Verified Document

Quiet Room Lori Schiller's 1996 Book Report

To some extend, Lori's parents illustrate the different worldview of the 1970s, regarding mental illness. As manifest in the perspective of Lori's father, there was still a tendency to blame parents for 'creating' schizophrenia in their children: Lori's father blamed himself. And as is notable in the perspective of Lori's mother, the role of heredity in schizophrenia was not fully understood. Today, a family with a genetic legacy of schizophrenia might be more apt to be watchful of the possibility of an adolescent such as Lori developing symptoms.

Yet other facets of Lori's treatment indicate that some aspects of the mental health experience of schizophrenics have not altered. Drug treatment is often 'hit or miss' in terms of how it remedies the sufferer's condition. The drugs that control the disease are often emotionally flattening and cause severe weight gain and motor spasms that 'mark' the individual as 'different' just as much as the illness itself. At the end of the Quiet Room, Lori portrays...

Lori's insanity takes her outside of her desired life trajectory: during the fullest flowering of her illness, she is unable to relate to others or to concentrate. Her attempts to return to school are a failure because of her clouded mind. She turns to cocaine as a source of self-medication. Her brothers, who used to admire her, fear they will become like her. However, the 'happy ending' of finding the right drug may itself seem too neat, to 'pat' to many readers, given that managing schizophrenia with medication remains a highly imperfect science -- and art -- and few drugs 'work' for a patient throughout the duration of his or her lifespan.
Works Cited

Schiller, Lori & Amanda Bennett. (1996).The Quiet Room. Grand Central Publishing.

Sources used in this document:
Works Cited

Schiller, Lori & Amanda Bennett. (1996).The Quiet Room. Grand Central Publishing.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Schizophrenia Psychosis and Lifespan D Schizophrenia and
Words: 1755 Length: 4 Document Type: Essay

Schizophrenia Psychosis and Lifespan D Schizophrenia and Psychosis and Lifespan Development Schizophrenia and Psychosis Matrix Disorder Major DSM-IV-TR Categories Classifications Subclassifications Schizophrenia and Psychosis Symptoms Positive (Type I): represent excesses or distortions from normal functioning Delusions Bizarre Nonbizarre Hallucinations Auditory Visual Disorganized Speech Loose Association Neologisms Clang Associations Echolalia/Echopraxia Word Salad Grossly disorganized behavior Catatonic: motoric Waxy Flexibility Negative (Type II): the absence of functioning Apathy Affective Flattening Withdrawal Anhedonia Avolition Poor Concentration Poverty of speech Alogia Schizophrenia and Psychosis Diagnostic Types Paranoid Delusions and Hallucinations Disorganized Disorganized speech Disorganized behavior Withdrawal Affective flattening Catatonic Grossly disorganized behavior Disorganized speech Catatonic Echolalia/Echopraxia Undifferentiated Active symptoms that do not fit other diagnostic types Residual No Type I symptoms but some negative symptoms Schizoaffective

Schizophrenia When People Think of What It
Words: 2517 Length: 8 Document Type: Essay

Schizophrenia When people think of what it means to 'go crazy,' quite often the common image that comes to mind is that of someone with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a serious mental health disorder that can be physically, socially, and personally destabilizing. "Schizophrenia affects men and women equally. It occurs at similar rates in all ethnic groups around the world. Symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions usually start between ages 16 and

Schizophrenia: History and Causation
Words: 2132 Length: 6 Document Type: Research Paper

Schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder, resulting in the patient hearing voices and noise inside his or her mind. Historically, this disorder has been a serious barrier to proper functioning in society. In the past many people were simply locked up in mental institutions because they were a danger to themselves and others. In some cases that is still necessary, but medications and treatments have come a long way. They

Schizophrenia in the Elderly: Robustness of the
Words: 909 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

Schizophrenia in the Elderly: Robustness of the Research Literature The American psychiatric community has historically ignored the presence of schizophrenia in older adults, especially the elderly, because many researchers and clinicians had attributed the etiology of the disease to organic causes such as dementia (Howard, Rabins, Seeman, & Jeste, 2000). A substantial body of European studies, however, have revealed that a small percentage of schizophrenia patients experience their first symptoms of

Schizophrenia Does Not Really Have Just One
Words: 1916 Length: 7 Document Type: Term Paper

Schizophrenia does not really have just one single cause. It is a possibility that this disorder could be inherited but not all doctors are sure. A lot of experts suppose that schizophrenia does run in the family. Individuals that may have a close family member with the disease are more likely to advance the disorder than persons who have no kinsfolks with the disease. A lot think that might have

Schizophrenia As a Functional Disconnection Problem in
Words: 742 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

Schizophrenia as a Functional Disconnection Problem in the Brain Studies by Schmitt et al. (2011) offer conclusive evidence that schizophrenia is a neurodevelopmental disorder. While schizophrenia can be exacerbated by both genetic and environmental factors, the disease has been conclusively linked to developmental disconnectivity of the prefrontal cortex of the brain via neural imaging studies. Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that directly affects the way an individual talks, acts, and perceives the

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now