happy to hear that so many students enjoyed the book and felt that they couldn't put it down because it was so engaging. They also mentioned how much the book helped them to empathize with Lori and her family, friends, and medical team.

Summer 2017- new term, new experiences

I am having a great time with my new Good Books class this summer 2017 term.
I appreciate their insight into the poems from Kaitlyn Tramp and their sharing personal experiences.

Statistics, mental illness, and literature

Today (June 13, 2016), the news was focused on what is being called "the deadliest mass shooting in the United States and the nation's worst terror attack since 9/11, authorities said" (http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/12/us/orlando-nightclub-shooting/). While this is certainly up for debate, especially when considering the loss of Native American lives at Wounded Knee(http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.war.056) or African Americans during the Tulsa Race Riot (http://tulsahistory.org/learn/online-exhibits/the-tulsa-race-riot/), the fact remains that approximately 50 individuals were killed and another 53 were injured at a dance club in Orlando in a shooting spree by one armed perpetrator. The shooter's ex-wife reported that he was "mentally unstable and mentally ill," noting that he was "bipolar and also had a history with steroids" (http://www.krmg.com/news/news/local/update-orlando-shooters-ex-wife-says-he-was-mental/nrfSn/).


We know that not all individuals who have bipolar disorder are violent. According to Volavka (2013), most are not violent; however, "severe mental illness, particularly schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, does increase violence risk" (p. 26).


As I reflect on the two books I had students read last week (My Friend Dahmer and The Lovely Bones), I am wondering whether either of the perpetrators in those books would have been likely to commit a mass murder like the one that happened yesterday in Florida. My gut says no because both Jeffrey Dahmer and George Harvey were intimate with their victims and seemed to be compelled to commit their crimes without the use of firearms.


In a recent study by the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime, of 480 cases of serial murder from 1960 to 2006 in the U.S., nearly 13% of the victims were killed by gunshot.

In the next set of books by Wally Lamb, only one deals with a mass murder, The Hour I First Believed, which takes place at Columbine High School during the time that the two perpetrators committed their horrific attacks on innocent students and staff at the school.


It is my hope that with more research on mental illness, and with more emphasis on getting young people who have mental illnesses help before they become violent, we can prevent tragedies like those mentioned above before they happen. I know that literature doesn't change what has already happened, but perhaps it can help us map out what could happen.


Thanks for listening.

I end this blog with an image of the ribbon created in honor of the victims and survivors; these ribbons were worn at the Tony Awards last night. Also, Lin-Manuel Miranda's acceptance speech/sonnet.

"My wife’s the reason anything gets done
She nudges me towards promise by degrees
She is a perfect symphony of one,
Our son is her most beautiful reprise
We chase the melodies that seem to find us
Until they’re finished songs and start to play
When senseless acts of tragedy remind us
That nothing here is promised, not one day
This show is proof that history remembers
We live through times when hate and fear seem stronger
We rise and fall and light from dying embers
Remembrances that hope and love lasts long
And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love
Cannot be killed or swept aside,
I sing Vanessa’s symphony, Eliza tells her story
Now fill the world with music love and pride."


http://www.nytimes.com/video/arts/100000004467857/lin-manuel-mirandas-sonnet.html



Volavka, J. (2013). Violence in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Psychiatria Danubina 25 (1), pp. 24–33.

  

Sherman Alexie is in my head.

Sherman Alexie is in my head.
Even when I am not
Teaching his novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian,
Or reading his poems
Or recommending his short stories,
I find his words
Reverberating in my mind
And connecting my world to his
And to yours.


In "Dangerous Astronomy" Alexie says,
"I wanted to walk outside and praise the stars"
And as I read the words,
I think of the images from
Roots
and hear these words,
as Omoro Kinte named his son Kunte Kinte,
Holding him up to the stars:
"Behold, the only thing greater than yourself."


I am taken back to
Alexie's words in Diary:
"Branch by branch, Rowdy and I climbed toward the top of the tree
to the bottom of the sky"




and Rowdy says, "I've never seen anything so pretty."



And even though that scene
takes place during the day,
My brain makes it night time
and there are stars.


I flash past the brutality of Roots
and the anger of the Rez
and the dark pain of Rowdy
and there are stars.

.

Breaking the Silence: Women with Mental Illness Speak Out

While watching the Today show this morning, I was excited to see a story on women with mental illness, where Kat Kinsman's forthcoming book about living with anxiety was featured.
http://www.today.com/health/hi-anxiety-women-hide-their-mental-illness-out-shame-says-t94606


Likewise, Women's Health Magazine, in honor of Mental Health Awareness month (May 2016), has a series of photographs and stories of women who are living with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, OCD, anxiety, PTSD, depression, bipolar disorder, and borderline personality disorder. Editor-in-chief Amy Keller Laird says that she her own public relations team was concerned about her disclosing her own struggles with OCD, saying,  "Our public relations folks also initially expressed concern that if I, as the head of this magazine, were to come out publicly about having OCD, I might be seen "differently" in the industry—or be judged by my peers—and that I would have to accept that risk if I moved forward."
http://www.womenshealthmag.com/health/amy-keller-laird-obsessive-compulsive-disorder


The stigma that these women talk about is one of the reasons I start our class with Lori Schiller's book, The Quiet Room.  Lori's choice to share her story about living with schizophrenia was one of great courage.


As I reread Lori's book this summer, I find myself thinking about her life today. Here is a blurb from Schiller (now Lori Jo Baach) in a 2013 newsletter:


"I now work full-time in the mental health field, do motivational speaking, teach CIT (Crisis Intervention Team) training to the police on how to treat the mentally ill, sit on the Board of Directors at South County Mental Health Center, sit on the Jansen Pharmaceutical Mental Health Advisory Board, won the Peer Specialist of the Year Award for the State of Florida in 2009, and have been ac-tively involved with NAMI Palm Beach County including being founder of the "Consumer Coun-cil" (now known as "Peer Council"), P2P mentor, P2P Mentor State Trainer, and Board member. Well known as Lori Schiller, I often hear "You’re the one who wrote that book (The Quiet Room)."  http://namipbc.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Newsletter-The-Voice-2013-June.pdf


Here's a picture of Lori from a 2013 "Breaking the Silence" symposium in Boynton Beach, Florida.

Good Books, Summer 2016 - Here We Go!

I'm excited to be teaching EN 110 Good Books again this summer. I kept the same format as I did last year because students' comments were very positive about the class.


This past winter term, we read Resilience: Two Sisters and a Story of Mental Illness by Jessie Close as our Diversity Common Reader book at NMU. I enjoyed reading the book, hosting a public discussion about mental illness and the book, and attending the talk by Jessie Close on March 21st. The book, and Jessie's talk, reminded me of the power of story - how sharing our stories with each other can help us to heal and to help others to better understand us and the world around us.


That is what Good Books is all about, really. Reading stories and developing a better understanding of ourselves and those we live with around the globe.


Jessie and her sister, Glenn Close, started a nonprofit organization called Bring Change 2 Mind. Their mission is to "end the stigma and discrimination surrounding mental illness."
http://bringchange2mind.org/


That's one of my goals as well: to use literature to help end the stigma of mental illness. In 2014, I published an article in the Language Arts Journal of Michigan about this issue: http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/lajm/vol30/iss1/6/


Last summer, in New York, I presented on the issue at the International Federation of Teachers of English/Conference on English Education convention as well.
http://commons.nmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1126&context=facwork_conferencepresentations


I'm looking forward to a wonderful six weeks in Good Books this summer!

Kia Jane :)

Good Books - Part Deux, Summer 2015

I am so happy to be teaching Good Books again this summer. I am using the same books as I did in Summer 2013. With 33 new students in this section, I am hoping to learn even more with and from them about The Quiet Room, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, The Lovely Bones, My Friend Dahmer, The Hour I First Believed, She's Come Undone, and I Know This Much is True.

As I am reading their individual blogs, I am reminded of the power of words, images, and sounds. Many students are posting links to video clips, ads, and music; others are writing in response to questions and already integrating what they are learning from the literature with what they already know or have learned by beginning to investigate the topic of mental illness, the theme we are exploring in Good Books.

Just two years ago,  "President Obama proclaimed May as National Mental Health Awareness Month and brought the issue of mental health to the forefront of our nation’s thoughts." 
  http://www2.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=May_is_Mental_Health_Month

The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that "the number of adults with any diagnosable mental disorder within the past year is nearly 1 in 5, or roughly 43 million Americans.^"
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/2015/mental-health-awareness-month-by-the-numbers.shtml

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has a web site dedicated to helping promote conversations about mental illness and ways to help those living with anxiety disorders, behavioral disorders, substance use disorders, mood disorders, psychotic disorders, personality disorders, eating disorders, and suicidal behavior. http://www.mentalhealth.gov/index.html

One of my favorite sites is Bring Change 2 Mind. "Bring Change 2 Mind is a national anti-stigma campaign aimed at removing misconceptions about mental illness. The idea was born out of a partnership between Glenn Close and Fountain House, where Glenn volunteered in order to learn more about mental illness, which both her sister, Jessie Close, and nephew, Calen Pick, live with."
http://bringchange2mind.org/

Thanks for listening.
Kia Jane

Source for image: National Alliance on Mental Illness

Isolation and Space in Dahmer

 As I read My Friend Dahmer this summer, I found myself really noticing the theme of isolation in the book (perhaps because I was also focused on that in The Lovely Bones - if you want to know more - see my posting about the penguin in the snowglobe). Not only was Jeff Dahmer alone on a regular basis, but even when he was with others, he found ways to separate himself through his behavior, his drinking, his choice to go to the shed behind his house. He is portrayed as a 'loner' in Backderf's book through the visual representations as well: in the "Prologue," Jeff is shown as a tiny image on the bottom right of page 13; the road, which is stretched out before him, rolls and shows a combination of dark and light spaces. But Jeff is located proximal to the darkest part of the road, which moves from the dark forest (often used in literature as a representation of the base part of human nature - the wildness of human beings) to the brighter city (which is connected - notice the telephone poles and wires).

Here is a discussion of the concept of isolation from Peter Gutiérrez. (Peter is a spokesperson on comics and graphic novels for the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and is a frequent contributor to School Library Journal.) This excerpt is taken from the Teacher's Guide, page 2):

In an online review of My Friend Dahmer for Time, Lev Grossman writes about the feeling of isolation that Dahmer felt. In the late 1970s,
“there was no Internet and no cell phones. Back then you could actually be alone, truly, deeply alone and isolated in a way that’s almost
impossible now. There was no Twitter, no Facebook, no global network of electronic confi dences and confessions open 24/7. Whatever was
going wrong in your house, and in your head, you dealt with it, or not, by yourself in your room.” 

Thinking about Snow Globes and Lovely Bones

In terms of The Lovely Bones, this time, I was thinking about the penguin in the snowglobe and its connection to the people in Sebold's story. Here is the quote from the epitaph: "Inside the snow globe on my father's desk, there was a penguin wearing a red-and-white-striped scarf. When I was little my father would pull me into his lap and reach for the snow globe. He would turn it over, letting all the snow collect on the top, then quickly invert it. The two of us watched the snow fall gently around the penguin. The penguin was alone in there, I thought, and I worried for him. When I told my father this, he said, 'Don't worry Susie; he has a nice life. He's trapped in a perfect world."' At first I thought the penguin was Susie, trapped in her perfect heaven. But instead of focusing on the penguin this time, I'm focused on Susie's concern for the penguin, who perhaps represents her family members who are trapped in their physicality and in time as well. They cannot escape the tragedy of the loss of Susie Salmon, and though they can run away (like Abigail) or obsess over not being able to protect Susie (like Jack or Len), they are trapped in their grief. Here's a picture of a penguin in a snowglobe that reminds me of the one in the novel. http://www.milanoworldwide.com/picts/Prosperity%20Key%20Chaines%20and%20Pictures%20Snow%20Globes/Key%20Chain%201.5%20inches%20Plastic%20Snow%20Globe%20Penguin.jpg ALSO - Here is a poem you might enjoy by Theodore Roethke which talks about a woman,"lovely in her bones." I recommend you listen to him reading the poem aloud; I love the movement - and the power of his phrasing reminds me of the power of Susie Salmon over her attacker. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcjk6jrPZnA I Knew a Woman I knew a woman, lovely in her bones, When small birds sighed, she would sigh back at them; Ah, when she moved, she moved more ways than one: The shapes a bright container can contain! Of her choice virtues only gods should speak, Or English poets who grew up on Greek (I'd have them sing in chorus, cheek to cheek.) How well her wishes went! She stroked my chin, She taught me Turn, and Counter-turn, and stand; She taught me Touch, that undulant white skin: I nibbled meekly from her proffered hand; She was the sickle; I, poor I, the rake, Coming behind her for her pretty sake (But what prodigious mowing did we make.) Love likes a gander, and adores a goose: Her full lips pursed, the errant note to seize; She played it quick, she played it light and loose; My eyes, they dazzled at her flowing knees; Her several parts could keep a pure repose, Or one hip quiver with a mobile nose (She moved in circles, and those circles moved.) Let seed be grass, and grass turn into hay: I'm martyr to a motion not my own; What's freedom for? To know eternity. I swear she cast a shadow white as stone. But who would count eternity in days? These old bones live to learn her wanton ways: (I measure time by how a body sways.)

Blogging in Good Books - Week 3-4

I am hoping that as we move into the reading of My Friend Dahmer and The Lovely Bones that students will post not only to their own blogs but also in response to each others' blogs (including mine).

I am truly enjoying reading everyone's blogs in EN 110 but am surprised that no one is posting in response to anyone else's blog. Perhaps the discussion in EduCat (our NMU Moodle system) is working well, and we don't need the blogs to extend the conversation. Perhaps it's hard to remember to go to the list of student blogs that I created and posted each week and visit them. Perhaps everyone's busy. I'm not really sure.

My intention with including blogs in this class is to encourage students to express themselves through a new format, to encourage conversations between/among students, and to encourage reflection upon the books we are reading.

Thanks for listening. I hope that sharing this will inspire people to share more and to talk about how blogging in this class is/is not beneficial to them individually or as a group.

Kia Jane :)

Moving from The Quiet Room and into The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian

I'm thinking =====Thinking:

As I finish up reading the postings and blogs and papers in response to The Quiet Room, I am blown away by students' insight into how the stories in Lori Schiller's book seem to complicate the stories we have already heard about mental illness through film, television, advertising, etc.

We are bombarded with advertisements about various medications that can help individuals with mental illnesses such as depression, OCD, schizophrenia, etc. This is new to those of us who grew up in the 20th century and got our medical information from friends (often in whispered conversations) and from doctors (and sometimes, only if we asked for help).
FOr instance, I have seen this commercial many times this week:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGymr78FtbU

And this one, more recently, about Seroquel XR:
http://alittlespark.wordpress.com/2011/08/12/new-seroquel-xr-commercial/
Note that the blogger makes a reference to the cloud that follows the depressed people around.

I'm wondering if Lori Schiller made a commercial for Clozapine, what it would look like.
I'm thinking it would include clouds, blobs, Voices, and some weird outfits.

Did you know that in 1994 Lori Schiller (Baach)was"approached by Sandoz Pharmaceuticals (now Novartis), the makers of Clozaril [...] to tour the country on their behalf" - giving speeches about her life with support from her mother who traveled with her? Wow!  ("Afterword" - added in 2011, p. 267)

If I were doing a commercial for the various medicines I've been on over the years, I think I would have to include music as a key part, and I'd have to invite Adam Ant to be in the commerical (even though he lives with bi-polar disorder and I have anxiety and dysthymia (low grade depression), I have loved his music for 30+ years, and I think he'd have a lot to say about living with  mental illness. :)
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/q-a-adam-ant-on-returning-to-music-from-bipolar-disorder-20130219
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopmusic/9809653/Adam-Ant-interview-You-should-never-feel-ashamed-of-madness.html

Kia Jane

Reading Essays about The Quiet Room and Films About Mental Illness

I am really impressed with the class's ability to discuss similarities and differences between The Quiet Room and various films students self-selected (including Girl, Interrupted; One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; Silver Linings Playbook, etc.). My students are talking about character motivations, actions, personalities, relationships, struggles, and choices. They are also sharing a lot of insight into the reasons for mental illness stigmas and stereotypes.

As I am grading their essays in response to the assignment to compare/contrast Schiller's book with a film  (or to "The Yellow Wallpaper" if a film is not available), I find myself going back to the text of The Quiet Room, looking at specific passages and considering Lori's illness and how it developed in her life as a teenager and into her twenties and thirties. I am thinking also about the people I know who have mental illness and how their diseases changed over time, in most cases getting worse unless treatment (medical, psycholocial, social) was sought and followed consistently.

I know, too, that one of the movies that I watched on Lifetime, called Obsessed (2002) which starred Jenna Elfman, was a film that I believe could be compared easily to The Quiet Room. This film, which was based on a true story about a woman named Diane Schaefer, who was obsessed with a cancer specialist Brennan Murray,  features a character named Ellena Roberts, who imagined a relationship with a doctor and who had a hallucination about a woman named Charlotte who seemed to be her friend. Even though the movie was not about schizophrenia (but erotomania), the fact that Ellena frequently interacted with a hallucination and was not aware of the reality in which she lived made me think of Lori's discussions of her visions and Voices.
Thanks -
Kia Jane

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0325322/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm#cast

http://www.examiner.com/article/obsessed-true-story-based-on-diane-schaefer-dr-murray-brennen-erotomania-case

The Quiet Room

The Quiet Room has really opened my eyes to how schizophrenia is experienced not only by the person who is diagnosed with it but also by family, friends, strangers, and medical professionals.

Lori Schiller's story is one that I first read about twelve years ago. I was looking for a good book to read about schizophrenia because I enjoy reading books about people who struggle/live with mental illness. I had just read When Rabbits Howl by Truddi Chase (after seeing her on the Oprah show), and I wanted something that was different from what was then called multiple personality disorder (now called disassociative identity disorder), and I found The Quiet Room. From the first moment I read her writing, I was hooked. Here are a few of her words from an article I found:

"I remember little of what happened in my life in the past eight years -- probably because of 21 shock treatments. I suppose it's a lot like an alcoholic's blackout. Life seems dark, scary and fragmented. I battled strange, ominous Voices and Sights in a forever tormented day-to-day nightmare. I couldn't get relief from my psychotic world. I wanted to die desperately in an effort to free myself from this world. The first time I heard those derogatory Voices was as a teenager. I didn't know what was happening to me. I felt like I was possessed, and my mind was infected by demonic spirits.


I was afraid to tell anyone about the Voices for fear of being carried off by the "white coats." Imagine being a 15 year-old kid hearing the words over and over again: "You must die. You will die." And, imagine a naive little squirt keeping the echoing vicious Voices inside of herself for many, many years without sharing the pain and fright with anyone. Eventually, I entered the "revolving door" into the so-called mental health system. The doctors, so dapper and professional in their psychiatric style and attire, told my parents that I was a paranoid schizophrenic who had little chances of getting better. My diagnosis was just another "sick chronic psychiatric patient" to be shoved away forever in some hospital. I can imagine how crushed my parents were, with their ignorance about mental illness and suffering along with me. But they didn't give up hope. Never."
http://www.schizophrenia.com/newsletter/1296/1296schiller.htm

Though I have never dealt with schizophrenia, I have struggled with depression (both situational and clinical) and anxiety disorder. I have attended counseling (individual and group), taken medications, and read many books on the subject. This year, I was part of a self-acceptance panel sponsored by NMU's Women for Women group, where I spoke about being a successful professional who lives with anxiety/depression. The response I received was very positive, and it reaffirmed my desire to teach this class as one focused on mental health issues. I believe that reading about these issues helps people to break down the stigma attached to them.

BLOG ONE - Module ONE

What do you already know about mental illness? How has literature (stories, films, books) or popular culture (advertisements, television, radio, music, etc.)  shaped what you know about mental illness?

Kia's response:
I feel like I know a lot about mental illness; at the same time, I know very little. I have always been interested in reading about/exploring stories about people dealing with anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, bipolar issues, etc. I remember as a high school and college student reading not only fiction and drama about individuals with mental illness but also nonfiction written about/by people with mental illness. Some of my favorite texts as a teen included William Styron's Darkness Visible, Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, Go Ask Alice, and Willam Inge's Dark at the Top of the Stairs.

A lot of what I know about mental illness comes from courses I took in college as a Psychology (and English) major. Of course, that was in the eighties, and since then, many things have been reexamined, relabeled, or redefined.

Finally, I have watched many films about people with mental illness, such as Sybil, The Snake Pit, Primal Fear, and  One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Other films (television) include Call Me Crazy, Strange Voices, Obsessed, The Deliberate Stranger, The Hillside Strangler, etc.

One thing I've noticed about how mental illness portrayals in recent video/television is that they are equal in terms of gender; that is, individuals who deal with psychological issues are both male and female. A recent study notes: "Men more likely to develop substance abuse, antisocial problems; women more likely to develop anxiety, depression"  http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2011/08/mental-illness.aspx

Introduction

This is my first blog for my EN 110 Good Books class for the summer of 2013. I am hoping it will be a great place for me to talk about books/literature, about the humanities, and about my class.

I am a Professor of English and Director of the English Education program at Northern Michigan University.
You can find out more about me by going here: http://www.nmu.edu/english/node/49

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