Cornell University. “Public Attitudes about Mental Health.” Roper Center, 8 June 2015, ropercenter.cornell.edu/public-attitudes-mental-health/.

This report analyzes the significant changes in people’s thought and public attitudes about mental illness between the 1950s and 1990s.  There is 30 percent of the population in the United States knowing someone with mental illness in the 1950s, however not every patient has required treatment and they consider hospitalized is insignificant. The public perception of mental illness is a stigma, thus mental illness’ treatment during the 1950s is negligent and marginalize for the public. People consider the symptom of mental illness as the personal and emotional weakness. Public perception is change during the 1990s, people beliefs that mental illness can be treated and they feel free to share their experiences. The stigma feeling from the 1950s are lifted in 1990s, and the public perception is getting advertising. For example, sixty-two percent of psychiatric patient obtain treatment and they consider the symptom of mental illness as health issues rather than emotional weakness. This source is helpful for me because I can use those logical data on my rebuttal and shows how does the public perception of mental illness get progress. I could use this to emphasize how does difference thinking path or perception influence the society and people’s attitude on mental illness. It is not as useful as the next scholarly because this source is regarded on the comparison between the 1950s and 1990s, and my paper would focus on the 1950s when the novel The Catcher In the Rye was written. But it can strengthen my paper by comparing two different public perceptions from the different decades.

Johnson, Lyndon Baines “IDEAS AND TRENDS; How Freud Shaped the 20th-Century Mind.” IDEAS AND TRENDS; How Freud Shaped the 20th-Century Mind, The New York Times, 26.Nov.1989, www.nytimes.com/1989/11/26/weekinreview/ideas-and-trends-how-freud-shaped-the-20th-century-mind.html.

This archive introduces the relationship between patients behaviors and their mind by Sigmund Freud. Sigmund Freud was a significant turning point on social perspective about mental illness. His psychoanalytic theory which human behaviors impacted by their brain resolve psychiatric patient’s irrational activity and some behaviors that consider as couldn’t be understood for the public. He is the first person who definite the psychically mental life caused by the brain, and consider as the founding father of mental illness. This archive stress that Sigmund Freud have great influence on the development of mental illness on the hereafter decade. The information appears reliable and helpful because it was historical evidence and the public by the credible organization. And those historical content can help me to introduce the background of mental illness and show the audiences about the mental illness’ origin. Moreover, Sigmund Freud is a credible psychoanalysis, his theory can help to make my paper more confide.

Phelan, Jo C., et al. “Public Conceptions of Mental Illness in 1950 and 1996: What Is Mental Illness and Is It to Be Feared?” Journal of Health and Social Behavior, vol. 41, no. 2, 2000, pp. 188–207. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2676305.

The public perception of mental illness during the 1950s which is like Phelan’s mention, lack of understanding. It centers on public’s dread attitude on the treatment and narrow vision of mental illness. This scholarly journals goal is to inform the public perception to the audiences by compare difference generation’s thinking path of the 1950s and 1990s. People from the 1950s have a different viewpoint on mental illness than 1990s, society usually discriminates on the psychiatric patient. Mental illness is rejecting in the American society during the 1950s, and it’s a significant era because the common beliefs about psychiatric disorder are width spread during this decade. It’s important to necessary to analysis the era of the 1950s because it can help me deeply understand the public perception of mental illness. It’s useful because these scholarly journals cite historical facts and statistics from that time period which would help me to show how does the primary and social cognitions about the psychiatric disorder. For example, it uses 3000  mental illness interview report to stress the experiences of the psychiatric patient from 1950s. This evidence could help my audience to the overview of the public perception during the 1950s and strength of the essay.

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