beginning of rough draft...

Samantha Pletcher
Mrs. Jarrett
Enriched English 10
18 December 2008

A Life Worse than Death?

Your hands shake as the painkillers flow into your IV. The clock ticks loudly, and you wonder how long you will have watching it until you finally stop breathing. There’s no cure, the doctor said. There’s nothing else we can do for you. Two thousand and seven hundred patients were killed in doctor patient suicide in the Netherlands alone, and thousands more were euthanized the same year. (“Remmelink Report”) Euthanasia, often called “mercy killing”, is still illegal in most countries but numerous have considered legalizing assisted suicide. Regardless of laws, there have been several occurrences of ‘suicide tourists’, in which the terminal patient will travel to a different country where euthanasia is legal, and end their life there (“Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia Timeline”). Euthanasia should be a voluntary process, only if the patient is in a healthy mental condition and the disease being suffered is an option worse than death.

Euthanasia has been discussed and debated since the Ancient Grecian and Roman Times. Hippocrates, a Greek physician often referred to as ‘The Father of Medicine’, stated “I will never give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect” (“Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide Timeline”). His words are prominent even today’s medical practice, because of his “Hippocratic Oath” which all licensed doctors are legally required to swear into.

more voices...

This week, in Muses, Madmen and Prophets, Smith divulges into the world of religion and the effect it has on the voices people are stricken with. Many of the cases he studies, or interviews, believe the voices that they hear inside their heads is God’s voice and they are a prophet or a Messiah or some religious miracle. Most patients suffering from the “religious” voices, occasionally diagnosed as Messiah Complex, refuse to seek help or when a doctor tries to explain that the voices aren’t real, they become violent.
But how is one to know if it really is God speaking to them, ponders Smith as he consults many doctors and patients alike. Could it be that all these quasi insane people are really just misunderstood? Perhaps, it is God.
The majority of the voices heard in this ‘religious’ experience are not pleasant. It usually consists of “God” or a saint or religious figure, quoting the Bible or Book of Mormon, and ranting at the person for their sins. This will usually led to the victim experiencing the voices to dive deep into their religion and try to free themselves from their sins and earthly pleasures.
This chapter reminded me of the book I read for quarter one, Devil in the Details, about the woman with “scruples”, as she called them, who had incredibly severe religious OCD. She never heard voices, but because of her obsessive compulsiveness, she would pray and wash and worship and read the Bible multiple times per day. In both books, patients suffer intense religious feeling, brought on by a mental disorder.

a bit late

Admittedly, the book report blog posts were completely out of my mind this week. I’ll just blame it on the full moon. Anyways!
Smith begins on the path of his father again. His father was extremely passive when the voices were concerned. The elder Smith followed the voices’ instructions and consulted them on how to live. While he did consult a doctor about his growing depression, he never sought out a psychologist on the voice hearing. Not so say that he did not try to get rid of the voices; he tried multiple antidepressants, ignoring them, or even buying a gigantic lamp (to simulate the sun in the winter; a treatment for Season Affect Disorder). Still nothing worked. His father came out to Smith about hearing voices when Smith was sixteen, because of concerns over Smith “inheriting” the voices (Smith’s grandfather also heard voices).
This little anecdote into Smith’s research is one of my favorite parts (so far) because of the sheer curiosity I feel towards this experiment. Smith, still questioning his father’s sanity, contacts a committee that recently created a tape with the same effects of hearing voices and Smith purchases it. Eager to experience his father’s trouble, he takes the tape out onto a busy Manhattan street and begins to listen. At first, the tape merely produces white noise; murmuring, static, heartbeats, and heavy breathing. Though as the tape continued, Smith began to hear a soft gentle woman’s voice whispering to him. It encouraged him and praised him. Smith deduced that it was a stimulant of religious voices, supposedly similar to the ones Joan of Arc had heard.
The book goes on to describe how difficult it was just to place an order at a fast food restaurant with the voices tape. I personally find this whole experience fascinating and am dying to try it out.

more possible sources...?

http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SMN0307-0-9121&artno=0000240826&type=ART&shfilter=U&key=&res=Y&ren=Y&gov=Y&lnk=Y&ic=N

http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SMN0307-0-9121&artno=0000263458&type=ART&shfilter=U&key=&title=Assisted%20Suicide%20and%20Euthanasia%20Timeline&res=Y&ren=Y&gov=Y&lnk=Y&ic=Y

possible sources for my research paper

one:

"Euthanasia" 30 November 2008. Wikimedia Foundation Inc, United States. 07 December 2008. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthanasia>

Though in the past, Wikipedia has been a very risky option for students, this particle article has been 'protected' by the website, therefore it could be considered a legitimate source. Also, Wikipedia was never mentioned as being forbidden.
Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia, with roughly ten millions articles, all written by volunteer. as always, the articles starts out with a brief breakdown of the word, "euthanasia" literally means "good death" in Ancient Greek, and then continues on to describing its history.
An online encyclopedia is particularily handy while writing a researh paper because of its lack of bias. Wikipedia is very useful, because it provides both sides of the arguement so one could see both ends of the spectrum.

two:

Young, Robert. "Voluntary Euthanasia" 2008. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 07 December 2008 <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/euthanasia-voluntary/>

Many difficult words, repeating same opinions and the sheer length all contribute to the article's thickness. It is a very indecisive article, first arguing for euthanasia, then arguing against, but it does give multiple vaild points for each side.
I would believe Stanford's online encyclopedia to be a very reliable source because of its reputation and its ".edu" stature (meaning it had to be a place of education)

no these voices are real

Thanksgiving break was successful, in terms of pages read. Long car rides and quiet time led to lots of boredom, and as a result I devoured about a third of my book.
Smith has begun to dive into the more analytical portion of his book, shying away from his own family problems (occupying the first two chapters or so.) In chapter three, he starts to analyze other texts, and ironically enough, one of the novels he chooses to use is Homer’s The Iliad. Smith uses the soldiers in The Iliad to research his idea of voice hearing even further. He tries to prove that the “gods and goddesses” the characters pray to, are really just voices inside the character’s head.
As interesting as Smith’s idea was, I don’t really feel it was all that plausible. The gods and goddesses can’t be hallucinations of wounded soldiers, because Homer writes scenes involving the not so elusive gods, and naturally the reader wouldn’t assume that the characters made up the gods. Smith seems slightly desperate. He quite wants to prove his point, and seems to be grasping onto that could possibly help him. This section, truthfully, was a bit like reading a high schooler’s timed essay; it has a fine idea, and you can sort of weed out the good points, but it’s very disorganized and seems as though the student was panicking about the lack of time and just threw a bunch of points into the essay, hoping they would make sense. I just wish Smith proof read this section one more time, and added more to his supporting reasons.

if you ignore it long enough, it might disappear.

Admittedly, being preoccupied with the upcoming holiday, reading “Hearing Voices” wasn’t on the top of my list; which actually might be a good thing with the entire break reading I’ll get to do in the car ride to Iowa. Four hours of fun with a pile of books.
Anyways, the main part of the story I reached this week was about Smith’s father’s major hallucinatory experiences and Smith’s emotions about his father’s condition. The author took the reader back into a (I couldn’t tell if it was a childhood memory or a teenage memory) remembrance. Smith recalled his father arguing with his mother, and his father shouting at his mother to “shut up” when she was not talking. Smith wondered why the memory stuck with him for such a long time. He analyzed it as a weak point in his father’s paternal career, and his young mind felt vulnerable without a strong father figure. Later, Smith finds it strange that his mind seemed to “pick out” the one idea of his father hearing voices. The author also theorized that the memory might not have been so dominant in his brain until after he became fascinated with the subject of hearing voices, and his brain called upon a familiar memory. Smith feels very aggravated over his lack of control of his brain and fears slipping into insanity like his father.
I have also decided that I quite enjoy Smith’s style of writing. He has a very subtle way of combining facts with the plotline that most fiction writers cannot master.

i hear the voices too.

So far into Madmen, Muses and Prophets, it’s different from what I thought. It’s definitely much better than I expected. Most of the psychology books I have read are just facts, facts, anecdote, facts, and notes. It’s quite like smashing your head against a particularly thick wall and just as fun! But Daniel B. Smith weaves his own experience with hearing voices into the novel. I did not realize the books if about half research, a quarter proving his point and the last bit his own story.
As it turns out, Smith’s father and grandfather both heard voices. (From a psych note, this is most likely why Smith is so obsessed with the subject). When Smith discovers this, he has a panicked moment, worried this genetic line of insanity will soon hit him too. Though as he digs deep into journals, he realizes this is very unlikely.
So enlisted his father and grandfather into his service, he begins to dive deep into the peculiar world of the human brain. After reading their personal diaries, Smith learns both his father and grandfather heard the voices from a young age, but his father attempted to conceal the voices while his grandfather did not particularly care if people thought he was crazy. Smith believed this was probably why his father eventually had a mental breakdown.
I shared this bit because I found it fascinating how the voices, when not shared, began to destroy Smith’s father’s brain. Maybe this could be worked into a thesis statement of some sort.

quarter two: the voices inside your head are not sent by God.

The book I am reading for my Outside Reading is “Muses, Madmen, and Prophets” by Daniel B Smith. If you kept up with blog (probably not) you will easily notice the pattern of psychology books. I decided to keep up with the pattern with this novel, about “Hearing Voices and the Border’s of Sanity” (the subtitle of the book)
I apologize for the late entry, I have many excuses but I believe they can be mentioned later.
I have not begun reading yet, at least not farther than the preface and the prelude (yes this book has both). The book itself is quite boring, so far. I have not yet hit the main part of the novel at all, so I do hope it livens up a bit.
I do enjoy Smith’s “voice” though; he uses a very descriptive tone while writing his anecdotes, which helps spruce up the millions of repeated facts. I could easily see if you were not fascinated by the subject, the book would be a monotonous mess.
The book is about auditory hallucinations, and the “voices” people can hear “inside” of their head. Smith’s idea is that a majority of the world’s greatest thinkers suffered from auditory hallucinations.
Smith discusses the idea of Christianity being a sort of a “scape goat” for the hallucinations the intellectual would have. It made more sense, for the people of the time, if “God” was talking to this man and all his acquired brilliance was “God’s” will.
Overall, all I’ve decided I will like this book as the plot thickens.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

“The Picture of Dorian Gray” is the book I selected this week. It was noted as a “Barnes and Noble Classic” and this summer I attempted to read all books on the “Classics” list. As noted by last week’s “Dracula”, the books did not get read before summer ended. Back on topic, the book is by Oscar Wilde, who always seems to have random quotes floating around inspirational topics.
The book itself was wonderful. I thoroughly enjoyed the creepiness and very dark ideas throughout the book, strangely enough. I find I tend to like scary books better than scary movies, but even then “The Picture of Dorian Gray” wasn’t so scary as much as making you feel uncomfortable with issues such as beauty, sinning, vanity and life in general. The ending of the book is particularly disturbing and very enjoyable when Dorian Gray finally went insane and accidentally killed ‘himself’ or, as it really was, the idea of himself.
An interesting part of the book, once I had finished the book and began reading the introduction, was the play with homosexuality. There was plenty of women, and men, who fell ‘in love’ with Dorian because of how beautiful he was. This was unacceptable in the time period, and it struck as me as peculiar, why would Wilde write a random bit of information into the plotline? Then after reading Oscar Wilde’s life story in the introduction, it mentioned Wilde being possibly homosexual and I found this small piece of information very fascinating; relating to the plot.

Dracula

My book for this week was “Dracula” by Bram Stoker. I bought it at a super sale at a book store, and haven’t picked it up since July. The story is much different from what I thought, so far at least. I thought the basic plot line was that Count Dracula seduced women and then sucked their blood, but the real story line is much more complicated; involving multiple cities, slaughters and groups of people. The whole novel is written through notes, letters and diary entries from the main set of people plotting to “kill” Vlad Dracula, which I surprisingly like. Most books written in this style tend to annoy me, because the plot always seems to develop gaps in the story about halfway through the book, but Stoker did a very nice job covering all the loose ends.
The whole book starts with a man who travels to Transylvania to, I believe, help Dracula invest in a business plan. The man, Jonathan Harker, once arriving with the Count, realizes it is impossible to leave the Count’s palace; seeing as vicious wolves circle the grounds during the day and at night, Dracula hunts. Harker manages to escape, with the Count’s secret of being a vampire. That is as far as I have gotten since picking it up on Monday, but it does take a long while to sort through the book, because I received the version where all the footnotes are included on the page.

How to Read a Person like a Book

I haven’t picked up the “The Murder Next Door” in a while, which might be a good thing, but instead I found a new book “How to Read a Person like a Book” and quickly finished it. It is a very helpful book, and pretty easy to understand, thanks to the handy diagrams. “How to Read a Person like a Book” is basically a guide to human body language, ‘reading’ emotions and what certain natural poses mean. By reading this book, simply sitting in a class makes me feel immensely intelligent, because just the way people sit can reveal so much about them. For instance when a human being touches their nose, if they do not have a virus or a particularly stubborn runny nose, it will usually indicate their reluctance or lack of knowledge. The book uses the example of teenagers (ha ha!) and says that when adolescents touch their nose, more people notice and realize what the nose touch means. Whereas, when an adult touches their nose, it goes relatively unnoticed.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about the way people function, or anyone interested in becoming a stalker. The book is very fascinating and unlike other psychology books, actually effortless to read. Seriously, though if you want to learn about psychology without actually reading much, the pictures make the concepts pretty easy to understand. So far out of the psychology/sociology books I’ve read and reported on so far, “How to Read a Person like a Book” is my favorite.

Room for J

The book I read this week, continuing with the psychology theme, was “Room for J” by David Hanson. It was about the author’s son Joel, often referred to as “J”, who was diagnosed with a severe case of schizophrenia in his late teenage years. The condition made J believe he was Jesus, and therefore God, which caused numerous problems as he went around trying to force people to believe in him. The author uses diary entries from his family to tell the story: J’s mother, J’s brother, J’s nephews, J himself and bits of J’s memoir (which was never published.)
J lived his childhood a relatively normal kid; aside from his giant ego and unwillingness to follow directions. His parents babied him no more than usual, two siblings, and J lived a relatively normal lifestyle. But when he reached his later adolescent years, the schizophrenia began to emerge. His behavior became stranger voices, “God”, telling him what he should do. Hanson and his wife began to question their son’s judgment, and decide to convince J he needs a therapist. This is not easy to do, seeing as J believes he has no problems and he refuses to see the therapist. After much struggling and tears, J finally agrees to a therapist. Though he quickly outwits the therapist and she finds no problem. J problems greatly increase from there, the parents eventually having to call the 911 to control J and going to court to declare J’s mental state.
Personally, I would not recommend this book. It mainly focused on the family’s struggles, when I was more interested in how J’s life was going and the actually schizophrenia. It was very short, a good emergency “oh no, I didn’t do my book report and its due tomorrow” kind of book, but did bring up some interesting points. Even if we learned nothing about schizophrenia.

The Murder Next Door

My new book is titled "The Murder Next Door: why the mind is designed to kill." It sounds a bit creepy and sadistic, but it is a quite fascinating book. This summer I became addicted to Law and Order, and the way these criminals' minds worked intrigued me. Another summer event was stumbling across the psychology section at half priced books. Finding this book connected the two.
The author starts out describing a scene at a dinner party between his wife, himself, his best friend and his wife, and two other couples. His best friend's wife makes a few snide remarks about the author's best friend. His friend becomes frustrated, and scolds his wife. This only adds to the fire, as his wife attempts to spite him by flirting with the other men, including the author. His best friend throws down his glass of wine and storms out of the room. The author follows his friend, who is talking to himself on the patio. His best friend turns to him and says "I could've killed her. That's what scares me the most. I really could've just killed her" [page 12] Thus begins the author's fascination with killing.
The book is basically a very long essay, with lots of research, about proving the everyday mind is just as capable of murder as an 'insane' person. I haven't connected it much to my life yet, perhaps I live a life with too much safety, but I have learned quite a few new things. For example, the brain only takes up 2% of the body's weight but it uses 35% of the body's daily calorie intake. Interesting, but not necessary. But I'm only on the second chapter, and it will hopefully get more realistic from here.

Devil in the Details: part deux

This week I finished “Devil in the Details” by Jennifer Traig. [See previous post for information on the book.] In my opinion, I thought the book itself was a bit bland and light on facts; I had believed the book would be more centered on Traig’s scrupulosity, but instead it focused mainly on her interfaith family and humorous situations of her abnormal life. The last half of the book highlighted Traig’s extreme kosher diet, which as she advanced through high school, morphed into bizarre forms of anorexia. Traig went through numerous ‘diet phases’ including; only eating ‘hermetically sealed processed-cheese singles and a low calorie bread whose chief ingredient was wood pulp.’ [Page 178], only consuming carrots and cantaloupe; which turned Traig an unsightly shade of orange, and of course, the insanely kosher meals.
“It was just a brief trip back East to help move her elderly aunts, but it couldn’t have come at a better time. I could take my eating disorder in the exciting new direction I’d been contemplating for a while.” [Page 178] This quote is quite disturbing, showing that her eating disorder wasn’t just a brief idea, but thoroughly contemplated and researched.
Also as Traig’s collegiate life approached, our antagonist became obsessed with improving her resume. Traig joined as many clubs as her well packed schedule could fit: French club, student council, literary club, honor society, service club and the school’s theater program. Coming from a middle class town and never being athletically talented, Traig panicked, believing no quality college would ever want her; the possibly insane Jewish girl.

Devil in the Details

After finishing “Please Don’t Kill The Freshman” I began a new book: “Devil in The Details” by Jenny Traig. This new book is also an autobiography; Traig, as a child, had scrupulosity. Scrupulosity is a relatively unspecified form of OCD, it is basically a “religious” form of the disorder, feeling you have to pray/perform countless rituals/ purify/ worship multiple times per day. It was particularly hard for Traig because of her interfaith family; Catholic mother, Jewish father and atheist sister.
Traig describes hundreds of tasks her brain forced her to complete; obsessively kosher meals, washing her hands, nothing on the Shabbat, studying the bible and frequent prayers. The disorder began to affect her life in the late seventies, and her parents did not understand that Traig was not making up her strange habits for fun.
Only halfway through the book, I recently came across Traig’s middle school years; when she faced extreme “kosher anorexia”. Traig was not an obese child, merely a bit plump, but “Jewish lessons” with the rabbi introduced Traig to a new form of her religion to preoccupy herself with: keeping kosher. Traig quickly “purified” her home of all un-kosher or other risky items. She soon lost an unsafe amount of weight, and her parents quit the Jewish lessons, forcing Traig to eat regularly.
“I was fixing myself a snack of cream cheese with ranch dressing when my mother asked if I’d prefer tortellini or rotelle for dinner. ‘Oh neither,’ I answered casually. ‘I’ve gone low carb.’ My mother went quiet for a minute […] Had her thoughts been captioned, I imagine they would have read like this ‘I survived your anorexia. I acquiesced when you decided to keep kosher. […] But this is a bridge too far. Pasta is all I have left. You will eat it, and you will like it” (pg 96) I enjoy this quote because it displays both motherly “love” and ignorance of the mental condition; and it essentially catches the whole book’s feeling.

Please Don't Kill The Freshman

The book I am beginning to read is “Please Don’t Kill the Freshmen,” by Zoe Trope. It’s a very interesting book, the most obvious reason being the fact that Trope writes in, as best as I can describe, poetic fragments. “’The amendment that protects…’ Sharp voice falling on muffled ears. I got a perfect score, plus five extra credit points. Pardon me for not seeing the point of listening. I could be doing something constructive or even listening, but I choose not to.” [Page 4] The book itself is a memoir about a girl (who is not mentioned by name, but we know her to be Zoe Trope) who is simply trying to find her way in the world. Most of the passages are extremely easy for any high school student to relate to; overbearing parents, boring classes, new people, or even just ordinary things looked at curiously, yet the novel retains its poetic feeling throughout the book.
Zoe often encounters ‘people you wouldn’t look at twice’ or her new friends; teenagers filled with piercings and tattoos, unemployed high school drop outs, gay or lesbian kids. “I know far too many angry twenty somethings who got burnt out in high school. Hanging out with these witty sarcastic vile twenty-somethings really helps me. I like them. My parents, however, do not. To them I am pleading with the raincoat men to come and rape me. I am trying not to drown. I am trying to bloom. Please don’t kill the flowers.” [Page 11] Zoe does not understand what she is doing with her life, and escapes the pressure by burying herself in her writing and her friends. She is merely watching life around her, trying to fit her piece of life into the big high school puzzle.

hello world

this is my blog.