1. What does it mean to “pass”? How is “passing” applicable to your own situation or to the lives of those around you? 2. Cox shows the contradictions of passing for those with mentally disability

1.  What does it mean to “pass”? How is “passing” applicable to your own situation or to the lives of those around you?

2.  Cox shows the contradictions of passing for those with mentally disability and the blurred lines between ‘acting’ and ‘being’ sane. Cox discusses how passing can both limit and increase the distress of those with mental illness. “Passing… occurs when others do not perceive the person as distressed” (100). What does Cox mean by this?

3.  Cox writes, “The ability to fake it ’til you make it, or pass as sane, relies heavily on knowing that behaviors signify mental health in a particular community” (105). She states that assessments of mental illness focus on what one does, and does not do, with one’s body. What does she mean by this?

4. Eleanor Longden discuss how language can influence the way people view the mentally disabled population, and how that can impact the way disabled individuals incorporate those (negative) perceptions into their own identities and everyday lives. Explain what she mean by this. Give an example.

Reply