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Mental Health Connection

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Submitted By lazyone999
Words 3751
Pages 16
In modern society there are many stresses not felt by previous generations, these pressures have increased significantly as we continue to create new and more complex human systems. In a society driven by wealth and an obsession with success we have begun to cloud our vision of what values we deem important. This can ultimately culminate in a feeling of being pursued and trapped and society’s mental health has subsequently deteriorated. Accordingly the Ministry of Health Statistics 2009 1/5 New Zealanders experience a mental disorder sometime during their life, of these only 39% have visited mental health services, the Ministry of Health also found that 4.5% of New Zealanders have attempted suicide with males being 3.6% more likely to commit suicide than females. This is also reflected in OECD (Organisation for economic co-operation and development) statistics, New Zealand currently has the highest rate of youth suicide, ages 15-24, in countries belonging to the OECD and 29th highest overall suicide rate. This is why I have decided to explore ‘the catalysts prevalent in established society which can be detrimental to our populations overall mental health.’ This theme is prevalent within the following combination of texts; Howl by Allen Ginsberg, Mental Cases by Wilfred Owen, Requiem for a Dream by Darren Aronofsky and Shutter Island by Martin Scorsese. These texts explore different aspects of the human psyche and of mental illness by examining these texts I hope to identify and expose which aspects of our society could be injurious to our mental health.
Howl written in 1955 is Allen Ginsberg’s most famous piece of poetry to date which proved to be provocative and test the boundaries of the society which Ginsberg lived in. He pushed the boundaries of free speech writing on a range of topical issues concerning himself or that he believed were in need of denouncement.

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