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THE PSYCHOLOGY IN WHAT LOOKS LIKE CRAZY ON AN ORDINARY DAY

The Psychology in What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day


Pearl Cleage
The University of Northern Iowa

THE PSYCHOLOGY IN WHAT LOOKS LIKE CRAZY ON AN ORDINARY DAY

When I began reading What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day I quickly realized that
this book was full of controversial topics. Although it was published in 1997, so much of this
novel is still one hundred percent relevant. It was overflowing with emotion and from the first
page I felt emotionally attached to Ava Johnson and her many trials. There are many
psychological factors that stick out as options to analyze in this book. The topics that I have
selected to focus on are how environments effect baby development, the effects of drugs on the
users, and emotional avoidance by using depressants or sexual relations to cope with
traumatizing events both in this novel and in the Psychology in Your Life textbook.
We first meet Ava when she is headed to visit her sister, Joyce, after testing positive for
HIV. When Ava gets back to her hometown she immediately realizes a lot has changed since she
was there last. The town is overrun with drugs and teen pregnancy, and its only hope is the
support group, The Sewing Circus, that is run by Joyce. The group is eventually cut from the
church, and Ava and Joyce end up with temporary custody of a crack baby, Imani, who was
abandoned by her mother directly after birth. Ava and Joyce constantly have to work around a
drunken pastor and his manipulative, cruel wife to open a center for the support group to
continue. They also have to battle the crack addicted, women hating, greedy aunt and uncle of
Imani. In the meantime, Ava ends up doing what she thought was impossible, she falls in love
with Eddie, a longtime friend of the family. Not to mention, throughout the entire story Ava is
also battling with fear and depression caused by the knowledge of her AIDS. She tries to push it
out of her mind, but always ends up forcing herself to face it. She says many times throughout
the book, But thats the problem with knowing. It takes away the possibility of pretending.
(Cleage, 1997, p. 215)

THE PSYCHOLOGY IN WHAT LOOKS LIKE CRAZY ON AN ORDINARY DAY

This leads me to my first point; environmental factors affect the development of babies.
In the book, Imani is already dealt a rough hand of cards. She is born from a HIV positive, crack
addicted mother who abandons her. Things turn around when she is in the care of Joyce and Ava,
but her greedy aunt and uncle get custody of her for a weekend because they want the cash from
the state. Her uncle breaks her legs within the forty-eight hours she is in their home.
Thats when she saw her legs. They were splayed out at weird angles they never would
have found on their own and dark bruises were already forming where Frank had twisted them so
hard he broke the bones. Imani had passed out. (Cleage, 1997, p. 227)
Analyzing the situation, it is amazing that Imani is born. Her mother does not care about her
health and probably would have aborted the baby had she had the opportunity. She did not take
care of herself or of her baby during very important stages of the life of Imani. She is abused
both in and out of the womb.
The embryonic and fetal periods occur during week three through week thirty-eight of a
pregnancy. These are crucial to the health of the fetus and to the health of a newborn baby. All
developing occurs during this time. The cells form and slowly create a new human being.
Everything that a mother chooses to do to her body, she is also choosing to do to her baby.
During these stages all the physical and mental development of the baby is occurring. Often
mothers try and consume a well-balanced diet to help with healthy development. This will also
play a role in food preferences once the baby is born.
Not only is it encouraged to make heathier decisions while pregnant than you would on
average, there are many warnings about harmful effects of drug use.
A developing human can also experience the harmful effects of such environmental
factors. The same placenta that provides oxygen and nutrients to the baby helps protect it from

THE PSYCHOLOGY IN WHAT LOOKS LIKE CRAZY ON AN ORDINARY DAY

harmful substances. Even so, certain environmental agents can pass through the placenta and
sometimes have terrible consequences. (Gazzaniga, Grison, & Heatherton, 2015)
The use of drugs goes further than just to the mothers body. By choosing to smoke, drink, or use
other recreational drugs, the mother is making her child more susceptible to being born
prematurely, with birth defects or disabilities, or dying as an infant. There are many other health
risks involved for the child, such as; irritability, high-pitched crying, tremors, vomiting,
diarrhea, and rapid breathing (Gazzaniga, Grison, & Heatherton, 2015). Although for the most
part there is an emphasis on the mother of the baby, the father needs to make sure that he is
making health conscious decisions as well. The use of drugs can have an effect on the fathers
sperm. He is fifty percent of the genes, so this can also play a role on the development of a child.
Not only does the environment inside of the womb affect the child, but also the situation
the child is born into. In What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, Imani is born a quiet baby.
Ava and Joyce discuss how they think that she can tell what she was born into and that she wants
to stay out of the way.
That girl aint cut out to be nobody mama, so just call them nice white folks at the
hospital and tell them dont nobody over here want her, so they may as well bundle her little ass
up and send her to somebody who do. (Cleage, 1997, p. 37)
Important development should be occurring during this stage of her young life. In the
sensorimotor stage, which occurs from birth to age two, many new things are happening for the
child cognitively. Self-recognition is developing, children move with purpose, and information is
beginning to be explored by the child. As the child grows, the progressions of their cognitive
senses do as well.

THE PSYCHOLOGY IN WHAT LOOKS LIKE CRAZY ON AN ORDINARY DAY

Earlier in this paper I discussed the detrimental effects of drugs used by a pregnant
mother on the fetus. Next I am going to discuss the effects that drugs have on the health of the
user. There are many different drugs and many different reasons that people choose to use them.
In my book the drug that was most commonly used was cocaine. This is a stimulant that is used
to boost emotions, but it disturbs normal sleep patterns. Like most drugs, cocaine is an addictive
drug that can be smoked or snorted. It is stimulant, so it is commonly used to improve moods;
however, if it is consistently used it has the opposite effect leaving its users angry, paranoid, and
aggressive. This is what led to the violence by the uncle of Imani in the book. Their home was a
known crack house, so the initial response that the body would have to the cocaine was no longer
an improved mood, but anger.
This occurs because of addiction to the drug. Addiction is the behavior that remains
compulsive despite its negative consequences. (Gazzaniga, Grison, & Heatherton, 2015) Even
though the good feelings wear off the user cannot stop craving the drug. If the user stops doing
the drug they fall into a withdrawal state. This may cause the same anger and anxiety that using
the drug can. There are both physical and psychological factors that a user who is no longer
using will experience. ... feelings of anxiety, tension, and cravings for the addictive substance
the physical symptoms of withdrawal vary widely commonly include nausea, chills, body
aches, and tremors. (Gazzaniga, Grison, & Heatherton, 2015) So while people begin using to
make themselves feel better and more energetic, the effects of crack cocaine do not stay
stimulating forever. Eventually the body of the user has to slow down, and it usually ends with
one of the physical factors listed above.
It is not surprising that the use of cocaine also leads to cognitive damage. Most of the
problems caused occur in the frontal cortex. This would explain why the psychological effects

THE PSYCHOLOGY IN WHAT LOOKS LIKE CRAZY ON AN ORDINARY DAY

discussed earlier occur. The damage that is done to the brain is the only thing that I can think of
to explain why a mother would abandon her child at the hospital or why an uncle would break
the legs of his baby niece. There is just so much damage done that logical, cognitive thinking is
impossible for the drug abuser. It is scary what can be considered a smart decision to someone
who has abused drugs for some time.
While I have been focusing on the use of crack cocaine and the effects of stimulants,
many users also use alcohol and other drugs as a depressant. This brings me to my final point;
the use of depressants and sexual relations to avoid true emotions. The first thing that sticks out
is the use of depressants to help deal with problems. It is logical that there would be use of
depressants in this book because the main character is HIV AIDS positive and living in a town
that is struggling for sanity. The number one used and abused depressant is alcohol, and this is
exactly what Ava uses at the beginning of the story, What I really needed was a drink there
isnt even any damn vodka in this house. (Cleage, 1997, p. 204) When Ava gets stressed out her
immediate response is to drink away her problems. At the beginning of the story she is trying to
drink away her AIDS and then when she realizes she has feelings for Eddie, she tries to do the
same thing. Unlike stimulants, depressants slow down the body. This is why people drink to
numb their bodies and feelings.
Another form of emotional avoidance is participating in sexual activities. Ava slept with
so many males; she could not give a name to which she got HIV AIDS from. She could not even
come up with a number of men she had slept with. She admits that she does not allow the men to
call her by name because of the emotional attachment that it would cause.
I cant decide if Im supposed to be sorry about having had a lot of sex or sorry that I
got sick from it. And what difference does it make at this point anyway? Its like lying about

THE PSYCHOLOGY IN WHAT LOOKS LIKE CRAZY ON AN ORDINARY DAY

how much you loved the rush of nicotine just because you now have lung cancer. (Cleage,
1997, p.4)
Everyone has a drive for sexual relations; however, motives differ from person to person.
Some people are more willing to have casual relations with someone they do not know, and
some are not. It is not surprising that the double standard encouraging men to have sex before
marriage and discouraging women from doing the same thing still exists today. This, however, is
contradictory to what we read in this novel where the woman, Ava, sleeps with a large number of
men. In this story it does not go into great details as to why she does it, other than the fact that
she just enjoys it. After doing reading on sexual interaction in Psychology in Our Lives, it was
reinforced the importance and role of hormones. Varying levels of testosterone and estrogen may
decide if the bodies will cooperate in sexual functioning. I also read about the sexual response
cycle which would contribute to the amount of sex a person has. There are four phases:
excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution, and they all equally play a role in the enjoyment of
the sex. This is, if the sex is consensual, in which case both people want to participate in the
relations. We see an example of forced sex in the novel by the young, cruel delinquents, Now,
get your ass back in that car and give my boy some of my pussy before you make me mad, you
stupid bitch. (Cleage, 1997, p. 176) The girl clearly does not want to partake, but fears the wrath
that she will face if she chooses not to. This is not part of the cycle.
Something that is mentioned in both the novel and the textbook is the importance of
practicing safe sex. Sexually transmitted diseases are real and especially prominent in this book.
They can be avoided, if not by abstinence, then by condoms. There is many cases of unwanted
teen pregnancy mentioned that can be avoided by abstinence or safe sex, as well.

THE PSYCHOLOGY IN WHAT LOOKS LIKE CRAZY ON AN ORDINARY DAY

What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day covers so many psychological topics in a
short two hundred and fifty pages. The topics that I selected to focus on in this paper were
environmental effects on baby development, the effects of drugs on the users, and emotional
avoidance by using depressants or sexual relations. Psychological development is crucial in the
first years of the life of a child, and in this book we see a baby get classified in such a negative
situation, she is barely given the opportunity to escape a low quality lifestyle full of drug abuse.
Drug use is detrimental to the user, whether it is a stimulant or depressant, especially if the user
is carrying a baby. We see all of this throughout the book. This book really opened up my eyes to
struggles that people have every day that I have no idea about, and what the psychological
effects of these trials can be. Life can deal out a pretty bad hand of cards, but you just have to
overcome it and make the best of the life that you have got. Life is as Steven Covey once said, I
am not a product of my circumstances; I am a product of my decisions.

THE PSYCHOLOGY IN WHAT LOOKS LIKE CRAZY ON AN ORDINARY DAY

References
Cleage, P. (1997). What looks like crazy on an ordinary day--: A novel. New York: Avon
Books.
Gazzaniga, M., Grison, S., & Heatherton, T. (2015). Psychology in your life. Canada: W.
W. Norton and Company.

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