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Self-Test

• Summary-Writing Self-Test 1: Divide "Understand" into stages of thought
• Summary-Writing Self-Test 2: Summarizing Stages of Thought
• Summary-Writing Self-Test 3: Entire Essay in One Sentence
• Summary-Writing Self-Test 4: Putting it All Together

Stages of thoughts

• 1-2: Edwards shared his terror of childhood that turns him into a prisoner of family pride and reflects on what works and what hurt for him.
• First main point - para. 3-5: Others' reflection on Edwards' stories with empathy and offered him choices allowed him to take control of his life and be sane again instead of hospitalization without choices deprived.
• Second main point - para. 6-7: Hospitalization didn't work for Edward as a patient when it lacks human interaction due to the fear of the mentally ill being the "crazy people".
• Third main point - para. 8-11: Listening to the delusions or fictional engagement and connecting to the feeling of the mentally ill are worth exploring to help treat patients.
• CONCLUSION: para. 12 + poem: Edwards recover from the terror of this childhood by sharing stories and reflecting on the allusion of imprisonment with the support and encouragement by families.

4 Key Questions

• 1. where did this reading first appear by using internet resources - author / book / article name search using Google Scholar; BCIT library searches; publisher's catalogues
  • 1. The Patient's Voice: Experiences of Illnesses Jeanine Young-Mason, 2016
• 2. It's originally a book with 20 stories of the patient
  • 2. who was the original audience for this text, and how you know? can have multiple audiences
  • 1. the general public who are interested in the patient experience of illnesses
• 3. what's the purpose of this text? what does the author want to accomplish - express, inform, persuade, entertain
  • 1. to express
• 4. what's the primary idea or thesis of this text? single declarative sentence
  • 1. Hospitals are not necessary for healing patient's mental health based on the personal hospitalizing experience because it's detriments the patients' living environment
  • 2. Listening to the patients' stories and exploring their world like delusions to offer choices instead of treating them as "crazy people" would help patients recover from psychoses
  • 3. Assertion: Edwards shared, The recover of patients with psychoses can be fostered if their stories and delusions are listened and explored with empathy aside from the medications.
• In "Understand," Christopher Edwards describes that the recovery of patients with psychoses can be fostered if their stories and delusions are listened and explored with empathy during the hospitalization using his own life experiences.

Discussion

• Available until May 21, 2023 11:59 PM.
• Discussions are to be approached as chat, and engaged from the beginning of the week
• explore ideas, offer your individual insights and valuable discoveries;
• put a draft thesis statement out for peer evaluation;
• provide or request direction: this informal peer-to-peer environment is the professionally-proven engine for relaxed and intensely creative co-operative exchange.
• Here are the questions for you as a class to discuss, about Christopher Edwards' essay "Understand"
• Who are the audiences for this essay? In other words, what kinds of readers does it address itself to, or, to whom does it appeal? How do you know?
• What do we learn about the author from his text?
  • Without making superficial or trivial observations, what facts does the text give about the author: for instance, what assumptions are required to understand the text?
    • He has a suppressive childhood, from a privileged family that values much of the pride; assumptions
• What is the primary idea of the essay? That is, sum up the essay in, best, one or, if necessary, two sentences?
  • How (and this is a critical question for academic writing) does the author develop his Primary idea?
    • Primary ideas are developed by Secondary ideas: subordinate specific ideas that sequentially support and show the sense of the Primary idea.
      • Tertiary ideas are examples and proofs of Primary and Secondary ideas.
  • What do you think is the meaning of "vicious greenhouse" (par. 1)?
  • What other words or phrases are unclear to you in this essay?

Edwards C. (1997) Understand

[[1177_Edwards_C_1997_Understand.pdf]]

1. I grew up in a vicious greenhouse, ...
   • Fundamentalist - a person believing in strict adherence to doctrines and practices held to be fundamental to Christianity
   • Cain and Abel: first 2 sons of Eve and Adam; god favored and accepted the sacrifice of firstborn flock from Abel, the shepherd, instead of the crops from Cain, the farmer. Hence, Cain killed Abel and was punished by god.
2. As I approach my 42nd year, ...
   • 1. Edwards would like to share his story of what worked and hurt him through his recover from the terror of his childhood
3. What worked is ridiculously simple, ...
   • 1. a chaplain - the priest - and a volunteer listened to and reflected Edwards' experience back to him with empathy and offered choices to be sane again
   • 2. drubbing - a beating or thrashing
4. In another instance, ...
   • 1. Edwards' wife believed him to be the trustee to end the hospitalization regardless of the doctor's advices for Edwards to regain the control over his life
5. Another of my hospitalizations ended ...
   • 1. Edwards' father offered him a choice during the hospitalization when he was deprived of making decisions of himself.
6. What hasn't worked? ...
   • 1. Hospitalization didn't work for Edward as a patient when the healing process lacks human interaction
7. How can a person heal ...
   • 1. Edwards believe the lack of real human contact due to the fear of "crazy people" and thus objectification of patients negated the positive effects of medications
8. The issue of listening to ...
   • 1. delusion - the action of befooling with false impressions or beliefs
   • 2. Listening to the delusions and connect to the feeling by the patient can help treat a patient
9. I have observed the importance of such fictional engagement ...
   • 1. Listening to such fictional engagement like delusions would help because Edwards supported his wife in 2 manic episodes as she strove to realize ambitions in the real world
10. I want to finish by underscoring my claim ...
    • 1. The stories of the mentally ill people are worth exploring and listening for them to recover
11. While experiencing my psychoses in the hospital,...
    • 1. allusion - an indirect reference to a people or thing; metaphor, parable
    • 2. death row - prison section for those sentences to death
    • 3. A prisoner on death row awaiting electrocution is an allusion by Edwards as he recovers from the self-wounding to imitate Christ for the resurgence of his Christian faith after hospitalization and psychoses
12. I now connect both ...
    • 1. What's the original delusion here? is it the delusion in the poem? or is it the self-wounding
    • 2. Edwards connects and recover from the terror of his childhood with fictional engagement

• Poem - The wounding
  • the poem connects his spiritual resurgence when he's in the process of recovering from the mental illnesses
• In his account of his childhood, Edwards reveals "terror that has spilled over into three major hospitalizations and three marriages." He vividly describes what fostered his recovery and what actually hurt him. His experience is distilled in a poignant poem, "The Wounding."

My Summary

• In "Understand," Christopher Edwards describes that healthcare providers can help foster patients recover from psychoses if their stories and delusions are listened to and explored with empathy during the hospitalization using his life experiences.
• Edwards shared his terror of childhood that turns him into a prisoner of family pride and reflects on what works for and hurts him during his recovery from the mental illness.
• Firstly, others' reflections on Edwards' stories with empathy and offered him choices allowed him to take control of his life and be sane again instead of being hospitalized with only medications.
• On the contrary, hospitalization didn't work for Edward as a patient when it lacked human interaction due to the fear of the mentally ill being the "crazy people."
• Edwards emphasized/stressed that listening to the delusions or fictional engagement and connecting to the feeling of the mentally ill are worth exploring to help treat patients.
• In summary, Edwards recover from the terror of their childhood by sharing stories and reflecting on the allusion to imprisonment with the support and encouragement of families.
• My response
• Discussion - Understand by Joe
• Hi Joe,
  Thanks for sharing your perspective. I agree that the article's audience would be the healthcare and support community of patients with psychosis, especially the mental health caregivers like therapists and nurses.
• The author points out that the hospitals prioritized efficiency by minimizing human empathy for the patient's treatment and relying on overmedication. The author also stresses the issue of ignoring patients stemmed from the caregivers' fear of the mentally ill due to stigma. Also, in a broader context, the essay was extracted from the book "The Patient's Voice: Experiences of Illnesses," among 16 autobiographical stories of patients and compiled by registered nurse Jeanine Young-Mason. The idea should appeal to mental health workers as it provided a potentially neglected perspective from an empowered patient.

Teacher feedback

• sharpen responses online to meet the expectations of academic readers
• "Overall, I thought this was a really thoughtful, insightful essay"
• don't use "overall" for opinions
• "I thought" is diary mode (today, social media mode): academic mode is "I argue..."
• In academic writing "really" is used to draw out an opposition or antinomy (conflict) with something unreal (e.g. 'apparent', 'artificial',). Otherwise it is an empty intensifier, again, a customary media malapropism.
• don't use doublet 'thoughtful, insightful' when unnecessary as written is prima facie (at first sight) pleonasm; but in any case indirect and evaluative instead of direct analytical.
• With due respects, and, an objective observation, name an authority in exposition as well as by quotation or credible paraphrase that exemplifies the relevant idea claimed, then detail the precise pertinency, where association between essay and source named is not immediately evident.
• The more the volume of Posts in each assigned Discussion Module the greater the opportunity to receive beneficial peer-to-peer advice and detail.
• excellent response - "crazy"- stigma per Mariah Padlosky to Joseph Fahey
• Joe, I believe you said it best, showing the aspect where the author shines light on his own personal traumas that allow us to follow him throughout his journey.
  Personally, I believe this story is addressed to those who brand those poorly affected by mental health, as the "crazy people". The large stigma that surrounds mental health and those who are open about it, to this day continues. While you can feel the authors traumas, it opens the door to show each person can experience various types of mental health and suffer no matter the circumstance, their illness does not define them.

Sandbox format of the discussion

• diction should be informal like in-class discussion or seminar, but make the language correct and proper, mind the grammar and spelling
• post your questions and insights on a minimum of 2 days in the week. Begin early in the week, and then make beneficial responses later in the week, as the constructive chat develops.
• contribute responses to several class fellows' chat posts, likewise on at least 2 days of the week.
• Stay focused on the reading questions assigned for that particular discussion.
• a sandbox for student to explore, create, wrestle, correct, revise, challenge, and develop ideas about the material for engagement and asymptotic (gets closer infinitively) understanding