Digital Commons Network^™

Return, Leilani Bascom

Theses and Dissertations

Return is a video-based installation which includes sound, performance, and textile elements. Leilani Bascom is the lone actor navigating the water and where the water meets the land in this personal project exploring concepts of the life cycle from birth to death and rebirth. Life's paradox of struggle and release unfolds with imagery of battling through waves to swim deep underwater, fighting a river current and then surrendering to the flow, and carving a hole in the sand to climb into and be held. Viewers are immersed in the movement and sounds of water to witness the power and meaning …

Examining The Effects Of Eating Behaviors On Mental Health And Internalization Of Weight-Based Messaging, Avery E. Bollinger

Theses and Dissertations

The current study sought to explore the effects of eating behaviors on mental health and the internalization of attitudes toward one's appearance. This was performed through a survey distributed through a global online market research firm, Dynata, and gathered 495 eligible participants. Of those, 78 represented the plant-based group, and 417 represented the non-plant-based group. Each completed the survey containing sections with the Mizes Anorectic Cognitions Scale (MACS) to assess if they were at low or high risk for having/developing an eating disorder, a section determining if participants were plant-based (defined as a regimen that encourages whole, plant-based foods and …

Mental Health Needs Among Latina Migrant Farmworkers In The State Of Wisconsin - A Colonial Legacy, Maria Del Carmen Graf

Theses and Dissertations

Latinos have an increased risk for mental health problems due to several factors, including immigration, socio-economic and cultural barriers (Espeleta et al., 2019). Besides mental health risk factors such as gender, lower education attainment, and poverty (Espeleta et al., 2019), Latina migrant farmworkers also face the demands of their domestic roles, which result in work-family conflicts and stress (Arcury et al., 2018). Furthermore, persistent stigma perpetuated primarily by poor health literacy and traditional cultural perceptions and beliefs about mental health hinders their decision to seek mental health treatment (Lopez et al., 2018). To date, there are no scholarly works published …

Intrusive Thoughts - Guitar, Voice, & String Quintet, Joseph M. Young

Theses and Dissertations

This four-movement song addresses mental health, specifically that of Obsession Compulsive Disorder and the symptom of intrusive thoughts that are often associated. From the point of view of an individual suffering from OCD, each movement describes the disorder and portrays different stages of dealing with and managing emotions and relationships.

Representations Of Mental Health In Young Adult Literature: A Cultural Analysis Of The Three Ps Of Patient, Practitioner And Population, Christine Gonzales Severn

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the representations of mental health in young adult literature by categorizing texts into a new framework established by this thesis as the Three Ps of patient, practitioner and population. Looking at the Three Ps from an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural view recognizes ways in which literature with themes of mental health is progressively changing with the times. In analyzing John Neufeld’s Lisa, Bright and Dark (1969), Emily Danforth’s The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2012), and Ned Vizzini’s It’s Kind of a Funny Story (2006), this thesis identifies the changes in mental health visibility and awareness, Sexual Orientation Change Efforts’ …

Disordered: Conversations About Mental Health And Society, Rachel Brown

Theses and Dissertations

Disordered is a collaborative, participatory street art project designed to destigmatize mental health challenges like depression and anxiety, and reframe health as a societal issue. Through social practice and guerrilla strategies, Disordered intervenes in public spaces, creating conversations, stickers and metal signs to inspire personal, social and political transformations.

Anxious?: Re-Designing Women’S Jewelry To Help Manage Symptoms Of Anxiety Disorders, Nourbanu Feras Hijazi

Theses and Dissertations

Anxiety is a common and often stigmatized condition. Destigmatizing mental disorders can positively impact people’s interaction and communication with others and can prompt conversations in which people share their experiences with mental health, leading to improved societal understanding and perception.

My design solution tackles behavioral symptoms of anxiety, specifically two conditions that fall under obsessive-compulsive behavior: Dermatillomania and Trichotillomania. By redesigning women’s jewelry to specialized accessories, my intention is for these objects to help destigmatize these conditions and relieve symptoms of maladaptive behaviors and hurtful impulses. By redirecting these irresistible urges to an external artifact, the objects are designed to …

Building Sanity: The Rise And Fall Of Architectural Treatment At The South Carolina Lunatic Asylum, Kimberly Jean Campbell

Theses and Dissertations

Although many historians have acknowledged the importance of architecture in the treatment of the mentally ill during the nineteenth century, no historian has ever examined the rise and fall of the importance of architecture to the treatment of patients at the South Carolina Lunatic Asylum. By the late eighteenth century, physicians and laymen alike accepted the ideology of environmental determinism – that one’s environment exercised a direct influence over his or her behavior. In other words, mental illness was both caused and cured by the environment; thus, architecture played a key role in the treatment of mental illness. The South …

Claiming The Mad, Samar Nour

Theses and Dissertations

Mental asylums in Egypt during the colonial period.