What Does it Mean to be Mental ?

After Raskolnikov seems to begin recovering and  gain more mental normality I am questioning my initial assumption that he is mentally insatiable. He still is sickened by any thought of murder, but who wouldn’t be after committing such crime. Amir was sick not by killing anyone, but by the guilt of watching his friend get rapped. However, we don’t believe he is mentally unstable. Ironically I was watching Law and Order this weekend and a mentally unstable character was accused of murder and was quoting Crime and Punishment. One perspective of the show was that mentally ill people should be forced to take medication as a safety procedure for the public. Another is that being mentally ill is all about perspective. The only reason we know if we are “normal” is if someone tells us we are. Basically, the reason of others determines if we trust our own reason. In psychology metal sickness is centered around being able to categorize the issue with a set of symptoms, and make people “better” with drugs or psychotherapy that fit that category. It’s interesting to think that there is not much difference in the “good and bad” drugs. Both are just ways to manipulate people’s brains. In anthropology you can really see how mental stability is all about your perspective, because in a sense we are all brainwashed. It connects back to the institutions because the institutions inject the ideas of these criteria we use for mental stability. For example, shamans in certain societies do what we would call, having a bad trip and going absolutely psycho. However, they believe they are communicating with the spirit world. In their society, they are doctors and healers and praised. In our society they would be put in a mental hospital. It just proves that our standards for mental stability are not human absolute truths about humanity and the mind. It simply means that in different societies, certain individuals are marginalized for not fitting into guidelines. 

Perhaps Raskolnikov’s reason for stealing was purely economic and the guilt and fighting within himself was what made him crazy.  Something that makes readers think that he had a mental breakdown is the suggestion that in his past he was like the rest of us. The expensive top had and the fact he used to be a student is intriguing because we still don’t know what caused this contrast in character. I think he still fights within himself between being honest and protecting his life. Later it will probably be reviled what made him “tick”.