Essay/Term paper: Maddness

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Psychology

In order for one to fully understand the term "madness", we first need to show what the word really means. After looking through numerous definitions and asking others on their views, the definition from the oxford dictionary seemed to sum up the general thoughts of my family and friends.

"…a departure from what is normal or accepted, a moral or mental lapse."

These views might differ from person to person as morals and ideas change and societies accept different behaviors. Thus I believe "madness" generally changes it"s true meaning according to different societies perceptions.

Personally my belief is that "madness" comes in different "packages" such as mental illnesses like eating disorders, manic depression, schizophrenia and grief etc.
I only have personal experience with manic depression but for the purpose of the assignment I will also discuss others experiences with madness and will address how society in South Africa understands "madness".

My first experience with madness was a highly traumatic event, when my older cousin of a few years attempted to kill himself.
My cousin was diagnosed as having a chemical imbalance in his brain and suffering from manic depression. In order to help him the doctors advised him to stay in Tara, a psychiatric clinic, for a few months with therapy and medication providing him with the help he needed. All my family has been able to do is provide the much needed support, love and encouragement as the nature of my cousins "madness" are feelings of worthlessness, hopefulness and helplessness as well as a destroyed self-esteem. This was my first experience with a so- called "madness".

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It is believed that "madness" often occurs at adolescence because of developmental demands and a variety of biological and social changes. I can see through my experience with my cousin that the demands set by himself, his family and society as well as the chemical dysfunction led him to this so-called "madness".

In discussing my ideas of "madness" I came across others, which had experienced different types of madnesses such as eating disorders. One experience that someone had was with as sister that was diagnosed as having Anorexia Nervosa.
Anorexia nervosa is a disorder characterized by deliberate weight loss, sustained by the patient. The disorder occurs most commonly in adolescent girls and young women, but adolescent boys and young men may also be affected. The experiences that I heard about, showed the characteristics of this disease to be a very depressed, anxious, fearful person.
This disease seems like madness to a normal healthy person, and it is difficult to try and understand one wanting to starve oneself. It is however our society that deems a thin girl to be the epitome of beauty and popularity etc.

Society plays a large role in the causes of this disease, this is relevant to South African societies as well where thinness and academic achievement are highly valued. Development of this disease serves as an attempt to cope with cultural and identity conflict. However in a case study done on anorexia nervosa, a population of patients with Anorexia were studied and it was found that less than 5% of the anorexic patients were black.
This shows again that society influences the degree of "madness" by deeming was is socially to be accepted .We can see that the way that South African society understands the degree of madness is different to the way in which American society might see it.



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In conclusion I believe that "madness" is very difficult to define as many different people and societies will argue about
the degrees of madness, what madness entails etc. Therefore my understanding of what madness really is, comes only from what I have heard from others and what I have personally experienced in my life.