Sociology Highlights: Most Memoriable Lesson

This was the assignment I had to do during my second week in sociology. We had to watch Genie:  Secret of the Wild Child" https://youtu.be/hmdycJQi4QA and in a few sentences answer questions based on the YouTube video. One of the many questions stood out to me and that we the one regarding rather we though she was treated as a patient or a research subject. The reason why I'm sharing this assignment with you guys is because it shows us how much of human identity is contribute through the society in which they are apart from and the differences in a person who was and wasn't a victim of social isolation. This lesson was informative in many different ways and emotional and others. It just go to show you that people really don't chose how they turn out and what we think makes us individual human being with our own sense of self can still be linked to the one thing we all try to rebel against society.



Tatiana Omari

Sociology  122

Professor John Wilkins

9/27/2015

The Wild Child known as Genie

Genie was found after years of extreme isolation at the age of thirteen she was unable to perform many task expected of someone in her age group. She wasn’t able to talk, had a bunny walk, and possessed other animalistic characteristics such as (sniffing, spitting, and clawing). Shortly after her discovery she became a patient at the Children Hospital in Los Angles, California. During this time I believe she was looked at as a patient because she was known to win the hearts of many. The doctors and scientists that worked with her genuinely wanted to provide her with everything she needed in order to one day be considered the social norm of any human being. During a few years of treatment she began to develop certain human tendencies such has emotions, physical sensations, and speech. She also began to understand social structure through the social interactions with others. 

They’re many factor that make one think that Genie became more of a research subject then a patient after awhile. One being the study of “”. Dr. Jean Marc Gaspard Itard took on Victor’s case with intentions to gain admiration for being the first to socialize a wild child. When failing to do so Dr. Itard abandoned Victor. As stated in the video “Victor was an opportunity to see a human being stripped of society and culture”. I think after watching the movie “The Wild Child” which was a portrayal of Dr. Itard’s work Victor. Some individuals began to look at Genie’s case in the same manor. They wanted to socialize her for other reasons besides bettering her life. Another reason I think she became a research subject is her sleep study test results. Discovering that she had an abnormal brain pattern sparked the debate on rather she became mentally retarded during her years of isolation or had she been born that way. Which made her seem to have been more of a subject of fascination to research about more so then a patient who needs recovery from years of extreme abuse and isolation. Especially, after the funds for her treatment ran out and she was simply placed back into a system where she would endure even more abuse in the hand of her numerous foster parents.

Overall, Genie’s story is a very sad but educational one. Being that one who look into it from a sociological point of view would understand that socialization pay a huge part in how we developed into who we all are today.