Robyn Summers (robynsummers) wrote in psychology101, @ 2008-02-04 19:11:00 |
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Current mood: | angry |
Current music: | Klee - Gold |
Karen Armstrong's The Spiral Staircase
Has anybody here read this book? I had to read it for a religious studies class a year ago but I found a section really jarring. My professor asked us to write responses to two of the books we read; I chose to write one to this book. A single line made me very angry but also made me feel almost worthless.
I cried.
I made those ugly heaving-for-air noises while my best friend held me. Twice – we went to the Spirituality Room after the security guard shooed us from another building. The Spiral Staircase had gotten to me and I knew the catalyst was re-reading what Karen Armstrong’s doctor had told her: “[Psychiatric] hospitals are not for intelligent people.” [1]
My rants jumped all over the place. I was angry that a doctor could insinuate that those she swore to help were in a hospital because they weren’t intelligent. Indignation filled me that Karen Armstrong chose to portray patients and the routine of the Littlemore or the Warnefold as hopeless and rigid. I know what it was like to be in a psychiatric ward. Not once, not twice, but three times. My first time was a substantial month and a half and the other times were twice in one month. I suppose I could even brag and say they spanned two continents:
The experiences were very different, from the Asian public psychiatric ward to a private on in an American town. The former tended to center more on one-on-one sessions with a psychiatrist/psychologist whereas the latter worked with group therapy, a social worker and only brief visits from the psychiatrist. Both places, however, tried to help as much as they could to the wide variety of mental illnesses they encountered and never made us feel we were inferior for being there. Yes, both places had rigid schedules but we were all there because we had lost some self-control and needed someone to guide us temporarily.
I can’t claim Armstrong would’ve met as many ex-nuns as I met other depressed and suicidal patients, but I’m sure she would’ve come across people who felt as out-of-place in “the outside world”[2] as she was. I felt she dismissed the patients too easily and put her in an aloof place consciously, unable to “think that [the Littlemore] was a natural habitation for [her].”[3] If she was confident Cherwell Edge, a place she left, would give her sanctuary, she didn’t seem to think a psychiatric ward could offer even the possibility of help. She did not even seem to think about what the psychiatric wards were for. Did she not realize that Sister Rebecca would have been in such a place for her anorexia if the nuns were willing to help and let her go? She was incensed at seeing Sister Rebecca waste away in front of her; where did she think Sister Rebecca would receive would receive treatment?
I will excuse Armstrong slightly, though, because her story was between the autumn of 1971 and the summer of 1973, and they may not have been as understanding of mental illnesses as they are now. Also, most people fail to think logically under duress.
However, I can’t forgive the doctor’s comment. I think it’s extremely abrasive for a psychiatrist to make such a comment. A medical doctor specializing in the preventing, diagnosis and treatment of mental illness[4] should never make statements that could be taken as belittling their patients. How are mentally ill patients suppose to react to hearing their doctors say they are unintelligent asking for aid? I’ve had numerous people tell me it takes strength to ask for help; it’s not a weakness. If I heard my doctor say I was unintelligent, I would be baffled at the contradictions. Seeing as how “doctors know best” and it is easier to believe the negative, I would probably sink deeper in my depression and the psychiatric ward would become useless. If doctors can’t commit heart, soul and mind to their profession of helping others, then they shouldn’t have their degrees.
It took an hour to stop my tirades and tears. Karen Armstrong’s The Spiral Staircase brought back some memories and self-doubts about my stability.
[1] Karen Armstrong, The Spiral Staircase, (
[2] Ibid., 137
[3] Ibid. 132
[4] MedicineNet.com [available at: http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.a