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Syllabi: American Psychos and The Culture of Mental Illness
INSTITUTION: University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee (Now teaching at Brown University, 1998)
INSTRUCTOR: Chris Amirault (email: Chris_Amirault@Brown.edu)
ENROLLMENT: undergraduate seminar; elective
SEMESTER: Fall 1993
MW 9:30-11:20
"...only a patient can emerge cured..."
Claude Levi-Strauss, "The Sorcerer and His Magic"
"If allowed to speak, the illnesses dissected the social setting in which they occurred."
Karl Figlio, "How Does Illness Mediate Social Relations?"
I. COURSE DESCRIPTION
Since the late 19th century, the rise of professional medicine in the U.S. has coincided with a steadily growing concern regarding the "mental illness" of Americans, a catch-all phrase that has encompassed a wide variety of ailments from nervousness to depression to psychosis. This course will be devoted to reading the work of writers and filmmakers who have confronted the peculiarly American relation between "mental illness" and modernity.
We will explore texts that attempt to represent the experience of mental illness in late 19th and 20th century America. In doing so, we will locate them not primarily within a medical "explanation" of mental ill- ness. Instead, we will take very seriously the implica- tions of Claude Levi-Strauss's observation that "only a patient can emerge cured" and explore the means by which the category of "mental illness" is constructed and in- habited in the U.S. In addition, to borrow from Karl Figlio, we will try to understand as the illnesses speak to us through these texts, discussing how such texts offer ways to critique both medical explanations of "mental illness" and the culture in which we live, one that validates those explanations.
These texts raise troubling questions about the rela- tions between the construction of mental illness in society and issues of femininity and masculinity, the U.S. medical system, normality and deviance, sexuality, and the culture of violence. In the end, many of these texts suggest that, contrary to being "deviant," the ex- perience of mental illness may be quintessentially American; our task will be to determine who this "American psycho" might be.
II. COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND EXPECTATIONS:
Books: Students must purchase the following required texts, available at the bookstore:
Martin Duberman, Cures (1991).
F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tender is the Night (1934).
Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962).
Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar (1971).
Flora Schreiber, Sybil (1973).
Students must also purchase a course xerox packet at Clark Graphics, on Oakland at Locust (CP).
Students are strongly encouraged to purchase a style manual such as the MLA Handbook. You are expected to write your papers using the MLA style of citation (or another standard style if you are already proficient in it) and should make yourself familiar with it outside of class. Papers that do not employ a consistent and ade- quate manner of citation will be marked down.
Visual Texts: We will screen the following films:
Irving Rapper, Now Voyager (1942).
Frederick Wiseman, Titicut Follies (1967).
Sam Fuller, Shock Corridor (1963).
Daniel Petrie, Sybil (1976).
Milos Forman, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975).
Nunnally Johnson, Three Faces of Eve (1957).
Anatole Litvak, The Snake Pit (1948).
In addition to in-class screenings, there will be 2 evening screenings in library room E175: on Monday, 10/18, at 6 pm (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) and Monday, 12/6, at 6 pm (Sybil). All students must attend these screenings. Finally, students should watch Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) on their own by 9/29; if you have ever seen this film, you do not need to watch it again.
III. ASSIGNMENTS
Although this course is primarily meant to explore a certain "content" -- here an exploration of various texts concerning mental illness -- as a 200-level English course it is also meant to help you learn to read and write more effectively. As such, written assignments for the course will play a major pedagogical role. These assignments fall into four categories.
A. Weekly Letters: Every Monday you are required to pass in an informal weekly letter addressed to me that dis- cusses some element of the class or the readings. Since these are meant merely to provide me with an opportunity to get a sense of how the class is going for you, they can be handwritten, and I will not grade them but will respond to them briefly.
B. Responses: Most Wednesdays, you will have to write a formal, 1-2 page response paper that presents a close reading of a section from that week's texts. The primary function of these weekly responses is to give you an opportunity to practice the kind of reading and writing I expect from students, in a format that is shorter and less time-consuming than full-fledged papers. Further- more, because each response is worth a mere 2% of your grade, and because I will score only the top ten grades, there is less at stake in each one; even if it takes you three or four weeks to start writing strong responses, you can still do well overall. Because I have come to understand that my particular expectations of close reading and careful writing establish new and often challenging criteria for many students used to different grading standards, I have tried here to explain as carefully as possible those criteria.
These weekly papers consist of two parts, each of which will be graded separately. The longer section should be a close reading of a piece of the text for that week -- a sentence, paragraph, page, shot, or scene -- in which you analyze the intricacies located there; you can write on any text we've read or screened for that week, but please do not replicate discussions we've had in class. This section will be graded on the standard letter grade system described below.
When we read a text, we often assume that everyone else sees the same thing, but that is rarely true. Your task is first and foremost to show the reader how you made meaning from the text, and that requires careful atten- tion. Furthermore, when we read, we have a tendency to read quickly, and as a result we often miss subtle things about the text that closer attention reveals. Your reading should be a slow one that focuses on the confusions, tensions, contradictions, difficulties, even silences of the text. (Interestingly enough, this is often called a "symptomatic reading," after Sigmund Freud's method of reading his patients' symptoms and dreams.)
Thus, the responses should demonstrate how the passage you've chosen makes meaning, raises certain questions, and challenges other readings. They should not retell a scene or summarize the plot, nor review general "themes" or "issues," nor evaluate the text; such responses will receive low grades. So that I can follow you, you need to do a few things. Be sure to incorporate the text you're exploring by inserting each piece of it (a quote, a brief description of a scene or shot) in the appro- priate place in your response. Most responses should refer to only a few pieces. As you write your response, continue to refer back to the specific elements -- words, phrases, sentences, shots -- that support your reading. Take me with you. In your response, you may see connections to larger issues or "themes" raised by the text, and you should feel free to explore their meanings and implications -- but only insofar as they are expli- citly addressed in the passage you're reading. In doing so, you'll have to distinguish between things that you can draw from the text and those that you bring to the text.
The second part, the discussion question, should follow from your reading, and thus it should be explicitly re- lated to the text you've been discussing as well. Ask yourself: what are the implications of the things you've found? in what ways is this passage raising questions that could be asked elsewhere in the text? Resist the urge to move beyond the text except insofar as the text itself makes that move; questions such as "Is this really true?" don't help us to concentrate on the text unless the text itself makes such claims. This question will be graded on a plus/check/minus system and scored separately from the responses in the final grades.
I will accept as many weekly responses as you wish to write, up to a possible total of 14. You must write at least four responses on literary texts and four on critical/theoretical texts. At the end of the semester, I'll drop your lowest grades until you're left with ten responses; as a result, if you choose to write one each week, at the end of the semester I'll drop your 4 lowest response grades before I calculate your final grade. Since I will grade your papers with a similar attention to these issues, I urge you to work on these responses and to hand in all 14; after all, they often make great first drafts for ideas you can develop at length later. If you still have questions, visit during office hours or set up an appointment with me.
C. Papers: In the past, both previous students and I have not been satisfied with the paper structure I've set up, one that you're likely familiar with (2 5-7 page papers, 1 10-12 page paper), in part because the page limit was difficult to negotiate. So, in an effort to be more flexible, I have established the following paper assignment structure.
You are required to write three papers throughout the semester (due 10/11, 11/22, and 12/22). Each paper must be at least 5 and no greater than 10 pages long; at the end of the semester, you must have written at least 24 pages total. For either the first or the second papers you may take a one week late slip and pass in your paper the following week; simply write me a brief note on the day the paper is due.
Paper topics are up to you. You probably will want to stick to the texts we're reading in class for the first two, but you may move beyond those in your final paper. "Experimental" formats and modes are hesitatingly en- couraged; however, you will still be obliged to make sense to this reader.
D. Proposals: For each paper you must write a proposal, due a week before the paper. These proposals should be one full page (no more, no less) and single spaced. In your proposal, propose a paper; don't feel compelled to write a summary of a paper that you haven't written yet. Some things to explore in a proposal include:
a detailed explanation of what you think your purpose/thesis/argument will be;
a list of the texts you'll be reading;
a description of the analytical process you expect to pursue in your reading;
some of the problems you are encountering or you expect to encounter;
a set of central questions you hope to ask and consider;
an explanation of why you're writing this paper.
On the day a proposal is due, you should bring in four (4) copies of the proposal. I will read one copy, and three of your classmates will read a copy. The following week, everyone will return their responses to all re- spective writers. You will then have one additional week to write your paper. Proposals will be graded on a plus/check/minus system and will be incorporated as part of your "etcetera" grade below.
IV. Class Time
A. General: This class will be conducted as a seminar, and class time will focus primarily on discussion and, less so, on brief lectures. Class will usually follow the same basic structure. If I have any material I wish to present in a lecture format, I will do so at the beginning of class. After that, I will usually ask you to write for five minutes on one or two discussion questions that I'll provide from my reading and from your responses. The rest of class will be devoted to exploring the implications of the discussion questions for the day's text(s); periodically I may ask you to stop and write about the discussion itself.
B. Participation: I expect everyone to come prepared for class by having read the text(s) for the day, written any assignments, and considered topics for discussion. Your participation grade will be based on your prepara- tion for and participation in the various classroom activities.
C. Attendance: Regular attendance is required. You are allowed a total of five (5) absences. That may seem like a strict attendance policy, but five absences works out to almost 20% of the course, a hefty chunk. After that, each additional absence will result in your final grade dropping by 1/3 (from a BP to a C+, for example). As a result, I urge you not to be absent unless you absolute- ly cannot make class. You are required to complete all assigned work regardless of your absences. If you have a family or health emergency, please let me know so that we can figure something out.
V. GRADES
Responses: ten highest grades at 2% each 20%
Paper with Highest Grade: 30%
Other Two Papers: two at 20% each 40%
Participation, etcetera: 10%
COURSE OUTLINE
I. Introduction to Theories of Mental Illness
Week 1: Introduction.
9/8: First class.
Week 2: Theory Introduction.
9/13: Psychoanalysis and Psychiatry.
Sigmund Freud, "Repression" (1915), excerpt from "On Beginning the Treatment" (1913), "Remembering, Repeating, and Working-Through" (1914); Paul McHugh and Phillip Slavney, "The Concept of Disease" (from The Perspectives of Psychiatry, 1986) (CP).
9/15: Sociological, Anthropological, and Critical Perspectives.
Claude Levi-Strauss, "The Sorcerer and His Magic" (1963); Peter Conrad and Joseph Schneider, from Deviance and Medicalization (1992); Thomas Szasz, "Introduction" (from The Myth of Mental Illness, 1974); Claude Steiner, "Radical Therapy: Principles" (1971); Michel Foucault, "Madness and Culture" (from Mental Illness and Psychology, 1954) (CP).
Response due.
Week 3: The Case of Neurasthenia.
9/20: Neurasthenia: Theory and History.
S. Weir Mitchell, from Lectures on Diseases of the Nervous System, Especially in Women (1888); George Beard, from Sexual Neurasthenia (1898); Sigmund Freud, "'Civilized' Sexual Morality and Modern Nervous Illness" (1908); Barbara Sicherman, "The Uses of a Diagnosis: Doctors, Patients, and Neurasthenia" (1977) (CP).
9/22: Neurasthenia: Fiction and Autobiography.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "The Yellow Wallpaper" (1892); Margaret Cleaves, from Autobiography of a Neurasthene (1910); Sally Pierce, A Patient Looks at Her Doctors (1930) (CP).
Response due.
Week 4: Now, Voyager.
9/27: Screening of Irving Rapper, _Now Voyager_ (117 min., 1942).
9/29: Discussion of Now, Voyager and Alfred Hitchcock, Psycho (1960).
Sigmund Freud, "Femininity" (1933); Naomi Weisstein, "Psychology Constructs the Female: or, the Fantasy Life of the Male Psychologist" (1973) (CP).
Proposal for paper 1 due (bring four copies). Response due.
II. Men and Mental Illness.
Week 5: Cures.
10/4: Martin Duberman, Cures (1991) 1-157. Proposal responses due.
10/6: Cures 158-301.
Response due.
Week 6: Titicut Follies.
10/11: Screening of Frederick Wiseman, Titicut Follies (110 min?, 1967).
First paper due.
10/13: Discussion of Titicut Follies and Mary Ellen Mark, Ward 81 (1979).
American Psychiatric Association and the National Association for Mental Health, "Position Statement on the Medical Treatment of the Mentally Ill" (1961); Erving Goffman, "The Medical Model and Mental Hospitalization" (1961); Sander Gilman, "Seeing the Schizophrenic: On the 'Bizarre' in Psychiatry and Art" (1988) (CP).
Response due.
Week 7: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
10/18: Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962), 9-137.
Evening screening: Monday, 10/18, 6 pm
Milos Forman, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
(133 min., 1975).
10/20: Kesey, 138-272.
Response due.
Week 8: Shock Corridor.
10/25: Screening of Sam Fuller, Shock Corridor (101m, 1963).
10/27: Discussion of Shock Corridor.
William Cockerham, "The Mental Hospital Inpatient Experience" (from Sociology of Mental Disorder, 1989); "The Eatherly Testimony" (1961); Thomas Scheff, "Schizophrenia as Ideology" (1970) (CP). Response due.
III. Women and Mental Illness.
Week 9: Tender is the Night.
11/1: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tender is the Night, 3-157.
11/3: Fitzgerald, 158-315; Fitzgerald, "The Crack-Up" (CP). Response due.
Week 10: The Snake Pit.
11/8: Screening of Anatole Litvak, _The Snake Pit_ (108 min., 1948).
11/10: Discussion of _The Snake Pit_.
Sigmund Freud, "The Dynamics of Transference" (1913), "Observations on Transference-Love" (1915); Phyllis Chesler, "Marriage and Psychotherapy" (1971) (CP). Proposal for paper 2 due (bring four copies). Response due.
Week 11: The Bell Jar.
11/15: Plath, The Bell Jar (1971), 1-103. Proposal responses due.
11/17: Plath, 104-200.
Response due.
Week 12: The Three Faces of Eve.
11/22: Screening of Nunnally Johnson, The Three Faces of Eve(91 min., 1957).
Second paper due.
11/24: Discussion of The Three Faces of Eve. Response due.
Week 13: Sybil.
11/29: Flora Schreiber, Sybil (1973), 9-123.
12/1: Schreiber, 127-263.
Response due.
Week 14: Sybil.
12/6: Schreiber, 267-352.
evening screening: Monday, 12/6, 6 pm: Library E175: Daniel Petrie, Sybil (198 min., 1976).
12/8: Schreiber, 355-450.
Proposal for paper 3 due (bring four copies). Response due.
Week 15: Last Class.
12/13: Evaluating the State of Psychotherapy. Sigmund Freud, "Recommendations to Physicians Practicing Psycho-Analysis" (1912); Newsweek, "Sex and Psychotherapy" (1992); Cynthia Cotts, "Paul's Case" (1992); Erica Goode, "Does Psychotherapy Work?" (1993) (CP). Proposal responses due.
Response due.
Third Paper Due
Wednesday, December 22 by 4:00 pm
You can turn your paper in to my box any time prior to 12/22. I will not accept late papers. If you want your paper returned with comments, include a self-addressed stamped envelope with your paper, and I will be happy to mail it to you with copious marginalia.