While every use of logos in a context is important because it appeals to your readers’ intellects, your credible evidence to support your argument must be incredibly strong and solid. Just because there are logos appeal in your article does not mean your logical reasoning is always conceivable,
Are Mental Disorders Increasing Over Time?
As more and more people examine mental health issues in health conferences, public forums, or scientific researches, it’s shown that mental health problems are on the rise. “Most Will Be Mentally Ill at Some Point, Study Says”, a 2005 NY Times article written by Benedict Carey, reveals that mental illness is increasing at a fast rate. The article includes a study was lead by Dr. Thomas Insel and his team to reveal how they detect mental illnesses in people. However, the study consists of a lot of errors because the diagnostic manual are always being modified. We aren’t up-to-date with the guidelines because it continues to expand every day. While the doctors are screening for mental disorders in people, they could be missing out or skipping on other small health problems.
Effectiveness of Use of Rhetorical Appeals
Mental illness is developing at a young and early age. Dr. Paul McHugh, a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University, said in Carey’s article that fifty-percent of Americans are mentally impaired. Shocking right? Carey also indicates depression as the number one concern amongst all mental health concerns, “affecting about 17 percent of the people at some point in their lives.” While there is still a great unawareness of mental health, it is still present and is on a quick rise to affect any person of any age.
Having one or some of the symptoms that are listed in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual does not define you as an ill person. Carey writes,
“People who described symptoms that met criteria outlined in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual were classified as having had a mental disorder.”
Carey recognizes that the diagnostic manual for mental health screening is expanding and changing every day. Equally important, there is no actual chemical imbalance test or brain scan that are done to diagnose mental illness. To determine if a person is ill, the process involves physical examination, lab tests and psychological questionnaires. However, these lab tests (blood work, urine test, brain scan, etc…) are actually used to rule out physical conditions that a person may or may not have. Those tests aren’t used to determine a person’s a mental health.
With that being said, the study he worked with is fragile and cannot assure the results were legitimate. Any statistic datas and logical reasoning that Carey used to back-up his argument in his article would be concluded as non-legitimate, as well.
What Kind of Rhetorical Devices Were Used?
Out of all five rhetorical appeals (logos, ethos, pathos, telos and kairos), I only found evidence of logos appeal in Carey’s article as it is obviously stated.
Logos is a rhetorical device that includes any content in an argument that is meant to appeal to logic. Logical reasoning is used by the author to construct his/her text. Carey’s example for the use of logos includes the statement “more than half of Americans will develop a mental illness at some point in their lives”. Given that the study is damaged and not all trustworthy, does this statement still stand true? How do Carey’s readers know now that more than half of people carry a mental disorder if the diagnostic manual has fault?
In brief, the study discussed in Carey’s article does not serve the ability that allows him to create an effective use of rhetoric. The use of logos performed well in helping Carey teach his readers about the rise of mental illness but, he could improve by using a more trustworthy study that has concrete evidences and numbers. While it may be true that these statistics may be accurate, they are very fuzzy because the study only surveyed 9,282 out of 328,548,821 Americans, according to the United State Census Bureau. Besides, adding emotional appeal (pathos) would allow Carey’s argument and purpose to more effective. For instance, conducting interviews with people that have mental illness and sharing their stories to the readers. By doing so, Carey lets the readers to understand the sad reality that mentally ill people suffer from. It will spread more awareness and knowledge on mental health, and more people will take it serious to get treated or help a person in need.
Works Cited
Carey, Benedict. “Most Will Be Mentally Ill at Some Point, Study Says.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 7 June 2005, www.nytimes.com/2005/06/07/health/most-will-be-mentally-ill-at-some-point-study-says.html.
