Nybol Majok English 1103 Prof Presnell 16 October 2012

Proposal: Mental Illnesses and Asylums

My interest in mental illnesses and asylums began when I first took AP Psychology back in high school and started learning about the brain and its abnormalities. Ive always had questions about the topic and was starting to get answers to some of them. I remember watching the movie A Beautiful Mind and being fascinated by the effects of schizophrenia. I actually considered becoming a psychiatrist at one point, but didnt want to stay in school for such a long period of time. However, I am still deeply interested in the topic. My first question was always surrounded around the idea if by isolating the mentally ill away from the general population would this be doing society a favor? From there, other questions started to come to my attention. Such as, is there a correlation between actual Asylums and the ones portrayed in movies (shutter Island)? Are those in asylums being exploited by science? Are they actually being treated for their illness? How are they funded? What are positive thing that medicine and technology have contributed to helping treat the mentally ill? What is the history behind mental illnesses? Who came up with the idea for asylums? What qualifies you to be admited? Should

those who commit acts of murder be allowed to plead insanity or should they be given equal treatment? What were some of the experimental tortures to get rid of the illness? Prior to this research, the things I did already know few things from a historical perspective. I was familiar with eugenics and the movement to sterilize those with mental problems from reproducing. Im also familiar with the methods taken by the Nazi Germany to get rid of the mentally ill, so that they didnt mix with the Aryan race. When I searched up the topic on Google, many sites provided a clinical perspective of the subject. WebMD for an example provides the symptoms, types, and treatments for the different illnesses. I want to find out if it is possible for the mentally ill to coexist with society, despite their problems. I also want to know how the illness develops within the brain.