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Depression

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In this project, I discuss depression and it's effects. I analyze how depression is show in famous painters' artwork. I also take a look at a short story written in the 1980s that focuses around the mentally ill. And finally I look at the views of mental illnesses (specifically Depression) throughout history. 

During this project I learned more about depression than I thought I had previously. The thinking skills that I focused on were Compare/Contrast, Contextualization, and Reasoning. The soft skills I focused on were Communication and Empathy. 

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Social Studies

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English

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Art

For the social studies aspect of my project, I created a timeline of views, thoughts/causes, and treatments for depression throughout time.
After reading the short story "The Yellow Wall-paper" and contextualized about why this story was written as it was. 
Depression is also expressed through art, I show this by comparing and contrasting two famous artists: Pablo Picasso and Edvard Munch.

Munch vs. Picasso

Below is my presentation on Compare/Contrast for the art portion. In the presentation it is explained that Pablo Picasso had a period of depression, also referred to as "The Blue Period." When in contrast, Edvard Munch was always depressed. I analyze their works and show similarities and differences.
artist_compare-contrast.pdf
File Size: 1127 kb
File Type: pdf
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The Yellow Wall-paper Analysis

I learned from my research that in the mid to late 1900's, the treatment for depression or other mental illnesses were to simply isolate them from the rest of society, and check up on the patients every now and then.
The short story "The Yellow Wall-paper" was written in 1982, a time where these treatments were used. Story focuses on a woman with depression and her husband move to a mansion where she will be kept. Because their treatments are not effective, she slowly goes insane. Below is a PDF of the story (10 pages/6,000 words). It is quite the interesting story, and I recommend you read it. 
the_yellow-wall-paper.pdf
File Size: 4557 kb
File Type: pdf
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After reading the story, I contextualized about why this was written the way it was. And the answer is simply: nobody knew what to do. Back in these times there was no definitive treatments for depression, doctors had theories and suggested certain treatments like bloodletting (draining blood from the body and putting it back in, which is said to "clean" the blood). So I suggest in an essay I wrote that the story unfolded the way it did due to the fact that nobody knew what to do. 
Like I said earlier, the treatment was isolation. This is not in anyway a good treatment, so of course, the woman in the story goes insane. I then go into of how the story would unfold if it were written in our time, where we know the causes, treatments, and views of depression. If you are interested, my essay is below. 
the_yellow_wall-paper_contextualization
File Size: 7 kb
File Type: docx
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History of Depression

Unfortunately, I cannot show you my fantastic timeline on the history of depression. Although, I can show you some interesting information about the views, thoughts of cause, and treatment of depression.
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Photos used under Creative Commons from sinclair.sharon28, yeowatzup, juliejordanscott, NichoDesign
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