Final Project Process Analysis

On the first day of working on the project my partner, Karliah and I decided that the we want to do our project on the Zoo Story. We chose this one act play because of the complex character Jerry who we thought we could come up with a lot of ideas.

The next meeting we decided what form of multimedia we wanted to use. We ended up going with a Prezi presentation because we both have experience using that particular program.

We also came up with the idea of created a facebook page for Jerry to use as evidence that he had mental issues. We felt that incorporating facebook would be a good way to include a different way of expressing information which is what we felt this entire english class was about.

Karliah and I took a picture of a chalk outline and a knife to put in our prezi to go with the part of the story where Jerry gets stabbed. We created Jerry’s facebook account and posted statuses and quotes that would provide evidence that he was going through depression.We met up a few times in order to create our prezi.

I feel that integrating social media was a good idea. It provided hard evidence of our case and gave a personal relationship with Jerry. We used our skills that we have acquired as psychologists in order to diagnose Jerry and get to the bottom of what happened to Peter and Jerry at the park.

Link to Final Project

A Trifling Matter

A few weeks ago, I was faced with another interesting case. While it did not involve a royal family as my last case did, it was still a case I enjoyed. On the day the case was brought to me, I was sitting in my office reading over the other cases that were going on in the institute. I had the windows open to let the fresh air in. It was a nice warm day as spring was quickly approaching.

I was interrupted when I got a call from my secretary. A woman named Mrs. Peters had come to see me. I put down my files and had my secretary see Mrs. Peters into my office. We went through the customary greetings and I asked why she had come to see me. She had told me that there was recently a murder in her hometown and a woman named Mrs. Wright had been taken as the primary suspect because it was her husband that had been murdered. Mrs. Peters said that the chance of Mrs. Wright being convicted for the murder was getting more and more likely and wanted her examined by a psychologist to see if Mrs. Wright was mentally healthy. Mrs. Peters had been able to have this happen because her husband was the sheriff. If Mrs. Wright proved to having mental conditions the actions taken against her would vary and possibly keep her from a traditional conviction.

Mrs. Peters also informed me of what Mrs. Wright’s life was like. She told me Mrs. Wright was happy and beautiful in her youth. She was even admired among the church choir. However, after marrying her husband, her life took a turn for the worst. She no longer sang in the choir and stopped leaving her home. It was rumor around town that her husband was even abusive.

I agreed to help Mrs. Peters with determining the mental well-being of her friend Mrs. Wright. Mrs. Peters gave me her contact information and the address to the county jail that Mrs. Wright was being kept in. After that Mrs. Peters thanked me and left. On the next day, I got up early and drove to the jail to meet Mrs. Wright.

The jail was a simple building and it showed that the town was not very big. Upon entering the jail I was greeted by the Sheriff. He did not seem very happy to see me, probably because his wife was the reason I was here. Nonetheless, he took me to an interrogation room where Mrs. Wright was already sitting down.

I introduced myself to Mrs. Wright and took a seat across from her at the table. I told her that Mrs. Peters had sent me to talk to her and that talking to me could help with her involvement in her husband’s murder. She looked nervous and a bit reluctant but she agreed to talk to me. I asked her questions about her marriage. I asked questions such as if her husband was abusive or controlling. She told me that after they had been married for a few years he became more and more controlling. He did not want her to leave the house or talk to people of the town. He would also hit her if she would try to act out against him.

I was surprised by the fact of how quickly Mrs. Wright opened up to me. In all my years of being a psychologist nobody has ever been so willing to share such personal information about themselves so quickly. I suppose Mrs. Wright had not had anyone to talk to but her husband in a long time and she would talk to the first person willing to listen. I talked to Mrs. Wright for a while longer before I decided that I heard enough to draw my conclusions about her.

In the case of Mrs. Wright, I believe that she is not mentally insane but may suffer from depression. She had no erratic behavior or any signs that may prove otherwise. In her years with her husband she has gone through a lot. Not being able to go into town and being kept in solitude may have been the cause of any possible depression. In the situation of whether or not she killed her husband, I think it may be possible. Some women who are victims of abuse do eventually decide to fight back and kill their husbands in crimes of passion. This very well may be the case for Mrs. Wright, but that's for the court to figure out.

Oh, Ophelia

    Not very long ago, I was working on a very exceptional case. Instead of the usual middle class patients that I treat, I was contacted to look at someone of nobility named Ophelia. I was honestly quite surprised that I was thought of highly enough to be chosen for something like this. Her brother, Laertes, was the one that asked for my help. The case required me to fly all the way to Denmark to look at the patient. This case seemed to be too good to pass up, so I caught a fly to Denmark the next day.

    After a long trip, I arrived at the Castle Elsinore to meet Laertes. Laertes looked horrible, like he had not slept in days. I assumed that he has been looking after his sister. After the formal greetings, he told me everything that had happened to Ophelia that has caused her to begin acting unusual. I learned that she was once believed to become engaged to Hamlet the prince. However, after the death of Hamlet’s father, he began to show his own signs of madness and no longer showed affection towards Ophelia.. I also learned that their father, Polonius, was recently murdered. The truly bizarre part of the story is that Polonius was murdered by Hamlet. I had never heard of something as interesting as this and couldn’t wait to meet with Ophelia.

    Laertes led me to the bedroom that Ophelia was being kept in. She sitting up on the corner of the bed and looking out of a large window that overlooked the castle’s courtyard. She had a blank stare on her face and seemed as if she didn’t even notice my presence. Ophelia was quietly singing, “He is dead and gone, lady, He is dead and gone.” I asked if she was singing about her father but I received no response.

    My interaction with Ophelia was somewhat disappointing. For the next hour I attempted to communicate with Ophelia but I was never successful. Ophelia would not respond to any of my questions about Hamlet or her Father. She would only continue to sing the same song. It was if she was completely oblivious to what was going on around her. I took what information I had on Ophelia to try to form an early analysis of her condition.

    Ophelia has clearly been through a great amount of tragedy lately with how Hamlet treated her and the loss of her father. While some causes of mental illness are not fully understood, it is known that loss of a loved one can be a contributing factor. In a way, Ophelia has lost two loved ones. Her grief over Hamlet no longer loving her has also had an affect on her health. Losing two people that were so close to her may have caused her to feel very lonely. In some cases loneliness has shown to be a cause of mental illness. During my observation of Ophelia, she was very disconnected from her surroundings. I believe that she may be living in a world that she created because of the grief reality has caused her. I have determined that she has been driven mentally ill from the overwhelming grief that she has gone through. Because of Ophelia’s lack of awareness of her surroundings, I fear that she could easily cause herself harm and may need to be hospitalized until her condition is able to improve.



   

   
   

An Obsession with Wallpaper

I am a psychologist at a mental hospital in California. My name is Dr. Isaac Winchester, and I have been worked as a psychologist for twenty five years. On occasion, I am asked to go meet with potential patients for the hospital and analyze them. Based on my analysis, they may or may not be taken in at the hospital.

It was a nice summer day outside when I first began meeting with Jane Fuller. I remember sitting inside my office with a fan pointed at me in an effort to keep cool. I was going over some of the files for some of the patients at the hospital when my secretary walked in. She told me that a man had called and stated that his wife had gone mad, and wanted her examined. My secretary gave me an address and I gathered up my things to go and visit Mrs. Fuller.

I was very surprised by the house that I arrived at. Typically, when I am called out, I visit run down homes. But this house was much different. It was very large, and it was obvious that someone very wealthy lived there. The lawn was well kept and there were sculptures scattered through the yard. The heat outside kept me from admiring from long and I went to knock on the door.

I was greeted at the door by a man who looked to be in his forties. He looked very tired, as if he hadn’t slept in days. He introduced himself as John Fuller, Jane’s husband. He told me that his wife’s mental condition has gotten gradually worse since they began staying in this house. John also told me that he had been acting as his wife’s doctor but her new behavior was something that he could not help with. John then led me upstairs to meet his wife.

As I reached the top of the stairs, I could hear a scratching noise from Jane’s room. John opened the door and what I saw took me by surprise. Jane was on her knees in the corner of the room, scratching her fingers back and forth on the wall. I could tell from looking at her that she was in a bad state. Her long hair was a tangled mess and her gown was torn with yellow smudges all over it.

I tried speaking to Jane to introduce myself, but all she would mutter was, “free.. trapped in the paper.. must be free.” As I stepped into the room, Jane quickly turned from the wall and gave me a cold glare. I was afraid of making her aggressive, so I remained in the doorway and watched her.

After my failed interaction with Jane, Mr. Fuller gave me Jane’s diary. He said he had taken it from the room while Jane was sleeping. Reading through the diary gave me insight on what happened to Jane. Her diary revealed to me that Jane had a history of mental illness and had a nervous breakdown in the past. Her diary contained many ramblings about the wallpaper in her bedroom. After reading through the diary I had a better understanding of what may have happened to Jane.

Jane was already mentally fragile upon arriving to this new home. While she was here, she stayed inside nearly all the time. Her isolation from the outside world is what I believe began her fascination with her wallpaper. As her obsession for the wallpaper grew, she began to see it as a symbol of herself. She even says that she could see a woman, herself perhaps, trapped in the wallpaper. After processing all of this, I have decided that Jane is not safe in her current condition and will need to be moved into the mental hospital.

Emily Grierson

Dr. Isaac Winchester’s Analysis
Potential Patient: Emily Grierson


This analysis is for the case of Emily Grierson, who is up for discussion of whether she should be admitted to a mental institute. After reading her file, I have been able to draw my conclusions of whether she needs to be institutionalized. My professional opinion on the matter of Miss Grierson is that she should be accepted into an institution.

Emily shows many signs that she has succumbed to insanity. The first sign that she has spent most of her life alone. Her father never allowed her to marry and she was kept away from the public in her house. Then, when it was believed that her suitor Homer Barron had left her, she spent the rest of her life in solitude. In my experience with patients, being in solitude for a long period of time can cause people to develop mental illnesses. Emily spent decades locked away in her house by herself. It is very likely that she could have developed mental issues for this alone.

Emily has also shown signs of being delusional. When her father died, she tried to convince the people of her town that her father was still alive. While she did eventually admit that her father was deceased, she may have at the time started losing her grasp on reality. There is also the issue with paying her taxes. Whenever the government attempted to collect any taxes from her, she would say that she was exempt from her duties and to ask Colonel Sartoris about it. However, Colonel Sartoris had already been dead for a long time when said that. Emily’s delusions with death further lead me to question her mental condition.

My final point that Emily is insane is her involvement with the death of Homer Barron. It is believed that she poisoned Homer. On top of that, she kept his corpse in her home for decades and slept in bed with it. Only an insane person would do such a thing. Emily is either a serious necrophiliac or in a state of delusion where she thinks the man is still alive.

In conclusion, Emily has shown enough signs to make me believe that her mental health is in a very poor state. She has most likely gone insane from her life of solitude and her being delusional and murdering Homer only prove it. Emily Grierson should most definitely be admitted to a mental institute.