Perfume - Grenouille

The main character of the book is written about as if the author despises him and perhaps rightly so. However, Grenouille is so fascinating that the reader cannot help but be drawn to him.
Apart from his incredible sense of smell he has an uncanny ability to survive. Against all odds, Grenouille lives. The source of this life seems to come from pure will for when he experiences failure and loses hope, his life also starts to dwindle. This suggests that Grenouille is hardly a human being, but merely infallible will encased in the husk of one.
He rejects the human world, only using it to help him progress with his goals, and at one point fully withdraws into himself. He has no need for company as the only love he has is for himself and no other. He has no need for a god to worship because he is god enough on his own. This extreme vanity makes him both more despicable and more interesting.
In addition, everyone Grenouille makes contact with seems to end in one horrible way or another. If he was never alive, these people may just have survived for longer or else died happily. His unconcern with others does not reduce his effect on them.
The reader is led to view Grenouille as a sort of mythical creature with the power of immortality and incredible sense of smell with a complete apathy for all of humanity.

Link to Types of Approaches to Psychotherapy

http://www.divisionofpsychotherapy.org/student/Approaches.htm

Munitionette

She,

glittering like streetlamps, yellow

of  her skin, knocking them back

hand on her chin

Bold,

like glaring sunlight, beating

of her heart, so much life

within her

 

She,

of the world behind

the glass, so rippled and he ensnared

by the writhing Dead

Cold,

are the arms that tenderly try

to snuff out the joy

within her

 

Character Analysis : Lizzie.

Lizzie is a friend of Sarah Lumb in the novel. Hopefully by reading the analysis of the quotes below to do with Lizzie in this post you will be able to get a better idea of her character in Regeneration.

P 87 - "Lizzie was keeping the younger girls entertained with a string of stories." - Lizzie is older, confident and witty as she seems to be keeping her companions entertained.

P 89 - "Lizzie said "Howay, lasses, I think our Sarah's clicked." - Lizzie is not afraid to say things, she speaks her mind and tells it like it is. She is blunt and not afraid of judgement and so can be seen to be self-assured.

P 110 - "The others were talking about Lizzie's husband, who'd thrown her into a state of shock by announcing, in his last letter that he was hoping to come home on leave soon." - We also see a slight weakness in her, as her husband may be the only one that can bring her confidence down. Although her husband abuses her, she may be stronger now because of it when he is at war and not there. Lizzie has a tough exterior when she is with the girls, perhaps she has "toughened up" due to the abuse from her Husband. Lizzie likes to be independent and does not seem like the stereotypical "weak" female character on the exterior.

P210 - "She sniffed and remained silent, enjoying the moment of power." - She is self-assured and likes to know that she has an influence/power. Perhaps this is why she does not want her to come back (as well as the obvious fact that he abuses her) she likes to be in charge.

Anderson

He is not a main character as such in the novel, but subtly, it could be said that he is the novel.

In Regeneration, each character has to regenerate in to their lives one way or another, that’s what the book is about. However, Anderson is a very interesting case because he has done a complete back flip in his life and has become almost the exact opposite of what he was.
Once a strong willed, self assured and confident surgeon, now a childlike being that has no other choice but to regenerate.

He was formerly a surgeon, who can now no longer stand the sight of blood. This is key in showing what war does to the average man. Something that seems so right and normal in everyday life can soon become ones worst nightmare.

Make a Wordle Cloud

Use this link to create Worlde Clouds - see the example under the Voki's. Click on it to blow it up.

http://www.wordle.net/

Novels with psychotherapy as a theme

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey

A great read - about a character who chooses to feign madness as a way of getting out of jail time and gets more than he bargained for.

Lillian's Story - Kate Grenville

Set in the 1920's in Australia, Lillian's Story shows the main character's descent into a changed mental state and touches on the reasons for her decline. It also highlights how mental health issues are not explainable in absolute terms.

An Angel At My Table - Janet Frame

Autobiographical, this is the second part of a three part trilogy based on New Zealand writer Janet Frame's life (written in sensitive and evocative prose) in which she describes both her literary life and her challenge with mental health issues.

The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

Semi-autobiographical, Plath tells the story of a budding New York journalist and her experience in the big city and success. A seminal text of the 20th century for dealing with women and independence and the effects of mental health issues.

Alias Grace - Margaret Atwood

Grace Marks undergoes a series of highly experimental psychological tests in an attempt by a doctor to "unravel" the mysteries of her psyche in order to find out the truth.

K-Pax - Gene Brewer

A man is admitted to a mental health facility to receive treatment for believing that he is from another planet. This is written by a psychologist who treats him and is amazed by the man's story and the way he interacts with other patients and actually helps them with their mental issues.

All of these novels have been made into films - why do you think they might have been selected to be made into movies?

Theme: Violence

This theme is mostly explored by Yeallend. Yeallend was a partner of Rivers at the national hospital in London. He used electro-shock therapy to treat his patients. Yealland is portrayed as arrogant and uncaring. The electro-shock method was brutal and merciless but Yealland thought that it was useful and it helped the patients. So far Yealland did succeed with his method. He believes that the characters that breakdown during the war are “weak” and says that they would break down in civilian life anyway

Yeallend shows clear violence through his method he used to cure the shell shocked patients. He used the electro shock method which was extremely painful.

“Baaaa! Baaaaa! Baaaaaaa!” pg 232

This quote shows a clear sign of immense pain. This was said by Callan who was getting treated by Yeallend with his electro shock method.

“you must talk before you leave” pg 229

Yealland said this to one of his patients. This implies that Yealland was shore that his electro shock method worked because he would not let his patient go unless he would start talking “Yealland applied the electrode again, continuously.” This again shows how brutal Yeallend was because he did not let his patients leave even if they were in great pain.

“whether you wanted or not” pg 231

This quote was also said by Yealland. This quote shows that Yealland is brutal and does not really care about his patients. It shows that he does not really care about his patients because he gives the treatment to his patients whether they want it or not which leaves the patient no choice and proof Yealland to be careless.

New Banner

Thanks Chris for blog banner design.

Theme- The war from a civillians point of view

In Regeneration, the only characters who don't have any direct connections with the war are Sarah Lumb, her friends and the parents of the patients at Craiglockhart. Sarah Lumb is the only character who provides a good view of a civillians mind during wartime. On reading the novel, you would have probably found that Sarah Lumb doesn't actually mention anything about the war, which then brings us to the question 'why'. Why doesn't she show any feelings towards the biggest event of that time? I felt that it probably had to do with her job. She worked in a factory that created weapons for the war and so i'm sure that if she did infact have any opinions about the war then it would have deeply affected her and her opinions would have been displayed in the novel. For instance, if she was against the war then she would have probably been devastated because of her job, and if she was for the war, then she would have probably been rather excited about her job. However, she doesn't offer any point of view at all. Even her friends and her mother don't seem to have any kind of views on the topic, which i find rather strange. While trying to think of it from a present day point of view, i find it really odd. I connected this to the present situation of the terrorist attacks in India and when i analysed the entire event I found that it resembled a war scene: soldiers hiding behind cars, coming out only to get killed( this made me think that it might have been similar for soldiers in the trenches), innocent people getting killed, popular "safe" places getting completely destroyed; all of it resembled a war scene. I also know of people who live there and who have lived there and for them, this event was probably the most frightening thing they have experienced so far. If a near-war event could instill such fear in civillians, it's interesting to think that a real war didn't quite seem to have the same effect. Was it because the war had gone on for such a long time that people got used to it? Or was it just that Pat Barker didn't want to focus on that side of things too much? 

I'm interested to know what you think about this so do post some comments :)

Theme: Religion

The idea of religion is mentioned in the novel because it is a very realistic factor of war. during war, especially in the trench war, the idea of God, faith and hope were taken very strongly by some soldiers. Simply because it was the only they could truely grasp on.

The theme of religion is mention throughout the novel. On page 98 Rivers mentions the idea of Christianity and its responsibility towards war. He symbolise holy figures such as 'The Virgin, St John, The Holy Ghost descending, and God the Father to the roles in a society such as the government, the civilians, the generals and the soldiers.

A further mention of religious theme is on page 183 to 184. The idea of Christ and death is mentioned here. It also quotes from the Bible that 'the imagination of a man's heart is evil from his youth'
Also the roles of the psychiatrist towards the patient can be considered as somewhat godly. The idea that the psychiatrist could manipulate a patient's mind into believing something, when that something is so self destructive, such as returning to war. A good example would be Dr.Yealland's session with his mute patient.

THEME - the appreciation for different forms of therapy

The appreciation for many forms of therapy becomes instrumental in combating shell-shock. Rivers maintains a calm attitude when dealing with his patients. He performs psychotherapy and in addition to that, encourages his patients (the soldiers) to talk about their personal war experience rather than to forget the horrific images and "to let themselves feel the pity and terror their war experience inevitably evoked" (pg 48). Rivers is even willing to perform hypnosis on Billy Prior in order to help him retrieve his repressed memories.

The success of River's methods can be seen in the outcome of his patients. At the beginning of the novel, Billy Prior has a conversion disorder of muteness. However, through Rivers's patient prodding, eventually Prior begins to speak again. River's gentle nature enables him to pull Prior out of his mute state. Rivers also supervises another form of therapy by allowing interaction among the patients and the staff at Craiglockhart. Rivers's father-like relationship with his patients also is a form of therapy, because the men are able to freely open up to him.The success of the various therapeutic methods presented in the novel proves how valuable therapy is to mental and physical recovery from shell shock.

Dr. Rivers encourages rest and relaxation for his patients, unlike most other psychiatrist, who turn to electric shock therapy. One doctor who adopts such method of treatment in the novel is Dr. Yealland, who appears in the last few chapters of the book. Unlike Rivers, Yealland believes that "the removal of physical symptom" (pg 224) is already enough to be described as a cure. He doesn't take into account the emotional side of his patients as most of them are clearly show signs of other mental illnesses such as depression. Yealland in general is seen as the opposite of Rivers in terms of personality. Instead of having a welcoming attitude, Yealland is described as "an impressive figure" in which he does not "merely meet your eye, but stare(s) so intently that you fe(el) your skull ha(s) become transparent" (pg 224). This quoatation depicts the negative atmosphere surrounding Yealland in which people feel as the way he stares at people suggests a motive for people to fear him. Moreover, he also believes that the most effective way to cure a patient suffering from mutism is to apply "very strong electric current" to a patient's "neck and throat", apply "hot plates...repeatedly to the back of the throat" and "lighted cigarettes to the tongue" (pg 227) . This is portrayed through the fictional character, Callan, who suffers from mutism during the war. After conducting the treatment, Callan is able to speak fluently again thus is believed to be "cured". However, we the readers, do not know the extent in which Callan is considered "cured" because he is only perceived to be cured physically (i.e. being able to speak) but not considering his psychological state.


Extra info!

"Although Rivers used the Freudian concepts of 'repression' and 'the unconscious', in his work but he did not follow the Freudian School. He treated the soldiers with 'autognosis' which involved dream analysis (and was a version of what is now called cognitive therapy). Rivers called shell shock 'anxiety neurosis' and he used catharsis and re-education by telling his patients how much faith he had in them in order to make themselves well again. Rivers used the power of suggestion to create self-belief in the patients."

--- http://sites2.scran.ac.uk/Warp/Rivers2.htm

Psychoanalysis research

One of the most obvious and major ideas in regeneration would be psychoanalysis and the human mind. If you want to find out more about psychoanalysis theories to better understand the ideas suggested in 'Regeneration' then these are a few other theories of psychoanalysis you could research on.

- Alfred Adler
- Otto Rank
- Melanie Klein
- Erich Fromm
- Karen Horney
- Harry Stack Sullivan
- Carl Jung
- Jean Martin Charcot

Deja vu

is the experience of feeling sure that one has witnessed or experienced a new situation previously (an individual feels as though an event has already happened or has happened in the near past). The term was created by a French psychic researcher, Émile Boirac (1851–1917) in his book "L'Avenir des sciences psychiques" ("The Future of Psychic Sciences"), which expanded upon an essay he wrote while an undergraduate. The experience of déjà vu is usually accompanied by a compelling sense of familiarity, and also a sense of "eeriness," "strangeness," or "weirdness," The "previous" experience is most frequently attributed to a dream, although in some cases there is a firm sense that the experience "genuinely happened" in the past.

The experience of déjà vu seems to be quite common among adults and children alike; in formal studies, 70% of people report having experienced it at least once. References to the experience of déjà vu are also found in literature of the past, indicating it is not a new phenomenon. It has been extremely difficult to evoke the déjà vu experience in laboratory settings, therefore making it a subject of few empirical studies. Recently, researchers have found ways to recreate this sensation using hypnosis.


Please add more info or any stories you would like to share!

Carl Gustav Jung

Aim:
Jung’s aim was to resolve the diverse states of personality which he believed divided not only into extrovert an introvert but also into feeling and thinking. Through understanding how the personal unconscious combine with the collective unconscious, a patient can therefore achieve a wholeness in ones self.


Intoversion and Extraversion:
•Introverts are people who prefer their internal world of thoughts, feelings, fantasies, dreams
•extroverts prefer the external world of things and people and activities

Introversion and extraversion refer more to whether your ("ego") more often faced toward the persona and outer reality, or toward the collective unconscious and its archetypes. In that sense, the introvert is somewhat more mature than the extrovert. Our culture, of course, values the extrovert much more.


Jung’s belief was similar to Freuds with the Collective unconscious and the Individual unconscious:
Individual Conscious:
•The repressed feelings and thoughts developed during an individuals life.

Collective unconscious:
•Inherited thoughts, feelings and memories shared by all humanity.
• The collective unconscious is made up of archetypes or primordial images which corresponds with:
confronting death

choosing a mate

surrounding ones self symbolically
in religions, myths, fairy tales etc.


Jung's theory divides the psyche into three parts:
(Difference from Freud)

The ego = conscious mind

The personal unconscious = anything which is not conscious. The personal unconscious includes both memories that are easily brought to mind and those that have been suppressed for some reason. But it does not include the instincts that Freud would have it include.

Collective unconscious = Knowledge and experiences we share as a species. And yet we are never directly conscious of it. It influences all of our experiences and behaviors, most especially the emotional ones.
Examples:
•love at first sight
•deja vu (the feeling that you've been here before)
•the immediate recognition of certain symbols
•the spiritual experiences of mystics of all religions
•the parallels in dreams, fantasies, mythologies, fairy tales, and literature
•Near death experiences


Archetypes:

•The contents of the collective unconscious.
•The archetype has no form of its own, but it acts as an "organizing principle" on the things we see or do.
•Unlike Freud’s theory phallic symbols do not usually refer to sex at all. They usually symbolize mana, or spiritual power.
Ie:These symbols would be displayed on occasions when the spirits are being called upon to increase the yield of corn, or fish, or to heal someone.

Example:
It works the way that instincts work in Freud's theory:
At first, the baby just wants something to eat, without knowing what it wants. Later, with experience, the child begins to yearn for something more specific when it is hungry -- a bottle, a cookie, a broiled lobster, a slice of New York style pizza.


Extra Info!
•Carl Jung was born on 26th July, 1875
• He died on 6th June, 1961
• Jung began his work on word association, in which a patient's responses to stimulus words revealed what Jung called “complexes”—a term that has since become universal.
• These studies brought him international renown and led him to a close collaboration with Freud.
• Jung continued to write voluminously through out his life, especially on analytical methods and the relationships between psychotherapy and religious belief.

THE END!
Thank you for reading.

Theme: Impacts & The Government

Apart from being physically and mentally disturbed, there are also links on two total different impacts the wars have caused.

1. Education and Dreams

This is presented through Burns, “Cut a chrysalis open, and you will find a rotting caterpillar. What you will never find is that mythical creature, half caterpillar, half butterfly…Burns was young, after all…Though it was difficult to see him as an undergraduate. He had missed his chance of being ordinary” (page 184) The imagery of chrysalis, caterpillar and butterfly link to the idea of the barrier the war has created, insisted youngsters to join the war, killed one another. It degenerates the youth, ruins their educating life to create peace. Therefore, dreams and ambitions have no stands in the soldiers (another emotional difficulty to overcome)

2. Women

The war however seems to bring in a positive connotation towards women.

“That would help to account for the greater prevalence of anxiety neuroses and hysterical disorders of women in peacetime…Any explanation of war neurosis must account for the fact that this apparently intensely masculine life of war and danger and hardship produced in men the same disorders that women suffered from in peace” (page 222). This quotation shows a contradiction between women and men. The war allowed women to actually work helpfully while during peace, the women’s lives were too cliché that neurosis occurred to them. This contrasting idea makes the readers think about what changes would take place in women status in the society after the war, perhaps, emancipating.

____

Another small theme which I find is quoted through Sarah's perspective. Pat Barker barely directs this theme later in the novel.

The Government

This is presented through the time when Sarah accompanied her friend, Madge, to visit Madge’s fiancé. She got lost and found injured soldiers. Page 160, as described “Figures that were no longer the size and shape of adult men. Trouser legs sewn short; empty sleeves pinned to jacked. One man had lost all his limbs…They stared at her…blank stare…If she’d managed to smile, to look normal, it might have been better. But no, she thought, there was nothing she could have done that would have made it better. Simply by being there…:a pretty girl, she had made everything worse”. Sarah’s shocked reaction highlights the fact that the society hid the injured soldiers and still encouraged the new generation to join the army, they dared not to display the negativeness and cruelty the war punished. Selfishness and immorality are emphasised. The depiction hides no euphemism & disgust, it also conveys sympathy and provokes anger towards the government & their lies.

Rivers vs. Head

I and Frances had a very interesting discussion about Henry Head and we did not have a chance to present in class so here are our points.

Although Rivers and Head did research together at Cambridge in the old days but they are very different characters, we thought. Head is more of a 'physical' character; he has not been to war and was willing to create his own neurosis. We think he is addicted to pain, page 48: "Henry had frequently expressed the desire for a reciprocal application of ice cubes, bristles, near-boiling water and pins" and he wants to feel what the other soldiers felt; Head volunteered himself as the subject of the proposed experiment - locating "the area of hypersensitivity to pain" (chapter 5, page 45, Rivers' dream)

Rivers, on the other hand, is more of a 'mental' character, he treats his shell-shocked patients by talking to them and he has very good interaction with his patients, for example, Sassoon sees him as a fatherly figure. Throughout the novel, we have the indication of Rivers being "introverted, self-conscious, reticent" character (page 249) - all of these words imply that he has a lot of unspoken thoughts kept in his mind and this suggests he is a 'mental' character.

Also, this is my sole opinion about the way in which Pat Barker chooses her characters' names. The 'head' is a part of our body and it is tangible, we can physically touch it; Henry Head, as I have said above, is a 'physical' character because he likes things to be done on his body so I think there is a connection between his name and his personality - something physical, tangible. Whereas Rivers is a 'thinking' character and again, we cannot touch 'thoughts'; linking his name back to reality, a "river", you can never touch because rocks, water, sand and mud together create a river, you can touch any of these things but never a 'river'.

Pat Barker may not even have this idea in her mind when she chose her characters to be Head and Rivers but I find these connections really interesting. All comments are appreciated, whether you disagree (:

L O V E between men and women in Regeneration

The interaction between Sarah Lumb and Prior seems to be the only man-woman relationship in this novel. Here is a quotation and analysis for how love between men and women is perceived during the time of war in the novel.

Quote:

Sarah thought: to make marriage the sole end of female existence, and yet deny that love between men and women was possible. Ada did deny it. In her world, men loved women as the fox loved the hare. And women loved men as a tapeworm loves the gut.

This quote is from Sarah's thoughts in Part Four, Chapter 17, of Regeneration. Sarah reflects upon the way her mother, Ada, has brought her up. Ada has taught her daughters a hard realism learned from difficult personal experience. The similes of the fox and the hare, the tapeworm and the gut are meant to be bluntly unromantic. As Ada sees it, there is nothing romantic about marriage; marriage is merely a symbiotic relationship for mutual net gain. Ada wants her daughters to marry, but the ideal marriage would involve quickly becoming a widow and keeping a late husband's pension.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, there were few career opportunities for women, who were left virtually dependent on men for their support and subsistence. Ada encourages her daughters to make marriage an ultimate goal, ensuring their financial security. But Sarah does not so easily accept the lessons her mother teaches her. As a consequence of the war, Sarah has been able to work and make a good salary; consequently, she does not see herself as entirely reliant on any man. When she responds that she loves Prior in return, she rejects the harsh realism that says that love between men and women is impossible. Underlying this quotation is the idea that the war has improved women's lives and prospects. The war has, ironically, perhaps made romance possible by giving freedom to an entire generation of women.

Psychological types - Multiple Intelligence/Emotional Intelligence (EQ)

Your psychological type links to your Emotional Intelligence.

The term emotional quotient (EQ) was coined in 1990, and is now a commonly used term to describe the degree of control a person has over his/her emotions. EQ is often contrasted with IQ (Intelligence Quotient), and is usually thought to be independent –that is an IQ score is no indicator of EQ score.

High EQ people are supposed to enjoy high levels of self-awareness, and to use their self-knowledge to manage their lives skilfully. Most theorists believe that developing EQ is much like going to the gym – the more you practise the skills the easier it becomes. They tend to identify 5 areas of emotional knowledge:

Knowing your emotions
Managing your emotions
Motivating yourself
Recognising emotion in others
Handling relationships.

Emotions have been a subject for research on the brain and learning. Understanding of our own emotions (intrapersonal intelligence) and the emotions of others (interpersonal intelligence) has been treated as “emotional intelligence”.

Interpersonal intelligence means understanding other people and their motivations and implies being able to work in cooperation and collaboration. All sorts of successful people from teachers to religious leaders and politicians probably display these skills to a high degree. Intrapersonal intelligence involves just the same abilities turned inwards onto oneself.

Follow the link below and take the The Emotional Intelligence Test which will evaluate several aspects of your emotional intelligence and will suggest ways to improve it.

http://www.queendom.com/tests/access_page/index.htm?idRegTest=1121

Answer the questions honestly, do not try to predict what the 'correct' answer should be.

Psychological types/ Multiple Intelligence

After learning about Jung and his theories of psychological types here is an opportunty for you to discover what type you are by taking the free test. This enables you to learn more about yourself and your strengths and weaknesses. Follow the link below:

http://www.mypersonality.info/

This also links with the way you learn and therefore relates closely to Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences. In his book 'Frames of mind' in 1983 he developed a theory of 7 intelligences: Linguistic, Bodily- Kinesthetic, Spatial Musical, Logical mathematical, Interpersonal and Intrapersonal. Where do your strengths lie? Take the test!