Write down the quote you chose (and the page number) as the most interesting and defend your choice with specific reasoning in a minimum of one paragraph. Included in your reasoning should be who said the quote or whose idea it depicts and why it is important that that person is behind the idea.…
The premise for the author's argument is that America's high level of panic after 9/11 was actually excessive in relation to the number of deaths. The conclusion is that Americans actually aided the success of the terrorists by giving in to their desire to shake us up so badly.…
When reading the essay Controlling Irrational Fears After 9/11, the first argument to catch my eye was directed around the strong reaction to the number of deaths, 2800, on 9/11. Americans immediately began to react to the catastrophe of that day. The supposed reason behind this reaction is the number of deaths in the single day when not so much as one bullet was discharged to cause one of the deaths. The author of the essay used two premises to prove the conclusion that the number of deaths was not the sole reason for the reaction of the American people. The first premise is the fact that the number of deaths per month in 2001, and every month since, in America outweigh the number of deaths caused by the terror attacks on 9/11. While there is naturally some reaction to these deaths the reaction is nowhere near as strong or irrational as the response to the attacks. The second premise to support the conclusion is the unlikelihood that Americans remember that also in 2001 another catastrophe occurred, an earthquake in Gujarat,…
People have fears for many things from spiders to clowns. Due to the attacks on September 11, 2001, many Americans can now add another fear to that list. Something that was considered to be a convenience since it’s invention is now something people are replacing with long drives in their personal vehicles, buses and train rides for long distances. In some of these cases, one also goes…
In the book Challenger Deep, Caden has issues with paranoia. There is a student at his high school whom he has never met, yet Caden believes the student wants to kill him. He has only seen this kid a handful of times and he has never talked to him once. The student doesn't give him strange looks or even talk about him. Caden has no reason to be afraid, yet he still is scared this kid is going to kill him. Personally, I don't have a problem this large scale, but I have always had a problem with being paranoid. I am always constantly on the alert and overly careful about most of the things I do. I am always worried that somebody is watching me or silently judging me. I am always so worried about what other people think about me and the thought…
In this article, Eve Sedgwick criticizes the Freudian “paranoid reading” for precluding any other epistemologies, and suggests “reparative reading” as an alternative way of treating text. To begin with, she mentions about the Freudian explanation that paranoia originates from the repression of same-sex desire. Sedgwick criticizes this conventional psychoanalysis, which inevitably pathologizes homosexuality as paranoia. As borrowing Hocquenghem’s reasoning, she argues that paranoia reflects not homosexuality, but rather the homophobic perspective on it. Nevertheless, Sedgwick condemns, many queer theorists duplicate the paranoid structure when they refute the homophobic explanation of paranoia.…
Crucible. One word. Three syllables. Two definitions: “a container for purifying metals” and “a severe test.” When applying this dual meaning to the Salem Witch Trials’ havoc, the title’s cleverness becomes apparent; Arthur Miller’s selection is fitting. Both definitions are suitable for the play because its characters are refined to their core elements as well as given the ultimate test.…
In Mark Shiffman’s essay Majoring In Fear, Shiffman addresses the increase in students drive to rack up credentials with hopes of landing their high paying, secure job ten years down the road, instead of focusing on what they are truly interested in. He argues that millennials trade out their passion for ambition out of fear of failure.This leads students to opt for the more “practical” areas of study, like the STEM field, and neglect what they may genuinely care about, like the arts or humanities. Shiffman is surely right about students putting their energy into activities that may build their resume out of uncertainty of the future instead of activities that are meaningful to them. Society should push students to pursue what inspires them instead of what career path offers the most job security. This will not only preserve students’ mental health, but also aid in the reverse of the decline in the studies of humanities. However, while I agree on most points, Shiffman fails to address the importance of STEM; in today’s ever changing society global technological competition is more important than ever on both political and economic levels.…
Every day, Americans are tormented by global issues that seem to have no apparent solution. From issues of global warming and climate change to poverty and foreign aid, the residents of the United States attempt to solve these problems. However, these citizens’ logic is skewed when trying to solve these worldwide problems. Think Like a Freak, by Steven D Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, is very useful with their advice in solving contemporary problems. By treating others with decency and respect, as well as thinking of problems from a different perspective and dropping one's preconceptions and biases, we can produce better solutions to our global problems.…
David Rosenhan is known for the classic, yet controversial study “On Being Sane in Insane Places” of progress within the mental health field. Rosenhan’s study (1973) of eight people with no previous history of mental illness were admitted at various mental hospitals in America and complained of individual symptoms (auditory illusions, e.g., ‘thud’). He investigated whether psychiatrists could distinguish between those genuinely mentally ill and not. Each pseudopatient behaved normally, and symptoms were not re-reported. However, the average length of hospitalisation was 19 days. This shows context has a powerful role in determining how behaviour is labelled. This led to question the truth in psychiatric diagnoses. The predominant issue was unauthorised diagnoses and needless treatments for a fictional mental illness tolerably accepted. Today, it is the difficulty in gaining treatment for real symptoms of mental disorders.…
When I try to reason how people would interpret the insanity defense, it reminds me of the common misconceptions that juror's have of the defense itself. In the textbook it examines the various insanity defenses and the courts perception of the defenses, while in the video, Lionel tries to examine peoples reactions to the insanity defense. In the textbook while it went to how the defense's many interpretations have effected case outcomes, Lionel's video tries to clarify that how average Americans cant handle the horrors they see when looking at the crime scene photo's and then trying to decide that the defendant could be considered for a insanity defense.…
The population of students in Beyond Scared Straight is groups of young people that have been recommended for participation by their parents or family for this program. United States citizens, between approximately 11 years old and 18 years old, these children all have some kind of life circumstance(s) that puts them in the category of at-risk youth. All of the population have some type of behavioral problem, juvenile criminal record, or family issues that brought these teenagers and their families to the point of considering this extreme measure as a last resort for keeping them from a life of criminal acts of some kind. The program is designed to target kids who are likely to become recidivists, and attempts to keep them from ending up in prison or dead shortly after they become adults.…
Have you ever felt the urge to eat food even though you are not hungry but you are nervous and anxious about something? For some people anxiety means biting your nails or eating food or for others it means the excessive thought about your desires because of how you are feeling. Freud’s description on types of personality describes anxiety as an unbalance of your ID personality. His theory of defense mechanism has to do with his knowledge of the types of personality each individual have.…
Society as a whole has been oppressed without knowing by the idea of “doublethink”. This emerges as an important consequence of The Party’s massive campaign of large-scale psychological manipulation. Simply put, doublethink is the ability to hold two contradictory ideas in one’s mind at the same time. As The Party’s mind-control techniques break down an individual’s capacity for independent thought, it becomes possible for that individual to believe anything that The Party tells them, even while possessing information that runs contradictory. “WAR IS PEACE FREEDOM IS SLAVERY IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH” (Orwell 4). This is the most important and repetitive slogan of The Party; it is a clear example of doublethink. These words are the official slogan…
• If you want to avoid worry live in "day tight compartments". When our mind is occupied with work, we won’t have time to worry. It applies not only to worry, but to all kinds of negative thoughts as well. We will greatly decrease their influence if we are busy doing something constructive.…