Mental Health Through the Lens of the Humanities Part One: Choose the Creative Works Chosen Topic: Mental Health Creativ

Mental Health Through the Lens of the Humanities

Part One: Choose the Creative Works

Chosen Topic: Mental Health

Creative Work 1:
Title: The Scream (1893)
Creator: Edvard Munch
Subject Area: Visual Art

Creative Work 2:
Title: “Lady Lazarus” (1965)
Creator: Sylvia Plath
Subject Area: Literature (Poetry)

Description of the Works and How They Relate to the Topic:

The Scream is a legendary painting which expresses the visual combination of inner tension and mental stress. Munch himself termed it a depiction of a panic attack and some dread of existence in addition, it is a strong visual record of mental health issues. In the confessional poem Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath, the author does battle with the concepts of depression, trauma, and suicidal thoughts. Plath employs strong imagery, metaphor to reveal the crude states of her mental case. These two works take different directions in addressing the issue of mental health: The Scream with its distorted vision and the expression of color simulates the concept of anxiety through a universal scream, whereas Lady Lazarus tries to find the words to verbalize his inner disappointment in the first person narrative and the use of literary devices.

Value of Diverse Perspectives:
The art by Munch gives a male explanation of anxiety in early-modern Europe whereas the poetry by Plath gives a female voice in the middle of the 20 th century with a mental illness. In unison, they illustrate that a mental health problem is not gender-specific or time- or geography-specific. This variety makes this discourse richer and respects that suffering takes a different form in different people.

Biases and Assumptions:
In the two works, there is the possibility of romanticizing mental suffering. The stylized suffering that Munch uses can even indicate that anxiety is a part of an artistic character. Plath is not lying in her poem since it is being emotionally true yet the true situation to the poem can be misinterpreted to be self destruction being glorified. Both are self-reflections of societal stigmas or misconceptions of mental health at their times.

Part Two: Self and Society

How the Creative Works Create Meaning:
The Scream enables the audience to project as an outside form that which should exist internally; the deformed figure enables one to project inner-anxiety as an exterior. Through the morbid humor and black irony, Lady Lazarus pics the audience face-to-face in a relational stare into nothingness, a vortex of the social needs and mental torturous anguish, the faceless nature of which keeps hidden behind the veil of invisibility.

How They Help the Audience Understand Society:
These readings expose the inability of society to give proper mental health care and comprehend. The photograph taken by Munch did not have the vocabulary of psychology but his photograph is familiar to us now as anxiety. The unfinished poetic work of Plath is an attack on the social pressures and is particularly critical of how society treats women and it reveals the hushed topic of suicide and insanity.

Impact on Society’s Perception:
The two works led to the discussions. The Scream also became a cultural icon to express the modern angst, and it has impacted cinema and the arts. Lady Lazarus was a controversy as it presented the themes of depression, feminism and suicide and Plath became the voice of the mentally ill in the literature.

Perceptions Across Cultures or Generations:
Older generations may view Lady Lazarus as controversial or unsettling, while younger audiences might see it as empowering and validating. Culturally, societies that stigmatize mental illness might reject both works, while others with open mental health discourse may find them enlightening.

Empathy Development:
The older generation can identify Lady Lazarus as provocative or disturbing but the younger generation might interpret Lady Lazarus as liberating and empowering. Socially, cultures inclined towards stigmatization of mental illnesses may not be at ease with either of the two works, and those with an open dialogue on mental illnesses may feel that they have learned something.

Encouragement of Critical Thinking:
They raise some crucial questions such as what is the essence of mental illness? What do we do with the suffering people? What do we expect the society to do in healing or harming? Such pieces do not provide a simple way out, and viewers are often put to think.

Part Three: Identity and the Humanities

Humanities and Self-Identity:
The humanities equip people with self-observation. By looking at creative works people can find portions of themselves reflected, comprehended, or tested. This stimulates the self-awareness and can result in emotional development. As an example, a person with anxiety problems could relate to the universality of The Scream or even get their feelings validated by the emotional transparency in Plath.

Sociocultural Factors Influencing Identity:
These factors include ethnicity, gender, religion and sexual orientation which determine how people perceive themselves as well as how they are treated by the society. A white male atheist and a Black woman living in an orthodox religious setting might have different interpretations of Lady Lazarus since mental illness is culturally varied, as well as gender norms and gender expression.

Using Humanities to Understand Identity:
Literature gives the possibility to reflect oneself in personal moods; visual art gives a chance to see something inside; performance art gives a chance to be in the state and define the role. As an example, seeing a play about depression can make a person reconsider his or her empathy, and reading poetry about grief can help person deal with own mourning.

Diverse Perspectives and Self-Concept:
Self-concept boundaries are widened by exposure to the views of people of other gender, cultures or historical eras. As an example, one can learn more about a 19th-century European context of how Munch depicts anxiety and, in this way, appreciate that mental illness is not a unique experience of an individual. The feminist voice of Plath works to enable other people to redefine women-hood and psychological strengths.

References

Munch, E. (1893). The Scream. [Painting]. National Museum of Norway.

Plath, S. (1965). “Lady Lazarus.” In Ariel. Harper & Row.