[90693] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Winter 2016 Top-Brand Windows on Sale
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (EcoWindows)
Wed Oct 26 16:03:43 2016
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2016 15:06:36 -0400
From: EcoWindows <ecowindows@winterwiindows.com>
To: <mit-talk-mtg@charon.mit.edu>
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A new virtual-reality attraction planned for Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Pa=
rk, Calif., was announced last month in advance of the peak haunted-house s=
eason. The name, "Fear VR 5150," was significant. The number 5150 is the Ca=
lifornia psychiatric involuntary commitment code, used for a mentally ill p=
erson who is deemed a danger to himself or others. Upon arrival in an ersat=
z "psychiatric hospital exam room," VR 5150 visitors would be strapped into=
a wheelchair and fitted with headphones. "The VR headset puts you in the m=
iddle of the action inside the hospital," an article in The Orange County R=
egister explained. "One patient seems agitated and attempts to get up from =
a bed. Security officers try to subdue him. A nurse gives you a shot (which=
you will feel), knocking you out. When you wake up in the next scene, all =
hell has broken loose. Look left, right and down, bloody bodies lie on the =
floor. You hear people whimpering in pain." Knott's Berry Farm is operated =
by Ohio-based Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, and Fear VR 5150 was to be =
featured at two other Cedar Fair parks as well. Almost simultaneously, two =
similar attractions were started at Six Flags. A news release for one expla=
ined: "Our new haunted house brings you face-to-face with the world's worst=
psychiatric patients. Traverse the haunted hallways of Dark Oaks Asylum an=
d try not to bump into any of the grunting inmates around every turn. Mania=
cal inmates yell out from their bloodstained rooms and deranged guards wand=
er the corridors in search of those who have escaped." The Orange County br=
anch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) sprang into action, =
and Doris Schwartz, a Westchester, N.Y.-based mental-health professional, i=
mmediately emailed a roster of 130 grass-roots activists, including me, man=
y of whom flooded Cedar Fair and Six Flags with phone calls, petitions and =
emails. After some heated back-and-forth, Fear VR 5150 was shelved, and Six=
Flags changed the mental patients in its maze into zombies. Continue readi=
ng the main story Disability Essays, art and opinion exploring the lives of=
people living with disabilities. I Don't Want to Be 'Inspiring'OCT 20 I Ha=
ve Diabetes. Am I to Blame?OCT 12 A Disabled Life Is a Life Worth LivingOCT=
5 The Deaf Body in Public SpaceSEP 28 Longing for the Male GazeSEP 21 See =
More =C3=82=C2=BB 112 COMMENTS Do you think Halloween-style depictions of m=
entally ill people should be an acceptable part of the holiday, or do they =
lead to prejudice and mistreatment? Share your thoughts =C3=82=C2=BB As bot=
h a psychiatric patient and a professor of clinical psychology, I was sadde=
ned to see painful lived experiences transmogrified into spooky entertainme=
nt. I was also unnerved to consider that I was someone else's idea of a gho=
ul, a figure more or less interchangeable with a zombie. I became severely,=
clinically depressed for the first time in 1994. I was unable to speak, un=
able to get out of bed, unable to function in the world, and I thought of s=
uicide constantly. I was afraid all the time but didn't know what I was afr=
aid of; I was numb to my own emotions and stripped of vitality. I have most=
ly done better these last two decades through the rigors of intensive treat=
ment by both a psychoanalyst and a psychopharmacologist. I now take a cockt=
ail of five medications and I go to therapy weekly. My mental illness is la=
rgely (though not entirely) under control, but as my therapist pointed out =
recently when I was cavalier about some warning signs, "In this room, Andre=
w, we never forget that you are entirely capable of taking the express elev=
ator to the bargain basement of mental health." I wrote about my experience=
s with depression in a book, "The Noonday Demon," and spoke about them in a=
TED talk, and I now get floods of mail from people who are dealing with me=
ntal illness =C3=A2=E2=82=AC=E2=80=9D most of them isolated, terrified and =
bewildered; many of them unable to access the kind of decent care that has =
been so transformative for me. For those of us with firsthand experience wi=
th mental illness =C3=A2=E2=82=AC=E2=80=9D especially those who have experi=
enced trauma in a mental hospital =C3=A2=E2=82=AC=E2=80=9D such entertainme=
nt ventures cut much too close to the bone. When my mother was dying of can=
cer, she was admitted to some miserable wards, but I find it hard to envisi=
on a Halloween event at which you would pretend to be getting chemotherapy =
and vomiting constantly while surrounded by patients driven into the quasi-=
dementia that comes of unremitting pain. Sign Up for the Opinion Today News=
letter Every weekday, get thought-provoking commentary from Op-Ed columnist=
s, the Times editorial board and contributing writers from around the world=
Sign Up Receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Ti=
mes's products and services. SEE SAMPLE PRIVACY POLICY I have a pretty good=
sense of humor about myself. We all use the language of mental illness cav=
alierly. We say that our parents or our kids are driving us crazy; we compl=
ain we will soon go mad if the traffic doesn't clear; we accuse Donald Trum=
p of having a personality disorder (which, whether accurate or not, is stil=
l intended as a disparagement). But I have also spent a lifetime trying to =
laugh when a friend has driven me past a psychiatric hospital and commented=
on the loons inside, to crack a smile when people have expressed their emo=
tional extravagance with a jest about suicide. Sanity and mental illness li=
e on a spectrum, and most people occasionally cross over from one side to t=
he other. It's the proximity of mental illness rather than its obscurity th=
at makes it so scary. But it should be scary in a "fix the broken care syst=
em" way or in a "figure out the brain's biology" way, and not in a "scream =
for laughs" kind of way. The rhetoric with which Cedar Fair attempted to mo=
llify the activists was troubling. The company wrote by way of explanation,=
"Our evening attractions are designed to be edgy, and are aimed at an adul=
t-only audience." But "edgy" is not in general a euphemism for "stigmatizin=
g of a disenfranchised population," and the defense that the attraction was=
for adults only seemed a very token mitigation =C3=A2=E2=82=AC=E2=80=9D as=
though adults were not the progenitors of most chauvinism and hatred. The =
attractions at Cedar Fair and Six Flags were not intended as representation=
s of what mental illness is really like; they were incidentally demeaning, =
rather than willfully so. But how readily do such lapses approximate hate s=
peech? And with what potential to provoke misunderstanding, fear and even h=
arm to people with few defenses? The misperception that mentally ill people=
are inherently dangerous is one of the most treacherous ideas in circulati=
on about us. It surfaces widely every time a mass shooter is on the loose, =
and results in the subjugation of people who are not menacing in any way. I=
recognize the free-speech claim that individuals and entertainment compani=
es have every right to demean people with mental illnesses, but these repre=
sentations have very real consequences =C3=A2=E2=82=AC=E2=80=9D the stigmat=
ization of the mentally ill, and the prejudice, poor treatment and violatio=
ns of their rights that naturally follow. Other people's fear of us can hav=
e terrible consequences. There are regular reports of police who respond ag=
gressively or violently to the erratic behavior of mentally ill people, whe=
ther they are armed or not =C3=A2=E2=82=AC=E2=80=9D the latest being the ki=
lling of Deborah Danner, a woman with schizophrenia, by a New York City Pol=
ice Officer. There are more mentally ill people in our prison system than i=
n our health care system. It is possible to honor the power of burlesque ev=
en as we insist on respect for people who are too frequently harmed by it. =
In some hypothetical Venn diagram, there is an extravagant overlap between =
fun and cruelty. Slapstick, farce, satire =C3=A2=E2=82=AC=E2=80=9D all thes=
e involve laughing at people who are slipping on a banana peel, or knocking=
their teeth in, or sitting down on a chair that isn't there to find themse=
lves splayed on the floor. We laugh at big noses or flat noses, at vulgarit=
y and buffoonery, at politics antithetical to our own. Clowns did this cree=
py work before there were creepy clowns on the loose. 112COMMENTS I think o=
f the effect these attractions would have not only on people without mental=
illnesses, who might be inspired to patronize, shun or even harm those of =
us who do have them, but also on the large portion of the American populati=
on who battle these challenges daily. Will they be more hesitant to come ou=
t about a psychiatric diagnosis? Will they be less likely to check themselv=
es in for care? The injury is not only disrespect from the outside, but als=
o a terrible doubting from within. Our nation is in a moment when prejudice=
runs riot. In this election season, assertions of strength have often over=
taken moral righteousness in the public imagination; success has been posit=
ed as incompatible with empathy. That rejection of empathy is an authentic =
poison, pressing some people to understand themselves as less human than ot=
hers, a danger associated with a proliferation of suicides. It's hard to th=
ink well of yourself in a world that sees you as a threat.
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<p data-para-count=3D"356" data-total-count=3D"356">A new =
virtual-reality attraction planned for Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, Ca=
lif., was announced last month in advance of the peak haunted-house season.=
The name, "Fear VR 5150," was significant. The number 5150 is th=
e California psychiatric involuntary commitment code, used for a mentally i=
ll person who is deemed a danger to himself or others.</p>
<p data-para-count=3D"760" data-total-count=3D"1116">Upon =
arrival in an ersatz "psychiatric hospital exam room," VR 5150 vi=
sitors would be strapped into a wheelchair and fitted with headphones. &quo=
t;The VR headset puts you in the middle of the action inside the hospital,&=
quot; an article in The Orange County Register explained. "One patient=
seems agitated and attempts to get up from a bed. Security officers try to=
subdue him. A nurse gives you a shot (which you will feel), knocking you o=
ut. When you wake up in the next scene, all hell has broken loose. Look lef=
t, right and down, bloody bodies lie on the floor. You hear people whimperi=
ng in pain." Knott's Berry Farm is operated by Ohio-based Cedar Fair E=
ntertainment Company, and Fear VR 5150 was to be featured at two other Ceda=
r Fair parks as well.</p>
<p data-para-count=3D"462" data-total-count=3D"1578">Almos=
t simultaneously, two similar attractions were started at Six Flags. A news=
release for one explained: "Our new haunted house brings you face-to-=
face with the world's worst psychiatric patients. Traverse the haunted hall=
ways of Dark Oaks Asylum and try not to bump into any of the grunting inmat=
es around every turn. Maniacal inmates yell out from their bloodstained roo=
ms and deranged guards wander the corridors in search of those who have esc=
aped."</p>
<p data-para-count=3D"455" data-total-count=3D"2033">The O=
range County branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) spran=
g into action, and Doris Schwartz, a Westchester, N.Y.-based mental-health =
professional, immediately emailed a roster of 130 grass-roots activists, in=
cluding me, many of whom flooded Cedar Fair and Six Flags with phone calls,=
petitions and emails. After some heated back-and-forth, Fear VR 5150 was s=
helved, and Six Flags changed the mental patients in its maze into zombies.=
</p>Continue reading the main story
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<h3>Essays, art and opinion exploring the lives of peo=
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<ul>
<li><h2>I Don't Want to Be 'Inspiring'OCT 20</h2></li>
<li><h2>I Have Diabetes. Am I to Blame?OCT 12</h2></li>
<li><h2>A Disabled Life Is a Life Worth LivingOCT 5</h2=
></li>
<li><h2>The Deaf Body in Public SpaceSEP 28</h2></li>
<li><h2>Longing for the Male GazeSEP 21</h2></li>
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<h2>112 COMMENTS</h2>
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<h3>Do you think Halloween-style depictions of mentally =
ill people should be an acceptable part of the holiday, or do they lead to =
prejudice and mistreatment?</h3>
<p>Share your thoughts »</p>
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<p data-para-count=3D"289" data-total-count=3D"2322" id=3D=
"story-continues-2">As both a psychiatric patient and a professor of clinic=
al psychology, I was saddened to see painful lived experiences transmogrifi=
ed into spooky entertainment. I was also unnerved to consider that I was so=
meone else's idea of a ghoul, a figure more or less interchangeable with a =
zombie.</p>
<p data-para-count=3D"308" data-total-count=3D"2630" id=3D=
"story-continues-3">I became severely, clinically depressed for the first t=
ime in 1994. I was unable to speak, unable to get out of bed, unable to fun=
ction in the world, and I thought of suicide constantly. I was afraid all t=
he time but didn't know what I was afraid of; I was numb to my own emotions=
and stripped of vitality.</p>
<p data-para-count=3D"512" data-total-count=3D"3142">I hav=
e mostly done better these last two decades through the rigors of intensive=
treatment by both a psychoanalyst and a psychopharmacologist. I now take a=
cocktail of five medications and I go to therapy weekly. My mental illness=
is largely (though not entirely) under control, but as my therapist pointe=
d out recently when I was cavalier about some warning signs, "In this =
room, Andrew, we never forget that you are entirely capable of taking the e=
xpress elevator to the bargain basement of mental health."</p>
<p data-para-count=3D"340" data-total-count=3D"3482">I wro=
te about my experiences with depression in a book, "The Noonday Demon,=
" and spoke about them in a TED talk, and I now get floods of mail fro=
m people who are dealing with mental illness â?? most of them isolate=
d, terrified and bewildered; many of them unable to access the kind of dece=
nt care that has been so transformative for me.</p>
<p data-para-count=3D"492" data-total-count=3D"3974">For t=
hose of us with firsthand experience with mental illness â?? especial=
ly those who have experienced trauma in a mental hospital â?? such en=
tertainment ventures cut much too close to the bone. When my mother was dyi=
ng of cancer, she was admitted to some miserable wards, but I find it hard =
to envision a Halloween event at which you would pretend to be getting chem=
otherapy and vomiting constantly while surrounded by patients driven into t=
he quasi-dementia that comes of unremitting pain.</p>
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<p data-para-count=3D"593" data-total-count=3D"4567">I hav=
e a pretty good sense of humor about myself. We all use the language of men=
tal illness cavalierly. We say that our parents or our kids are driving us =
crazy; we complain we will soon go mad if the traffic doesn't clear; we acc=
use Donald Trump of having a personality disorder (which, whether accurate =
or not, is still intended as a disparagement). But I have also spent a life=
time trying to laugh when a friend has driven me past a psychiatric hospita=
l and commented on the loons inside, to crack a smile when people have expr=
essed their emotional extravagance with a jest about suicide.</p>
<p data-para-count=3D"368" data-total-count=3D"4935">Sanit=
y and mental illness lie on a spectrum, and most people occasionally cross =
over from one side to the other. It's the proximity of mental illness rathe=
r than its obscurity that makes it so scary. But it should be scary in a &q=
uot;fix the broken care system" way or in a "figure out the brain=
's biology" way, and not in a "scream for laughs" kind of wa=
y.</p>
<p data-para-count=3D"486" data-total-count=3D"5421">The r=
hetoric with which Cedar Fair attempted to mollify the activists was troubl=
ing. The company wrote by way of explanation, "Our evening attractions=
are designed to be edgy, and are aimed at an adult-only audience." Bu=
t "edgy" is not in general a euphemism for "stigmatizing of =
a disenfranchised population," and the defense that the attraction was=
for adults only seemed a very token mitigation â?? as though adults =
were not the progenitors of most chauvinism and hatred.</p>
<p data-para-count=3D"336" data-total-count=3D"5757">The a=
ttractions at Cedar Fair and Six Flags were not intended as representations=
of what mental illness is really like; they were incidentally demeaning, r=
ather than willfully so. But how readily do such lapses approximate hate sp=
eech? And with what potential to provoke misunderstanding, fear and even ha=
rm to people with few defenses?</p>
<p data-para-count=3D"265" data-total-count=3D"6022" id=3D=
"story-continues-4">The misperception that mentally ill people are inherent=
ly dangerous is one of the most treacherous ideas in circulation about us. =
It surfaces widely every time a mass shooter is on the loose, and results i=
n the subjugation of people who are not menacing in any way.</p>
<p data-para-count=3D"321" data-total-count=3D"6343">I rec=
ognize the free-speech claim that individuals and entertainment companies h=
ave every right to demean people with mental illnesses, but these represent=
ations have very real consequences â?? the stigmatization of the ment=
ally ill, and the prejudice, poor treatment and violations of their rights =
that naturally follow.</p>
<p data-para-count=3D"414" data-total-count=3D"6757">Other=
people's fear of us can have terrible consequences. There are regular repo=
rts of police who respond aggressively or violently to the erratic behavior=
of mentally ill people, whether they are armed or not â?? the latest=
being the killing of Deborah Danner, a woman with schizophrenia, by a New =
York City Police Officer. There are more mentally ill people in our prison =
system than in our health care system.</p>
<p data-para-count=3D"608" data-total-count=3D"7365">It is=
possible to honor the power of burlesque even as we insist on respect for =
people who are too frequently harmed by it. In some hypothetical Venn diagr=
am, there is an extravagant overlap between fun and cruelty. Slapstick, far=
ce, satire â?? all these involve laughing at people who are slipping =
on a banana peel, or knocking their teeth in, or sitting down on a chair th=
at isn't there to find themselves splayed on the floor. We laugh at big nos=
es or flat noses, at vulgarity and buffoonery, at politics antithetical to =
our own. Clowns did this creepy work before there were creepy clowns on the=
loose.</p>112COMMENTS
<p data-para-count=3D"493" data-total-count=3D"7858">I thi=
nk of the effect these attractions would have not only on people without me=
ntal illnesses, who might be inspired to patronize, shun or even harm those=
of us who do have them, but also on the large portion of the American popu=
lation who battle these challenges daily. Will they be more hesitant to com=
e out about a psychiatric diagnosis? Will they be less likely to check them=
selves in for care? The injury is not only disrespect from the outside, but=
also a terrible doubting from within.</p>
<p data-para-count=3D"475" data-total-count=3D"8333">Our n=
ation is in a moment when prejudice runs riot. In this election season, ass=
ertions of strength have often overtaken moral righteousness in the public =
imagination; success has been posited as incompatible with empathy. That re=
jection of empathy is an authentic poison, pressing some people to understa=
nd themselves as less human than others, a danger associated with a prolife=
ration of suicides. It's hard to think well of yourself in a world that see=
s you as a threat.</p>
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