Insecure Pretty and Attractive

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4.2. The Description of the Mental Asylum and the Inhabitants

The story of Veronika is set in two main environments. They are the mental asylum and Slovania. These two places are inseparable since the mental asylum exists within Slovenia. It is important to understand both places in order to find the significance to Veronika’s growth.

4.2.1. The Description of the Mental Asylum

The mental asylum is located in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. Based on Slovenia: difficulties and strengths of psychiatric research in A Small Country http:bjp.rcpsych.org, Slovenia was a small country with heterogeneous population. After the political and economic crisis of Yugoslavia worsened in 1990, Slovenia declared its independence on 25 June 1991, and became a member of the United Nations in May 1992. The story of Veronika is set on November 1998. It means that Slovenia was on the early stage of rebuilding a country. Political and economic condition is still unstable. This condition affects the mental health of Slovenian. Based on Slovenia: difficulties and strengths of psychiatric research in A Small Country http:bjp.rcpsych.org, Slovenia had a very high suicide rate around 30 per 100.000 inhabitants per year for decades. Some psychiatrists conduct a research on inpatient suicides. The first paper reports the predictors of in-patient suicide, with special attention to unrecognized depression in patients with schizophrenia. The other report investigated the differences between in- patient suicides and suicides in the community. Other studies dealt with suicides in some specific groups, such as the young and the elderly, and among patients 36 with alcohol-related mental disorders. The novel also describes the increase of suicide rate in Slovania. Dr. Igor is reading the researches and the surveys about mental illness that increases after the war occurs. Thus, the number of suicides is increasing as well p. 76. Based on Involuntary Internment in Slovenia www. alzheimer-europe.org, the high mortality rate on Slovenia caused the development of Law on Non- Contentious Procedure and Law on Medical Activity. A person can be involuntarily admitted to a mental institution or other institution by a court of law if a person was suffering from a mental disorder or mental illness, about to present a serious danger to himherself or other people, and presenting a serious danger hisher own or other’s property. The mental asylum serves as a refuge not only for criminals and insane people, but also for the sane who look for an escape from their responsibilities in the outside world. This can be seen from Zedka’s explanation to Veronika. “Then, when there are government inspections, these men and women behave like dangerous maniacs, because some are here at the state’s expense. The doctors know this, but there must be some order from the owners that allows the situation to continue, because there are more vacancies than there are patients.” p. 39. The mental asylum provides freedom to its inhabitants. The inhabitants are not obliged to fulfill the criteria to be an ideal person. They are free to become anything they want to be because the simple fact that they live in a mental hospital. Veronika also realizes a simple fact that by living in the mental asylum, she is free from the compulsion to be coherent p.27.