Ensayo De La Etica

On the great scale of things, all things are Madness; on the small scale, the whole itself
is madness. Which means that if madness can only exist in reference to some form of
reason, the whole truth of reason is to allow a form of unreason to appear and to
oppose it, only to disappear in turn in a madness that engulfs all. -- Foucault
From torture to treatment, from hospitals to homelessness:mental illness has a
history of change. Once thought to be the work of witches and demons, in Europe in the
Middle Ages madness was shunned from society, forced to live on the fringes of
societies and cities (Foucault, 1961). In America, in the 1800s treatments for the
mentally ill varied from physical punishment – to rid the body of the demons- to neglect.
In the first half of the twentiethcentury, things began to change as more people realized
that the mentally ill could and should be treated (Linhorst, 2006). These treatments were
the first of many in a battle against mental illness that attempted to restore the patient to
a normal life -- was this achieved with the best interests of the patients in mind?
Happiness and a sense of normality has always been the ultimate goal ofthe
treatments for mental illness. Unfortunately happiness is not something that can be
dealt with directly, rather several other aspects of society and life must be dealt with
before happiness is reached. Dictating happiness is both unrealistic and improbable.
Happiness can only be truly achieved through changes in society’s attitude, changes in
justice, and social integration. While thesechanges must progress linearly, the process
of achieving happiness is cyclical, each part of the process has the ability to change
other parts of the process, and thus happiness is an always-changing destination.
Societal Attitude
Societal attitude has had a profound effect on the field on mental illness since the
Middle Ages and continues to have an effect today. Society’s attitude towardmental
illness has guided everything about the treatment of the mentally ill throughout history.
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From diagnosing the mental
illness to treating it, society determined who was insane through non-standardized
methods. Foucault in his book, A History of Madness, demonstrated the sometimes
extreme methods undertaken by society in order to condemn those who were “insane,”
one profound example isthe arrest and subsequent treatment of a girl who didn’t want
to get married (Foucault, 1961). The treatments were also non-standardized and
through history depending on societies attitudes toward mental illness ranged from
physical imprisonment to chemical restraints, and from lobotomies and shock therapies
to medications with horrible side effects. In terms of the effect of society’sattitude today
is no different than history; however, we know that society’s attitude can change, and
this change can cause a cascade of effects that can affect the lives of the mentally ill.
While there are several methods of changing societies attitude towards mental
illness, the primary method of change is education. The continuing education and
acceptance of mental illness decreases thenegative stigmas often associated with
mental illness, which helps to increase both the quality and the effect of the treatment.
In the United Kingdom a longitudinal study showed how education could change the
opinions of an individual towards mental illness, and that this change of opinion can
change the effectiveness of treatment centers.
Fortunately through education, of the number of individualssurveyed in the
United Kingdom, only 7% would be frightened to live next to a mentally ill individual or
believe that the mentally ill should have no responsibility (Partnership, 2009). In addition
the survey shows that in the United Kingdom 81% of people are willing to talk to a
doctor about mental health issues and 66% would be comfortable talking about mental
health issues with family...