Psychiatry And In Cold Blood Essay English Literature Essay

Psychiatry And In Cold Blood Essay English Literature Essay On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family, Herbert Clutter, Bonnie Clutter, Nancy Clutter, and Kenyon Clutter, were savagely murdered by two violent marauders with initially no apparent motive for the horrendous crime. Within the novel In Cold Blood, Truman Capote reconstructs the events leading up to the murder and the investigation that eventually led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, on April 14, 1965. During the trial, both of the defendants were considered to be mentally ill, but were competent to stand trial and execution as they had been recognized with the capacity to discriminate between right and wrong, and were therefore considered mentally sane. Even though both defendants were mentally ill, the jury reached the rational verdict of execution since the mentally ill should not be pardon from such a punishment, therefore justifying it necessary for the defendants. Since 1976, the United States has been attempting to assess the criminal responsibility of murderers by dividing them into two categories, the mentally sane and the insane, and prosecuting them due process of law. In the article printed in, The American Journal of Psychiatry (July, 1960), written in collaboration by Karl Menninger, Irwin Rosen, and Martin Mayman, it explains, The sane murderer is thought of as acting upon rational motives that can be understood, though condemned, and the insane one as being driven by irrational senseless motives. During the trial of Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, the prosecution used the MNaghten test to determine the sanity of the defendants, as the test asks whether the defendant was unable to understand what he or she was doing at the time of the crime due to some defect of reason or disease of the mind or, if he or she was aware of what she was doing, that he or she failed to understand that what he or she was doing was wrong. The criminal psyc hiatrist, Dr. Jones, who evaluated the mental condition of the defendants, testified that Richard Hickock and Perry Smith were sane, even though he personally concluded both to be suffering from mental illnesses. In Ford versus Wainwright, 477 U.S. 399 (1986) and Panetti versus Quarterman, 127 S. Ct. 2842 (2007), the Supreme Court held and reaffirmed that it was unconstitutional to execute someone who was incompetent at the time of his execution under the eighth amendment. However, those who are mentally ill, but not insane, have no such exemption. Therefore, both Richard Hickock and Perry Smith were lawfully entitled to the death penalty as the jury reached the rational verdict. On June 6, 1931, Richard Eugene Hickock, was born in Kansas City, Kansas to his parents, Walter Hickock and Eunice Hickock. Richard was raised in Kansas City, as he attended Olathe High School, participating as a first team athlete and known to be a popular student with aspirations to attend college, but was slighted from his parents lack of wealth, which eventually led him to become a mechanic. After Richards unsuccessful marriage, fathering three children, and his extramarital affairs, he soon began participating in petty misdemeanor crimes, such as the creation and use of fraudulent checks which led to his conviction and sentence in Lansing correctional detention, where he devised the Clutter incident and met his partner in crime Perry Smith. On November 15, 1959, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith implemented their plans by robbing and murdering four members of the Clutter family at their home. During the prosecution of the defendants, the defense requested a psychiatric evaluation for Richard Hickock, who evaluated by the criminal physiatrist Dr. Jones, described the mental condition of Hickock, as he wrote, Richard Hickock is above average in intelligence, grasps new ideas easily and has a wide fund of information. He is alert to what is happening around him, and he shows no sign of mental confusion or disorientation. His thinking is well organized and logical and he seems to be in good contact with reality. Although I did not find the usual signs of organic brain damage memory loss, concrete concept formation, intellectual deterioration this cannot be completely ruled out. He had a serious head injury with concussion and several hours of unconsciousness in 1950 this was verified by me by checking hospital records. He says he has had blackout spells, periods of amnesia, and headaches ever since that time, and a major portion of his antisocial behavior has occurred since that time. He has never had the medical tests which would definitely prove or disprove the existence of residual brain damage. Definitive medical tests are indicated before a complete evaluation can be said to exist. Hickock does show signs of emotional abnormality. That he knew what he was doing and still went ahead with it is possibly the most clear-cut demonstration of this fact. He is a person who is impulsive in action, likely to do things without thought of consequences or future discomfort to himself or to others. He does not seem to be capable of learning from experience, and he shows an unusual pattern of intermittent periods of productive activity followed by patently irresponsible actions. He cannot tolerate feelings of frustration as a more normal person can, and he is poorly able to rid himself of those feelings except through antisocial activity. His self-esteem is very low, and he secretly feels inferior to others and sexually inadequate. These feelings seem to be overcompensated for by dreams of being rich and powerful, a tendency to brag about his exploits, spending sprees when he has money, and dissatisfaction with only the normal slow advancement he could expect from his job. He is uncomfortable in his relationships to other people, and has a pathological inability to form and hold enduring personal attachments. Although he professes usual moral standards he seems obviously uninfluenced by them in his actions. In summary, he shows fairly typical characteristics of what would psychiatrically be called a severe character disorder. It is important that steps be taken to rule out the possibility of organic brain damage, since, if present, it might have substantially influenced his behavior during the past several years and at the time of the crime (Capote, 294-295). The evaluation revealed several irregularities in Richard Hickocks mental state, as the doctor clarified was influenced by severe character disorder which would be closely related to severe depression, psychopathic and sociopathic tendency, and inadequate repression. Richards suffering from severe depression, which included; various aches and pains, negative and pessimistic thoughts, and insomnia, was a direct result of his constant feeling of disappointment to his parents, the experience of prison, complications during his marriage, and constant economic pressure. Richard demonstrated psychopathic and sociopathic characteristics which included; superficial charm, manipulations, antisocial behaviors such as lacking guilt, living a parasitic lifestyle, irresponsibility, impulsiveness, and pathological lying, as described, His poise, his explicitness, the assured presentation of verifiable detail impressed Nye though, of course, the boy was lying. Overall, the effects of mental illnes s on Richard Hickock during the Clutter murders undoubtedly granted him the character and ability needed to effortlessly execute the crime without fear and unfortunately leaving him without guilt. If the jury had not sentenced Richard Hickock to death, he would have continued to be a threat to society with the possibility of release to harm others. On October 27, 1928, Perry Edward Smith was born in Huntington, Nevada to his parents Florence Julia Buckskin and John Smith. During his early life, Perry was initially raised by his alcoholic mother, but was placed in a Catholic orphanage where he was allegedly abused physically and emotionally by nuns. Soon, he was placed in a Salvation Army orphanage, where again he was allegedly abused by a caretaker, and was then reunited with his father to live. As a child, Perry participated in a gang and became involved in petty crime, which resulted in detention in juvenile homes. Eventually, Perry enlisted as a United States Merchant Marine, and served in the Korean War in the army where he assaulted Korean civilians and soldiers. Perry Smith and Richard Hickock first met in the Kansas State Prison, at Lansing, Kansas, later resuming their acquaintance after Hickocks release, and carrying out the plan to pillage the Clutters, which resulted in the familys death. During the prosecution of th e defendants, the defense also requested a psychiatric evaluation for Perry Smith, who evaluated by the criminal physiatrist Dr. Jones, described the mental condition of Smith, as he wrote, Perry Smith shows definite signs of severe mental illness. His childhood, related to me and verified by portions of the prison records, was marked by brutality and lack of concern on the part of both parents. He seems to have grown up without direction, without love, and without ever having absorbed any fixed sense of moral values. He is oriented, hyper alert to things going on about him, and shows no sign of confusion. He is above average in intelligence, and has a good range of information considering his poor educational background. Two features in his personality make-up stand out as particularly pathological. The first is his paranoid orientation toward the world. He is suspicious and distrustful of others, tends to feel that others discriminate against him, and feels that others are unfair to him and do not understand him. He is overly sensitive to criticisms that others make of him, and cannot tolerate being made fun of. He is quick to sense slight or insult in things others s ay, and frequently may misinterpret well-meant communications. He feels he has great need of friendship and understanding, but he is reluctant to confide in others, and when he does, expects to be misunderstood or even betrayed. In evaluating the intentions and feelings of others, his ability to separate the real situation from his own mental projections is very poor. He not infrequently groups all people together as being hypocritical, hostile, and deserving of whatever he is able to do to them. Akin to this first trait is the second, an ever-present, poorly controlled rage easily triggered by any feeling of being tricked, slighted, or labeled inferior by others. For the most part, his rages in the, past have been directed at authority figures father, brother, Army sergeant, state parole officer and have led to violent assaultive behavior on several occasions. Both he and his acquaintances have been aware of these rages, which he says mount up in him, and of the poor control he has over them. When turned toward himself his anger has precipitated ideas of suicide. The inappropriate force of his anger and lack of ability to control or channel it reflect a primary weakness of personality structure. In addition to these traits, the subject shows mild early signs of a disorder of his thought processes. He has poor ability to organize his thinking, he seems unable to scan or summarize his thought, becoming involved and sometimes lost in detail, and some of his thinking reflects a magical quality, a disregard of reality. He has had few close emotional relationships with other people, and these have not been able to stand small crises. He has little feeling for others outside a very small circle of friends, and attaches little real value to human life. This emotional detachment and blandness in certain areas is other evidence of his mental abnormality. More extensive evaluation would be necessary to make an exact psychiatric diagnosis, but his present personality structure is very nearly that of a paranoid schizophrenic reaction (Capote, 296-298). The evaluation revealed several irregularities in Perry Smiths mental state, as the doctor explained was influenced by paranoid schizophrenia which would be closely related to bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, and post-traumatic stress. Perry demonstrated indications of bipolar disorder as he experienced disruptive mood swings, manic states of depression as he sought grandeur, and the creation of delusional and unrealistic plans which may lead to rage if not completed. Perry seemed to suffer from post-traumatic stress which can trigger vivid emotions, in Perrys case pertaining to helpless, abuse and near death trauma, may result in irrational physical response due to an inability to cope. Although Perry Smiths participation in the Clutter incident was directly influenced by his mental illness, he still was able to slaughter four innocent people, which made him a danger to society and eligible for execution. Even though both defendants were both mentally ill, the jury reached the rational verdict of execution, as the mentally ill are not exempt from such a punishment, and was therefore necessary for both defendants. If the jurors had not decided to vote for the death penalty, and instead imposed a prison sentence, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, the killers of four members of the Clutter family, Herbert Clutter, Bonnie Clutter, Nancy Clutter, and Kenyon Clutter, would have continued to be a threat to society with the possibility of release to harm others. Work Cited: Capote, Truman. In Cold Blood. New York: Random House, 1965. Print. Mental Illness and the Death Penalty. Death Penalty Information Center. Death Penalty Information Center, 18 2012. Web. 27 Nov 2012.

How I Learned to Drive Analysis Essay

In Paula Vogel’s â€Å"How I Learned to Drive†, we follow our protagonist nicknamed â€Å"Lil Bit† on a gut wrenching, and downright disturbing journey through her adolescence, told as a series of narrations, monologues, and flashbacks with the occasional interjection of a PSA like voice over. The play recounts the physical and emotional abuse Lil Bit encountered from the ages of eleven to eighteen at the hands of her uncle Peck, while he teaches her to drive. The main flaw I saw in Lil Bit was that she is too smart for her own good. You see this characteristic throughout the play as she manipulates Peck. For example, it was most obvious for me when their roles of adult and child are reversed, and Peck is explaining to Lil Bit what a good boy he has been for not drinking. Knowing how much Peck lusts after her she offers him a reward for his good behavior in the form of undoing her bra. Another great example is when prior to her and peck going on a road trip and Lil Bit’s mother indicates that she has a sense of what Peck has on his mind, she responds by saying â€Å"I can take care of myself. And I can certainly handle uncle Peck.† At this point in the story she is only eleven. It’s hard to imagine a child of that age so grown up emotionally. Overall, most of the characters had likeable qualities, with the exception of the grandmother. I didn’t really like the way she meddled in the Parenting of Lil Bit. I liked â€Å"Big Papa† the best. He’s a crabby old timer who speaks anything that comes into his head with reckless abandon. It brought me some levity in an otherwise melancholy play. The climax of the play occurs on Lil Bit’s eighteenth birthday. She and Peck are in a hotel room, and she’s been ignoring peck for some time leading up to this meeting as he’s been sending her cards counting down to her birthday. Lil Bit is obviously conflicted about their relationship now that she has gotten older, but Peck is looking forward to a time when it’s not illegal for them to be together. This is creepy enough on its own, but when Peck drops the marriage bomb, the creep factor skyrockets. I was honestly disgusted at the idea of a man leaving his wife to be with his niece whom he has known since birth, blood related or not. Prior to the climax, one major event occurs and that is in the monologue that Aunt Mary delivers indicating that she knows what’s going on between Peck and Lil bit. The words used during this monologue, indicate to me a couple of key points about this character. First of all she is very intelligent. Her thoughts are well put together and the words she uses indicates to me that she has some sort of education. She is also very intuitive, she picks up on the subtle, non-verbal signals that peck gives off when he’s got something on his mind and presumably when he’s around Lil Bit. Also, the words used by Lil Bit in her different flashbacks have a direct correlation to her age. It’s obvious as you read them, that during the later ones she is forming more complex thoughts and emotions, which is indicative of growth. For the music in this play, Paula Vogel suggested period correct music spanning two generations. She mentions Motown several times, as well as Roy Orbison and the Beach Boys. Most of this music is romantic and happy with little hints of sexuality and sometimes-pedophilic references. For some weird reason the voice of the announcer in my head was played by the Moviephone guy. The car in the play was described as a Buick Riviera, but in my mind it was more like a Camaro or GTO. The main reason for this is the obvious relationship between Peck and his car. The way he describes the way the aggressive way men are taught to drive and the feeling of a cars’ response to your touch, just makes me think of those fast nimble sports cars. Taking place in the 1960’s, the costumes in my mind were bell-bottoms and flowered shirts, polyester leisure suits, and fringes all over the place. This was your typical 1960’s attire. I believe the overall theme of this play is about the effect of time on relationships. The relationship between Peck and Lil Bit starts out strong, for her and fragile for him. She has a strong male figure giving her attention while he is nurturing a relationship that he knows is illegal and immoral. As time progresses, the roles ultimately reverse leaving Peck with much confidence in the relationship while Lil Bit comes to realize the truth about it which leads to its demise. It just goes to show that time will always change relationships, jus not always in the way you imagined.

Women and Gender Studies: the Yellow Wallpaper

The stories of The Yellow Wallpaper written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and A Room of One’s Own by Virgina Woolf are important to view in their historical contexts. Both novels demonstrate that there are limits placed on women that prevent them from living complete lives. This demeans women and does not give them the same rights and privileges as men. The Yellow Wallpaper demonstrates the attitudes during the nineteenth century that concern female mental and psychical health.Whereas A Room of One’s Own explores whether women are capable of writing great literature and the obstacles that they are faced. Each story demonstrates an common idea that women are viewed as unequal to men and that they must work a lot harder to achieve the respect they wish to gain. Within each of these two novels the authors place the settings with great relevance to the stories morals. Within The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator uses the wallpaper to symbolize an interpretation of something that affects her directly.As the story goes on, the wallpaper gains more and more significance. In the beginning it seems unpleasant, as it is ripped and is an â€Å"unclean yellow† (pg. 2). The pattern of the wallpaper fascinates the narrator due to its formless pattern, which the narrator tries to figure out how it is organized. She does so for hours and hours until she sees a ghostly pattern which one can only see in certain light. Once this pattern comes into focus she sees a desperate women who is looking for an escape from behind the main pattern, this resembles the bars of a cage.The narrator sees many women behind these bars trying to escape. This wallpaper represents the structure of women lives, their families and tradition. Gilman uses the wallpaper to show the domestic lives of many women who are trapped in their roles. Like wise to A Room of One’s Own, Woolf describes throughout her narrative that every women needs a room of their own, something that women are able to enjoy without any question by men. This room provides a woman with time and space to write and do things they are passionate about.During Woolf’s time, women very rarely enjoyed these types of luxuries. Women’s art was unable to be shown because women did not have a safe space to express themselves. She used the room as a symbol for much larger issues such as a women’s privacy, independence and the inequalities between men and women. As Woolf says within the story, until these inequalities are gone, women will remain as second-class and all of their literary achievements will go unnoticed. There are many gender inequalities presented within society even today.Within these two stories the inequalities between men and women are significant in the authors writing. Throughout The Yellow Wallpaper Gilman allows her readers to view the position of women within marriage and their economic dependence on men. when this story was officially published, people took it as a tale about women not a true reality of what women faced. With the domestic functions of a female and active work of males, women are remained as second-class citizens. This story reveals that gender division keeps women from achieving their full potential.John’s assumption that he is superior leads him in the misjudgement of his wife as he tries to â€Å"help† her. The narrator has no input into her own life and the only place she can control anything is within her mind. Inequality is also found throughout A Room of One’s Own, women are treated unequal within the narrators society as they have produced less literature then men. The narrator creates a women named Judith Shakespeare, who is the twin sister of William Shakespeare. She does so to show how society discriminates against women.Judith is seen to be equally as talented as her brother William but because of her gender she is not encouraged by their family and society. As Judith writes she is secr etive and feels very ashamed for writing. Men have dominance over women as shown throughout both stories, when Judith asks her father to not be married; her father beats her until she eventually commits suicide. Due to women being treated so differently, Woolf shows that even though Judith is just as talented as William she will never be as successful because she is a woman.The Yellow Wallpaper is a type of story where the narrator writes to herself. Her descent into madness is both seen subjectively and objectively as the narrator portrays. If Gilman had told her story in a traditions first-person narration the events that are from inside the narrators head would not be able to be told and the reader would not know what she is thinking, and the women inside the wallpaper might seem to actually exist. If told in third-person narrative then the political symbolism would not be seen.Gilman also uses a journal to give the story intimacy and allow the narrator to put down thoughts and f eelings. Whereas in A Room of One’s Own, the author gives the narrator a place where she can write what she thinks without any input or bother from society. A place for women to put down their thoughts and express themselves. The Yellow Wallpaper demonstrates the nineteenth century attitudes concerning female physical and mental health. The narrator is confined to a room where she was driven mad. With the use of symbolism, Gilman allows the reader to see how women were treated and how unequal society may be.A Room of One’s Own explores whether women were capable f writing great literature and demonstrated obstacles that a female writer is faced with. Woolf confronts many aspects of being female ans the idea of madness. According to Woolf, a woman needs a room of her own in order to express herself through literature. Both novels demonstrate that there are limits placed on women that prevent them from living complete lives. This demeans women and does not give them the same rights and privileges as men.

The Media And Its Effect On Society - 1622 Words

Today, many people don t look just for someone they identify with in their everyday life, or in people society, such as politicians or well-known actresses. Though they re still icons of our day, many people in our technological and media influenced days look toward television, film, books and other forms of arts. However, representation is not always fair nor is it proper when it comes to certain groups of human society. Many people who struggle with discrimination in their daily life, struggle with finding proper and real representation in our mainstream media. Minority representation in today s mainstream media has been lacking for generations as suggested by the low numbers in minority groups, multiple stereotyping storylines and†¦show more content†¦Evidence provides more than nearly half of the characters mentioned were gay men, and within this year of overwhelming gay men, twenty-five of the characters that were lesbian women were given scripted deaths. This rough overview of just a few different minority groups, even within a large minority group provides a basis of numerical data showing the lacking of characters. Providing the visual of less than five percent of characters fall into the LGBTQ+ category and of that five percent only thirty percent of it were people of nonwhite races, shows that a record high for television is still severely lacking. How is media providing a basis for a realistic society when the mass media have such severely lacking numbers in television today. Within the struggles of how much representation is given to those in minority groups. Previous evidence mentioned –when considered and contrasted to other media related deaths – the twenty-five lesbian deaths in media (whether accidental or not) in the last year. This act against lesbian women falls into an age long trope. Many groups represented are often stereotyped via storylines, tropes, and stereotypes considered toxic, a struggle many minority groups face. Portraying toxic environments and stereotypes that influences the society today. Going off from anShow MoreRelatedMedia And Its Effects On Society976 Words   |  4 PagesIn today’s society if one were to walk down a populated sidewalk, it would seem merely impossible to spot a sole not twiddling away on their phone. With an entire world unfolding at their fingertips, we witness a society that has become addicted to media. Used as a powerful source of knowledge and entertainment, media plays an enormous role in the development of human life and gender distinction. Through the use of media, guidelines consisting of generated ideas and ways of living, affect both menRead MoreThe Media And Its Effect On The Society957 Words   |  4 Pageshis loyalty (Vaughn, 2013). 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