SQ

"SQ"

Ursula Le Guin 

"An asylum means a place of shelter, a place of cure. Let there be no stigma attached to the word 'insane,' to the word 'asylum,' to the words 'insane asylum'! No! For the asylum is the haven of mental health-the place of cure, where the anxious find peace, where the weak gain strength, where the prisoners of inadequate reality assessment win their own freedom!"

I am still unsure as to how I feel about the piece as a whole, but this passage really stood out to me. It was so powerful. I found myself nodding to the words. I felt as though I was at the meeting and I wanted Mr. Speakie to succeed so that his would be true. 

I looked up the definitions of each of these definitions:

Insane: "in a state of mind that prevents normal perception, behavior, or social interaction; seriously mentally ill."

Asylum: "an institution offering shelter and support to people who are mentally ill."

Insane Asylum: "a hospital for mentally incompetent or unbalanced person."

None of those terms seam condescending or like they should have a stigma to them, but they do, they should't but they do. Psychology and sanity are pretty clear themes throughout this story and I began thinking about how we look at these things today. It made me think a lot about the beginning of mental health and the universality of it. I wondered lot about what made Mr. Speakie qualified to be the administrator of this project and how when talking about someone's sanity they are no longer credible. In my psychology class we learned that if a patient has a brain injury they need someone else to accompany to them to doctor's appointments to vouch for the their claims. 

The story said that the people working for Mr. Speakie had to take the test quite a few times and people got nervous. It made me wonder if you are a fully functioning adult who has a job, would you want to take the test? If you are just a little bit on the insane spectrum, but you are able to live a normal happy life would you want to know? WOuld having that label on insane or a number score that tells the world that your brain cannot function at 100% efficiency help you? Maybe its better no to know. 

This story made me think a lot about other things I had read or movies I had watched on the subject of sanity, such as One Flew Over the CucKoos Nest and Shutter Island. Shutter Island reminds me a lot of this story and thinking about the early stages of handling mental illness. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxMo__fkCqM