For this assignment, students will either:
1) apply a theoretical perspective from the readings of that unit to a health/medical text/artifact/case or controversy and make an argument about what the perspective allows us to understand about the ethical, rhetorical, historical, cultural, or political dimensions of the artifact or
2) extend, challenge, or take issue with an argument from one of the readings in terms of what it offers our appreciation of the ethical, rhetorical, historical, cultural, or political dimensions of health and/or medicine.

Topics to Consider
Reflective / Critical
1.  “Sex pretty much cures everything.” Chuck Palahniuk
Discuss Foucault’s argument that repression is not about being silenced but about being encouraged to talk and talk and talk.  How does institutional power operate through systems that invite or incite us to speak about our deepest desires and most intimate activities?  Be specific.

2.  “I’m as pure as the driven slush.” Tallulah Bankhead
Explore women’s sexuality as pathology and threat in a patriarchal culture.  Be sure to refer to the readings.

3.  “I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.” Edgar Allan Poe
Discuss the cultural paradox of romanticizing mental illness and stigmatizing mental illness. Be specific and use examples.
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4.  “Today, in 44 states, the largest institution housing people with severe psychiatric disease is now a prison or jail.” Annys Shin (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/local/wp01/2014/04/08/prisons-and-jails-the-not-so-new-asylums/)
Describe the positive and negative consequences of deinstitutionalization.  Are there initiatives and attitudes that show promise?  Or has isolation and oppression of mentally ill persons simply continued?

5.  “Let’s stop ‘tolerating’ or ‘accepting’ difference, as if we’re so much better for not being different in the first place.  Instead, let’s celebrate difference because in this world it takes a lot of guts to be different.” Kate Bornstein
How do you understand the differences between a society that privileges autonomy and one that strive for interdependence, for asking and receiving assistance without fear of judgment or reprisal