Is Insanity Normal Essay - 3468 Words

Is Insanity Normal? Works Cited Missing We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad -The Cheshire Cat from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Have you ever questioned your sanity? Have you ever wished you could change, for even one day, and be the person that others wanted you to be? Have you ever actually made that change, either by choice or by force? Do you think you’re normal? Maybe you’ve lived the most normal life you could imagine. Or maybe not. Maybe you’re life is so abnormal and outrageous that you don’t wish to be normal. Have you ever questioned your sanity? Introduction Insanity appears in various forms and we all know how to mentally picture it. We can create clear images of insane individuals in our†¦show more content†¦Everyone experiences its symptoms differently, so, clearly, we should not classify any two individuals together. Unfortunately, madness is defined by stereotypical ideals and not as an accepted difference. It has become the inability to be sane. We have a clear distinction between sane and insane. Most would agree that we consider the former, normal, and the latter, abnormal. As John Dupre, author of, Normal People, wrote, The idea that there are normal and abnormal ways for people to be and to behave is a very familiar one. So also is the idea that abnormality- or deviance- is something regrettable, deplorable, and even, in some cases, punishable (221). Depending on which category one fits into, he or she may be effortlessly accepted or completely rejected. The way we define insanity obviously pushes away differences. Because society seems exclusively to accept those who act within a narrow range of barriers and not those who act outrageously, anyone who does this runs the risk of being considered unnecessarily mad or insane and, unfortunately, this may sometimes result in him or her being committed or banned from society. As Lennard J. Davis author of Constructing Normalcy states, †¦the problem is not the person with disabilities, the problem is the way that normalcy is constructed to create the ‘problem’ of the disabled person (9). The fact is that society has created a stigma that establishes,Show MoreRelatedThe Insanity Defense And The Defense1428 Words   |  6 Pages The insanity defense was first used by U.S. Congressman Daniel Sickles of New York in 1859 after he had killed his wife s lover, Philip Barton Key. The insanity defense asserts that a criminal defendant should not be found guilty due to the defenda nt s â€Å"insanity,† but insanity in this context refers to a very specific dysfunction. The theory behind the defense is that a person who is insane lacks the intent required to perform a criminal act because the person either does not know that the actRead MoreWhy We Crave Horror Stephen King Analysis1004 Words   |  5 PagesCaught up in our lives, we all begin to lose our sense of feeling like a normal person. By watching the peculiar events and characters in a horror movie, a person can replenish their normality. Stephen King offers another example from a horror movie that compares humans to the ugly personae in a horror movie--â€Å"Freda Jackson as the horrible melting women in Die, Monster, Die!† (King, â€Å"Why We 1) makes us feel, to put it bluntly, normal. King continues to use this example to prove we are â€Å"light- years fromRead MoreReview Of Ken Kesey s One Flew Over The Cuckoo s Nest 1603 Words   |  7 Pagessanity and insanity are affected b y many different aspects and according to common knowledge, insanity has a direct correlation to mental illness. 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Victor, who even as a young child â€Å"was more deeply smitten with the thirst for knowledge,† wasRead MoreEffects of Isolation in the Yellow Wallpaper1245 Words   |  5 PagesThe Effect of Isolation Through out the story â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper,† written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and the film, â€Å"Santa Sangre,† the main characters finds themselves led into a state of insanity. In the story â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper,† the narrator explains that she is suffering from post partum depression, leaving her husband to treat her with rest cure or bed rest. During this time, she is placed in a solitary room with walls covered in yellow wallpaper. Similarly, through out â€Å"Santa SangreRead MoreThe Mentally Ill1679 Words   |  7 Pages Throughout history, human societies have had conflicting views on insanity and how it is defined in life. Primitive cultures found peace within shamans and witch doctors because they believed the insane were possessed by evil spirits. 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