My favorite television show (in the whole world) is Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. While it is technically a comedy show, each week the host, John Oliver, picks one topic to do a “deep dive” story on that can range from 11-30 minutes. These deep dives are not just hilarious but informative. It just so happened that this week he picked the topic of “Mental Health”. He discussed the treatment of people with mental illnesses as well as what role mental health actually plays in gun violence in this country. He also discussed the history of mental health care in the United States. He brought up that patients used to be put in horrid asylums and that now many mentally ill people either receive no help or end up in prison.
Since the start of the year, psychoanalysis and mental illnesses have been focal points in our discussion of literature. We have discussed many characters who have exhibited various mental illnesses. While this week we focused on defense mechanisms and how they are used in Winesburg Ohio by Sherwood Anderson, I wanted to take one last look at our summer reading as it directly relates to this week’s main story on Last Week Tonight. As John Oliver talked this week, I could not help but think back to our summer reading again, and I began to reflect on the different ways the mentally ill characters in our summer reading were treated.
In Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nicole goes to a mental hospital to receive help. This story takes place in the 1920s, and I could not help thinking that Nicole seems to get better treatment than many mentally ill people today. Nicole is carefully attended to by intelligent psychiatrists who are doing the best they can to help her recover from the traumatic sexual abuse she suffered at a young age. While the type of “mental hospital” she stayed in is obviously outdated, she is never thrown in prison or targeted by violence for her condition. Dick Diver wants to do everything he can to help her. He writes her letters and visits her. While Dick’s behavior becomes unhealthy as he falls in love with her, he and the other psychiatrists who thought that Dick writing to her would be helpful, are trying to do what they think is best for Nicole. Of course, Nicole is rich, and her family can afford for her to go to one of the best mental hospitals. Nicole’s experience is most likely atypical for a mental patient in the 1920s.
In The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Esther, unlike the Divers, refers to the places where she receives treatment as asylums. While she seemed to have stayed in similar sorts of places as Nicole, this difference in terms is key. Nicole, a rich, nice, beautiful, privileged girl, who is just getting “treatment at a mental hospital” while Esther, an average middle class girl who seems somewhat aware of her poor mental state, is getting treated in an “asylum”. Esther, unlike Nicole, receives electroconvulsive therapy which was a fairly new treatment in the 1950s. While ECT is very controversial, it can actually be a useful and successful way to help patients with severe depression and suicidal thoughts. In the novel, when the shocks are delivered properly by Dr. Nolan , Esther’s depression lessens. In general, Esther seems to receive great care. Breakfast is brought to her and the other patients each morning and Dr. Nolan seems intent on comforting Esther throughout her stay. Many of the patients as they get better are also allowed time to leave the asylum. Essentially, Esther and the others are being rehabilitated so they will be able to re-enter society.
Both Esther and Nicole receive what is proper treatment in regards to the technology and information available at the time. It seems sad that Esther and Nicole in the 1920s and 1950s receive better treatment than some mentally ill people in the year 2015. Not only has this country let so many mentally ill patients down due to a lack of comprehensive and organized systems for treatment, but it has allowed many mentally ill to end up in prison instead of receiving any care at all. People are unfairly blaming the mentally ill for gun violence when there are statistics that show that the majority of the mentally ill are non-violent and that the majority of gun violence is committed by non-mentally ill people. In fact, mentally-ill people are more likely to be the victims of violence.
The fact that mental illness is almost disregarded in society today is terrifying to me. Mental illnesses can be just as, if not more, debilitating than other physical ailments, yet they are treated as self-pity and mood swings. Even though we can not see diseases like depression, anorexia, or bipolar disorder, it does not mean that they do not have a major impact on peoples' lives. I despise the fact that people with mental disorders are often told to "just get over it" when they need serious treatment and therapy to recover. Mental illness should be treated just as any physical ailment would.
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