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.)