Kim Blankenship
Dr. Gabbard
March 30, 2010
Cross-Cultural Disability Studies
Anger as Power
The third and sixth photographs taken by Warren Sawyer in the article, WWII Pacifists Exposed Mental Ward Horrors published by NPR (WWII Pacifists Exposed Mental Ward Horrors) demonstrate the power of anger in the acceptance of the medical model of disability. The normate is justified in his anger but is never out of control. The normate's anger is never directed at socially acceptable political policies.
Photo 3 exemplifies the isolation of the disabled at a Pennsylvania Mental Institution in 1945. It is of Byberry's A building for the disabled who were also incontinent. Because the patients were incontinent, many were restricted from wearing clothes. “Most of them naked – walked about aimlessly or huddled against the filthy walls.” The appearance of many bodies as emaciated and many others with such a lack of muscle tone isolates the bodies by their difference from the social norm. The men appear isolated even in the crowd toward the back of the room. Those settled in the furthest corner of the photograph do not appear to be communicating to each other. At least three men have their backs to the group and one is facing the wall.
While the viewer has no detailed close up shots to work with, every man appears depressed. Of more than a dozen men lined up against the wall, only one has his head positioned upward. All of the other men's heads are facing downward, whether standing, squatting or seated. Many of the men have shoulders dropping to the floor. These physical positions of the body reflect a lack of confidence or depression, which necessarily includes a deterioration of a person's confidence.
In addition to the men themselves, there are many large windows in the shot, but very little light enters. A lack of light can induce depression by inhibiting the ability of certain vitamins to function properly in the body. There are no social comforts other than the dark walls keeping them away from society. We see no furniture and learn from the photographer that there was no music. There was no history for them to hang onto through pictures, personal clothing or objects with sentimental value.
Finally, no caretaker is present. There appears to be no authority figure coercing them into these positions, though they may have forced them into the room. An authority figure in the photograph could offer some semblance of a societal norm to love or to hate, but they are left only with themselves to comprehend their situation.
The lack of any signal indicating conversation, the darkness, the men's nakedness, their lack of muscle, their body posture all support a belief that they are not members of society; they have in some sense accepted themselves as outsiders to society because of a medical determination that declared them so and therefore they have been excluded.
While still overfilled with incapacitated men, the B Building housed men with tempers. Warren Sawyer explained that employees referred to the building as the "violent ward...because angry men sometimes violently attacked one another.” Though the viewer lacks the knowledge of the restrictions imposed upon them by the employees, including being tied or handcuffed to their beds, there is more of a willingness to treat angry men as more normal than depressed men. Sawyer describes a man freeing himself from his restraints, grabbing the sharpened edge of a broken end of a spoon and using it to attack another patient. Men with this type of anger who had the mental capacity to plan an attack by taking the time to break the spoon and sharpen it should have been housed in an empty room. If anyone was to feel isolated from society, it should have been the men with uncontrollable and irrational streaks of violence.
However, the sixth photograph in the NPR article provides a different daytime environment for these men. The most notable differences are in the physical facilities. This room seem larger, but more importantly, the walls are painted with a lighter color, and there is more light. There is enough external light to cast shadows upon objects and there is enough internal light to serve as a spotlight on the man closest to the camera.
Most of the men in this photo are clothed. With their anger, the last thing they need in a shared room are potential weapons, yet we see a chair in the foreground. Its difficult to tell, but there appears to be at least two more chairs. Some men do walk with their heads down, but many heads are positioned upright, The bodies are not in a fetal position and many more are standing here. We don't see direct conversation, however the man in the dark clothing to the right is in a position to speak with someone nearby. With the exception of the man in the foreground and the badly needed paint, shirtless and shoeless, and the desperately needed painting, the photo could be of any social hall in society.
Finally, It seems that the division, incontinent versus the angry, in and of itself is a strange division. Surely, some incontinent men were angry, but their surroundings may have dulled their anger along with any other feeling of human proportions. Their must have also been some men housed in the violent ward that were incontinent. In fact, being restrained to a bed for long periods of time might even encourage incontinence from men with great control over their bodies. Anger was likely to be the defining factor, not continence, for the division.
In summary, the level of anger created the distinction in treatment. Anger is a male norm that provides benefits such as chairs in spite of their potential as a weapon of violence. Society views anger as normal in both a medical and social model of men, and as a result, their treatment, even in the worst of facilities is better than men without it.
Works Cited
Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie. "How We Look at Health Care." Web Log post. OUP Blog. Oxford University Press, 21 Oct. 2009. Web. 29 Mar. 2010. .
Sawyer, Warren. "WWII Pacifists Exposed Mental Ward Horrors." Interview by Joseph Shapiro. NPR. NPR, 30 Dec. 2009. Web. 29 Mar. 2010. .
Taylor, Steven J. "Conscientious Objectors of WWII." The Washington Post. The Washington Post Company, 28 May 2009. Web. 29 Mar. 2010. .
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