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Module Specifications

Archived Version 2020 - 2021

Module Title Making Sense of Mental Health & Illness
Module Code NS432
School 38

Online Module Resources

Module Co-ordinatorDr Mark PhilbinOffice NumberH245b
NFQ level 8 Credit Rating 5
Pre-requisite None
Co-requisite None
Compatibles None
Incompatibles None
Description

Taking autobiographical accounts as a starting point, we explore psychiatric hospitalisation; human rights and the law; conceptualisations of mental illness; direct experiences of distress and disorder; stigma and social discrimination; suicide; identity and psychiatric designation; resistance, acceptance and recovery; hope, strengths and achievements as they relate to mental health.

Learning Outcomes

1. Explore autobiographical accounts of mental health issues and consider their significance.
2. Imagine something of what it is like to directly experience mental health problems.
3. Discuss the nature and historical development of institutional provision in Ireland as well as the current direction of mental health care policy.
4. Describe the current legislative provisions in Ireland which relate to compulsory psychiatric treatment.
5. Explore the ethical questions, and human rights issues, associated with mental health laws and provision.
6. Explain a range of theories and models that are used to account for mental health and illness.
7. Examine the significance of stigma and social discrimination as these relate to persons with mental health problems.
8. Consider the implications of psychiatric designation for identity and selfhood.
9. Explore the meanings of resistance, acceptance and recovery as they relate to experiences of mental health problems.
10. Examine the various ways in which persons deal with the possibility of suicide and how they avoid this outcome.
11. Appreciate the capacity of persons to endure, creatively deal with problems and to make the most of the situations they encounter.
12. Explore the meanings and significance of hope as this relates to mental health.



Workload Full-time hours per semester
Type Hours Description
Online activity20Synchronous interactive sessions
Directed learning30Focused on video and 5HP resources
Portfolio Preparation15Weekly eportfolio work reflecting on the meanings and significance of the learning activities.
Assignment Completion30Essay preparation and completion
Independent Study30Student self direction
Total Workload: 125

All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

Girl, Interrupted
'Girl, Interrupted' is a personal account by Susannah Kaysen of psychiatric hospitalisation in 1967 when she was aged eighteen. She makes a number of telling observations of how the institution worked, the relations between the residents and between residents and staff, and how identity issues were worked out in a hospital context. Prompted by this autobiography, we examine the history and nature of institutional provision in Ireland, and the broader world, as it relates to people designated mentally ill.

An Unquiet Mind: A memoir of moods and madness
'An Unquiet Mind' was written by Kay Jamison and it is her story of living through 'manic depression'. She describes a long period in her life where she largely refused to accept her diagnosis, her difficulties in giving up on the benefits and attractions of mania, her conflicted relationship with lithium treatment, and the adverse effects of lithium treatment as well as coming close to suicide. However, she also accounts for her ultimate acceptance of such treatment and of her diagnosis, suggesting such acceptance was necessary and reflects the unavoidable truth of herself as ill. She also makes an argument in favour of 'manic-depression' as an illness category and against the 'bipolar' category that has replaced it. With Kay Jamison's story as our starting point, we explore issues of the attractions of mania, reasons for suicide, accepting a diagnosis/treatment, the mixed implications of lithium treatment as well as psychiatric medications more generally, and the implications of the shifting nomenclature of psychiatric designation.

The Loony Bin Trip
'The Loony Bin Trip' is Kate Millett's personal account of struggling to sustain and assert her own identity in the face of designations of mental illness, enforced hospitalisation, and pressures from others to comply with psychiatric treatment. Her story is one of resistance to psychiatric identification, the varied course of this resistance and her ultimate vindication in living a life beyond and without psychiatric involvement. In this respect, the culmination of her story is very different from that of Kay Jamison even though both were diagnosed with 'manic-depressive disorder' and struggled with others over lithium treatment. Prompted by Kate Millett's account, we critically consider ideas to do with insight and mental illness and the necessity of compliance with psychiatric medications. We also examine the ethical and legal dimensions of compulsory psychiatric treatment.

'Is That Me?' My life with schizophrenia
This book was written by Anthony Scott not long before he died and it is about his experiences across a lifetime in which schizophrenia played a prominent part. Most essentially, his account is one in which self-recognition is problematic and he was not easily recognisable to himself. This prompts us to explore ideas around psychosis and schizophrenia as problems of self-awareness where 'my' thoughts, sensations, movements, and sentiments are experienced as though they are 'not mine'. Another theme in the book is the way Anthony accounts for his life as a continuing struggle in which he repeatedly did his best and 'kept going' in really difficult circumstances. This is a prompt for us to appreciate the extent and implications of the ways in which people endure adversity in the context of mental health problems and psychiatric designation.

The Centre Cannot Hold: A memoir of my schizophrenia
'The Centre Cannot Hold' was written by Elyn Saks. In this life story, she details her struggle with the idea of herself as a person with schizophrenia, her longstanding resistance to this idea, how this resistance was associated with her self-identity as capable and independent, how she lived a long period of her life in alternating states of rejecting psychiatric treatment and having it forced upon her, and how she ultimately transcended this pattern by linking capability with acceptance. This story provides an opportunity for us to examine ideas about cycles of resistance and psychiatric involvement as well as about the meanings of acceptance and recovery in the context of mental health.

Darkness Visible
William Styron was a novelist who also wrote a well known book- 'Darkness Visible'- about his own experiences of depression. He describes the hopelessness and loss that he experienced, his preparations for suicide, how he pulled back from suicide, and the hospital as a kind of sanctuary. Also, he objects to 'depression' as a category because it does not adequately convey the experience whilst he wholly subscribes to the idea of depression as a kind of illness. These are matters that we explore in detail.

Prozac Nation
In 'Prozac Nation', Elizabeth Wurtzel writes of how she grew up with a sense of a problem that was undefined but which involved a feeling of pointlessness and incidents of self harm. Also, she describes a certain validation that came with a diagnosis of 'atypical depression' and prescription of Prozac. She came to view depression as a legitimate condition and this meant that she blamed herself less for what she felt and did. Using this as a starting point, we explore the relevance of this story to more general matters of younger people's mental health and the implications of self-identifying with depression.

Let Them Eat Prozac
'Let Them Eat Prozac' was written by David Healy who is a prominent Irish psychiatrist working in the UK. The book is partly autobiographical and deals with Healy's experiences as an expert on psychopharmacology who was involved in legal cases against Eli Lilly (a pharmaceutical company) to do with the links between Prozac, suicide and homicide. Initially, Healy was part of the effort to defend Eli Lilly but 'switched sides' in the light of the evidence he uncovered and then encountered considerable threats to his own career. On this basis, and building on our work in NS141: Drugs in Society, we critically explore the relationship between psychiatry and the pharmaceutical industry.

Dancing With Dementia
'Dancing With Dementia' is written by Christine Bryden and she writes about "living positively" with dementia. Drawing on her own experiences of hardship, stigma and struggle along with success, fulfilment and accomplishment, she rejects the association between dementia and a loss of self and suggests that life continues to carry rewarding possibilities after a diagnosis of dementia. We explore some of the key issues in this text which include the significance of religious faith, notions of an emotional and spiritual self which are "deeper" than a cognitive self, the possibility of making the most of a life with dementia, the significance of various patterns of brain pathology, and what it means to speak out as someone with dementia.

Somebody I Used to Know
'Somebody I Used to Know' is written by Wendy Mitchell who accounts for her experiences of 'living with dementia' after a diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease at the age of fifty eight. Her account is one of loss but also one of making the most of opportunities to live a full life and make a valuable contribution. She writes interesting things about 'making the most of the present', creatively dealing with problems posed by memory loss and cognitive dysfunctions, social discrimination and dementia, the relations between language and hope, and her 'self' in time. We use her observations and ideas as a basis for exploring each of these issues.

Assessment Breakdown
Continuous Assessment100% Examination Weight0%
Course Work Breakdown
TypeDescription% of totalAssessment Date
Reassessment Requirement
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories;
1 = A resit is available for all components of the module
2 = No resit is available for 100% continuous assessment module
3 = No resit is available for the continuous assessment component
Unavailable
Indicative Reading List

  • Brennan, D.: 2014, Irish Insanity, 1800-2000, Routledge, Abingdon,
  • Bryden, C.: 2005, Dancing With Dementia: My story of living positively with dementia, Jessica Kingsley, London; Philadelphia,
  • Cohen, B.M.Z: 2018, Routledge International Handbook of Critical Mental Health, Routledge, London,
  • Finnane, M.: 1981, Insanity and the Insane in Post-Famine Ireland, Croom Helm, London,
  • Goldacre, B.: 2013, Bad Pharma: How medicine is broken and how we can fix it, Fourth Estate, London,
  • Healy, D.: 2004, Let Them Eat Prozac: The unhealthy relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and depression, New York University Press, New York,
  • Jamison, K.R.: 1996, An Unquiet Mind: A memoir of moods and madness, Picador, London,
  • Karp, D.A.: 1996, Speaking of Sadness: Depression, disconnection and the meanings of illness, Oxford University Press, New York,
  • Karp, D.A.: 2006, Is It Me or My Meds? Living with antidepressants, Harvard University Press, Cambridge,
  • Kaysen, S.: 1995, Girl, Interrupted, Virago, London,
  • Kelly, B.: 2016, Hearing Voices: The history of psychiatry in Ireland, Irish Academic Press, Newbridge,
  • Kelly, B.: 2018, Mental Illness, Human Rights and the Law, Royal College of Psychiatrists Publications, London,
  • Millett, K.: 2000, The Loony Bin Trip, 2nd Ed, University of Illinois Press, Urbana,
  • Mitchell, W.: 2018, Somebody I Used to Know, London, Bloomsbury,
  • Robins, J.: 1986, Fools and Mad: A history of the insane in Ireland, Institute of Public Administration, Dublin,
  • Saks, E.R.: 2007, The Centre Cannot Hold: A memoir of my schizophrenia, Virago, London,
  • Scott, A.: 2002, Is That Me? My life with schizophrenia, A & A Farmer, Dublin,
  • Styron, W.: 1990, Darkness visible: A memoir of madness, Vintage Books, New York,
  • Szasz, T.: 2010, The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a theory of personal conduct, 3rd Ed, Harper Perennial, New York,
  • Whitaker, R.: 2010, Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic bullets, psychiatric drugs and the astonishing rise of mental illness in America, Broadway, New York,
  • Wurtzel, E.: 1996, Prozac Nation: Young and depressed in America, Quartet Books, London,
Other Resources

None
Programme or List of Programmes
BHSBachelor of Science in Health & Society
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