Unit Reflection: Mental Health

According to The National Institute of Mental Health “18.1% of all U.S. adults” (NIMH). suffer from some kind of Mental Illness (not including drug/substance abuse). This shows how widespread, universal, and immediate the issue of mental health is in America. As a member of NEW core I got the opportunity to explore this and other issues in a unit on mental health, and so, as a result of completing this unit I was able to apply knowledge of Manic Depression to psychoanalyze the mental health of a character in the play Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare, Identify Romeo, Paris, Juliet’s Killer, and raise awareness about autism, a serious neurodevelopmental disorder in a modern media form.

I applied my knowledge of the serious mental illness bipolar disorder to Romeo and Juliet in a psychoanalysis of Capulet. While reading the play for the first time I noticed how Juliet’s father, Lord Capulet, when present in a scene, always seemed to be at the apogee of two different emotions: enraged or doleful. When assigned a psychoanalysis of an R&J character,  I wondered if Capulet’s moods were just good writing, or revealing of an underlying and undiagnosed mental disorder.  According to The National Institute of Mental Health, Bipolar disorder (Manic Depression)  “is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks” (The National Institute of Mental Health). As I noticed, Manic Depression encompasses many of Capulet’s character traits, words, and actions. This correlation is especially and exceptionally shown in Capulet’s actions and words in Act 3 scene 5 of the play, when he enters the scene in a tranquil mood and exits blazingly mad after verbally abusing his own daughter. For example, I wrote, “Capulet was apparently very agitated with Juliet because of her refusal, but, because he was experiencing a manic pole, he was compelled to react violently. This statistic also shows the overwhelming likelihood of him previously displaying violent behavior. This impulsive aggression is a polar opposite of Capulet’s previous phlegmatic passivity and shows the diametric change in mood that Capulet and other bipolar people suffer from” (Forrest). This excerpt reveals how, according to a statistic and a quote from Capulet’s angry rant,  Capulet had likely abused Juliet in the past and how he was compelled to during his dialogue. The depth of this analysis shows the extent of my gained knowledge and the extent of my proficiency in writing.  This psychoanalysis allowed me to better and deepen my knowledge of mental disorders, refine my essay writing skills, and bolster my understanding of the play and the motivations and backgrounds of vital characters like Capulet and his daughter Juliet.

Our Failed Attempt At Gel Electrophoresis

I, also, was able to identify  Romeo and Juliet’s Murderer by using Gel Electrophoresis. Gel electrophoresis is a process that allows for the separation of macromolecules by size and length by running an electric current through a microscopically matrixed agarose block, which will separate the molecules by size because they will travel towards the opposite electrode than its charge. Smaller and shorter molecules will travel farther than larger ones.  According to the conclusion of my lab report “the lengths of the strands of a human’s DNA is unique from person to person, and the longer a piece of DNA is the shorter a distance it will travel through the agarose. So each person has a unique pattern that is formed after a current is run through it” (Forrest). If a suspect's DNA is matched to a sample of DNA found at a crime scene, it is extremely incriminating evidence. Unfortunately, our lab failed, but we were able to acquire useful scientific skills such as DNA extraction, usage of a pipette, safety around biohazards, gel box construction. In my lab report, I also included fake lab results and subsequent graph based on the fact that Friar Laurence was later revealed to be the killer which shows a thorough understanding of the topic. This technique of gel electrophoresis can also be used for paternity and maternity test. This relates to the mental illness depression because of the hereditary nature of Major Depression. Genes are one of 2 major factors of depression and tests like this can confirm if a child is likely to have depression or not based on the knowledge of a parent's mental history. This lab allowed me to take an inside scientific perspective into Romeo and Juliet as a murder investigator while getting to expand knowledge of scientific analysis methods.

Faked Data Returned By the "lab"

Graph created From the Fake Data That Shows Friar Laurence's Distance Pattern Matching the Murderer's pattern.
(Also shows maternity between Lady Capulet and Juliet)

Lastly, I helped put people in the shoes of an autistic person by creating a video to be watched in an inexpensive vr player. My partner, Derek, and I decided to edit an original video to simulate the visual and auditory input overload that people, especially students, experience by creating an immersive vr experience inspired by this video. According to the National Autistic Society “Sometimes an autistic person may behave in a way that you wouldn't immediately link to sensory sensitivities. A person who struggles to deal with everyday sensory information can experience sensory overload or an information overload. Too much information can cause stress ... This can result in withdrawal” (NAS). We focused on the sensory overload that can be caused by autism by simulating a student that was being asked a question experienced a sensory and informational overload and a sensory overload that causes the student to remove themselves from the classroom and walk around campus for a little while before returning to class. This simulation uses a rising modern format of education and technology to help teachers and students better understand what it is like to have Autism, help educate them on what might be going on when they see behaviour such as shown in our video, and, by doing this, help them learn to accept this behaviour, not as disruptive or annoying, but as a sign that someone may be on the autism spectrum.

(Top: unedited video, Bottom: Edited)

These videos were viewed in a Gear VR utilizing special oculus software that converts 2d video into VR video,

but they can be viewed in VR using any Google-Cardboard-like viewer

This was an exceptional unit because the topic of mental health was very effectively tied to development in all 3 subjects: English and Science were tied to the psychoanalysis, technology and science were tied to the DNA analysis, and technology and science in the edited video. A person I know suffers from depression but, I thought this was a one in a 1000 type of rare illness, but this unit has opened my eyes to the prevalence of mental illness and what it truly entails.

Works Cited

The National Institute of Mental Health. "Bipolar Disorder." Nimh.nih.go. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services., 2016. Web. 20 Dec. 2016.

The National Institute of Mental Health. "Any Mental Illness (AMI) Among U.S. Adults" Nimh.nih.go. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services., 2016. Web. 20 Dec. 2016.

 "Sensory Differences." NAS. The National Autistic Society, 18 Mar. 2016. Web. 01 Feb. 2017.

Lord Capulet Gets Very Angry at Juliet. Perf. Kristen Berezniak, Ruthie Ofrasio, Beau Aranosian, and Elana Iskowitz. YouTube. East Brunswick High School Drama Club, 19 Jan. 2013. Web. 31 Jan. 2017.