We're All Mad Here: Recent Episodes
We're All Mad Here
According to modern day psychologists, when16 year old Florence Nightingale said that God had told her that she needed to be a nurse, she wasn’t speaking metaphorically; it was her first experience with auditory hallucinations. Using Florence’s private writing and her correspondence, historians and psychologists determined that she dealt with bipolar disorder, which both helped and hindered her amazing career.
SOURCES:
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00000489.htm
https://www.grunge.com/191518/the-tragic-life-of-charles-darwin/
https://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/florence-nightingale-1
https://www.newswise.com/articles/was-florence-nightingale-mentally-ill
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/florence-nightingale-suffered-from-bipolar-disorder-1.366460
Florence Nightingale and Bipolar Disorder
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-worlds-most-famous-nurse-florence-nightingale-180974155/
NOTE: In this episode, you’ll hear my volume going up and down slightly. This isn’t my mic or my editing; it’s my actual voice due to currently having COVID and being unable to support my voice for a full sentence. I’ll most likely re-record this episode once I have my lung capacity back, but I wanted to get a new story out for you guys!
John Wheeler the Third- Jack- accomplished more in one life than a dozen people combined. After graduating from West Point, serving in Vietnam, and getting degrees from Harvard and Yale, Jack spent his career working high-security government positions. Despite a scandal or two along the way, Jack was considered a stand up guy.
Jack was also bipolar, but he didn’t let it run his life. He took his medication daily and was clearly able to get things done despite of his disorder- or perhaps because of it. But on December 29th, 2010, Jack started acting strangely. In what’s now considered to be a mental break, Jack was seen on CCTV footage wandering through Wilmington, DE wearing only one shoe. Two days later, Jack’s body was found in a landfill.
www.patreon.com/allmadpodcast
SOURCES:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_P._Wheeler_III
Unsolved Mysteries – Season 2
Just outside Detroit, Michigan, a poorhouse was built in the early 1800s. In addition to treating the mentally ill, Eloise Hospital had many other uses, pioneered treatments, and was once pronounced the most expensive psychiatric facility in the world.
www.patreon.com/allmadpodcast
SOURCES:
https://web.archive.org/web/20140512231142/http://www.thewaynedispatch.com/history-of-eloise/
https://www.hometownlife.com/story/news/local/westland/2020/08/07/former-eloise-asylum-westland-could-become-hotel-event-space/3305085001/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eloise_(psychiatric_hospital)
https://fornology.blogspot.com/2018/05/when-we-called-insane-asylum-eloise.html
Princess Deok-hye, the last princess of Korea, started life as a happy child. But when she was 8, her father died and a series of unfortunate events quickly followed. Forced to move to Japan due to annexation, where her mental health declined, historians consider Deok-hye’s life to have been stolen by colonization.
SOURCES:
https://historyofyesterday.com/the-tragic-life-of-the-last-princess-of-korea-b6812df49041
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20121211000831
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20100808000154
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Deokhye
www.patreon.com/allmadpodcast
Have you ever been a fan of someone famous and just KNOW that the two of you would be friends if you met? That’s known as a parasocial relationship. But are parasocial relationships normal? Are they safe? What does the object of affection get from the relationship?
www.patreon.com/allmadpodcast
SOURCES:
https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/parasocial-relationships-online-cancelling-bon-appetit
Parasocial Relationships: The Nature of Celebrity Fascinations
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasocial_interaction
We all know Judy Garland as one of the most successful actors of the classic Hollywood days. But behind the scenes of her famous movies, Judy- with some help from MGM Studios- was struggling with mental health and drug addiction.
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This week I interviewed Emilie Leyes, who is a performer and a specialist in neuroplasticity and brain training. Currently working on her Master’s and PhD in Mind and Body Medicine, Emilie works with actors and non-actors alike to keep their minds and bodies safe during performances.
Why does it seem like so many artists are mentally ill? Are mentally ill people more likely to go into the arts, or do the arts create mentally ill people?
Hello everyone, I’m back! I sorely needed the break, but I also missed podcasting so much! I’m back on my crappy mic in this episode until I replace my newer one, but I think it sounds all right!
CW: Child abuse, suicidal ideation, sexual assault
JT Leroy became famous almost overnight for his novel SARAH, a fictionalized version of his upbringing with his sex worker mother who later forced him into sex work. But as he published more and his fame grew, people started to wonder who JT Leroy really was.
Despite not having any qualifications in psychology, Bruno Bettelheim managed to do irreparable damage to the autistic community in his 40 years of practice. He promoted the theory that neglectful parenting, or “refrigerator mothers” caused autism and psychopathy, and while the director of a school for troubled children, exercised corporal punishment constantly. It wasn’t until his death that the truth about Bruno came out.
“Autism” first got its name in the early 1900s, when a doctor believed that certain children were so obsessed with themselves (the Greek word “auto” meaning “self”) that they chose to block out everything and everyone outside of their own mind. Over the next hundred-plus years, doctors and researchers, as well as celebrities, would throw in their hypotheses and two cents as autism became more understood. Several people, both medical and not, caused irreparable harm to the autistic community, harm that endures to this day. Organizations have been set up to essentially exterminate autism- and therefore, autistic people. Through social media, actual autistic people are finally getting their voices heard.
SOURCES:
The controversy over autism’s most common therapy
Historical Perspective
The evolution of ‘autism’ as a diagnosis, explained
https://www.news-medical.net/health/Autism-History.aspx
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3757918/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Triplett
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_MMR_autism_fraud
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05112-1
Princess Alice, the mother of recently deceased Prince Philip, is described as a princess who “refused to fit the royal mold.” Alice was born different, with congenital deafness. But starting as a toddler, she learned to speak and lip read German, English, French, and Greek. Once married to Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, she began doing charity work, to which she dedicated her life. She also spent a few years in an asylum, diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, and was treated by Sigmund Freud himself.
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With two well-publicized mass shootings happening last month, America yet again set to blaming the criminals’ violence on mental illness. Former presidents have also claimed over the decades that mental illness is the cause for all shocking violent acts. But research shows that actually, the mentally ill make up only 4% of ALL gun violence. So what do the other 96% of gun criminals have in common?
SOURCES:
https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2016.0017
How journalists cover mass shootings: Research to consider
https://theconversation.com/mass-shootings-arent-growing-more-common-and-evidence-contradicts-common-stereotypes-about-the-killers-121471
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/wife-calif-shooting-victim-believes-husband-targeted-article-1.2458790
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/08/05/is-mental-illness-causing-americas-mass-shootings-no-research-shows/?fbclid=IwAR3UkL6QKz0UcRPjf8_GgVTTFZFm6MfyQy0fLnhGTUK3KA-3eapAPk-_jAI&noredirect=on
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/03/23/2020-shootings/
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-03-23/why-mass-shootings-stopped-boulder-atlanta
https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/dallas-police-ambush/protests-spawn-cities-across-u-s-over-police-shootings-black-n605686
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trumps-claims-experts-mental-illness-mass-shootings/story?id=65101823
Many Mass Shooters Share A Common Bond: Male Grievance Culture
8chan Back Online, Even After Another Internet Company Cancels Its Service
Mary and Charles Lamb were a brother and sister team who spent decades both in and out of private psych hospitals AND making their mark on the 19th century British literary scene.
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When Colleen Adams disappeared on November 22, 1973, her husband Geoffrey told authorities that her violent post partum depression had inspired her to desert her husband and daughters. While Colleen’s family never believed this was true, her mental instability was backed up by a past boyfriend as well. Did Colleen choose to leave, or was there foul play involved?
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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8653651/How-Geoffrey-Adams-got-away-killing-wife-Colleen-Adelaide-cracking-45-years.html
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-22/inside-the-tragic-life-of-colleen-adams/12579244
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-19/geoffrey-adams-murder-trial-closing-remarks/12575284
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-14/geoffrey-adams-murder-trial-hears-statement-of-former-boyfriend/12558142
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-12/murder-accused-geoffrey-adams-admits-push-and-shove-with-wife/12545254
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8788233/Geoffrey-Adams-daughter-Marie-told-mum-Colleen-abandoned-family-baby-blues.html
https://www.news.com.au/national/south-australia/geoffrey-gordon-adams-who-killed-wife-47-years-ago-likely-to-die-of-aggressive-brain-tumour-before-sentencing/news-story/fd6c14380cc685d283d3e8f28d13daa6
When America was born, founding father Patrick Henry was newly married to his much younger new wife. But what happened to his first wife, Sarah Shelton? Why did she spend the last four years of her life locked in the family cellar?
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SOURCES:
Sarah Shelton Henry: The Wife Patrick Henry Kept in the Cellar by Sheila Phelps Inderbitzen
“Sir, We Are Not Weak” – Women of the Patrick Henry Household
http://podcasts.history.org/041210/PatrickHenrysSecret.cfm
https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/patrick-and-sarah-henry-mental-illness-18th-century-america
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Shelton_Henry
Sarah Shelton Henry
Sarah Shelton Henry
https://books.google.com/books?id=8paiDAAAQBAJ&printsec=copyright#v=onepage&q&f=false
Quite a few accomplished chess players ended up becoming mentally ill later in their careers- but is chess itself responsible for its players’ problems?
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SOURCES
https://members.tripod.com/HSK_Chess/steinitz.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/five-myths/five-myths-about-chess/2020/11/20/529fb63a-2a79-11eb-9b14-ad872157ebc9_story.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Steinitz
https://www.chess.com/article/view/can-anyone-be-an-im-or-gm
Chess and Mental Illness: 12 Chess Player Who Suffered From Severe Mental Problems
http://tartajubow.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-tragic-story-of-brilliant-alvis.html
https://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0004-282X2020000300169
https://bleeckerstreetmedia.com/editorial/the-most-dangerous-game#:~:text=After%20he%20lost%20his%20championship,inmate%20up%20for%20a%20game.
It’s the first episode of Rachel’s new podcast HOOKED!
On May 15 2001, one of the most beloved bloggers of the early internet died from a brain aneurysm after battling leukemia.
On May 19, 2001, the internet learned that Kaycee Nicole Swenson had not, in fact, died. She had never existed.
www.patreon.com/hookedthepod
SOURCES:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaycee_Nicole
Kaycee Nicole
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2001/may/28/internetnews.mondaymediasection
https://www.webtimemedias.com/article/transfernet-fabulous-fate-kaycee-nicole
https://metatalk.metafilter.com/20653/Kaycee-Nicole-Metafilters-first-investigation
https://www.metafilter.com/7878/The-Kaycee-Nicole-Swensen-Faq
Why do we want to squeeze or nibble on things we find overwhelmingly adorable? It’s called “cute aggression!”
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“Tears of Joy” May Help Us Maintain Emotional Balance
https://www.brainfacts.org/thinking-sensing-and-behaving/emotions-stress-and-anxiety/2019/cute-aggression-why-you-want-to-squeeze-adorable-creatures–091019
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271503312_Dimorphous_Expressions_of_Positive_Emotion_Displays_of_Both_Care_and_Aggression_in_Response_to_Cute_Stimuli
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cute_aggression
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/12/31/679832549/when-too-cute-is-too-much-the-brain-can-get-aggressive
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/12/181204143857.htm
Did you know that in addition to creating a cereal empire, John Harvey Kellogg was a doctor AND ran a sanitarium for most of his life? Obsessed with purity of mind and body, Kellogg created a home-away-from-home resort where people with all kinds of illness could relax, eat his food inventions, and get all the yogurt enemas they could ever want!
www.patreon.com/allmadpodcast
SOURCES:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harvey_Kellogg#Battle_Creek_Sanitarium
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Creek_Sanitarium
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/12/john-harvey-kellogg-believed-light-could-cure-diabetes/382916/
James Taylor is one of the most successful American musicians alive today. Coming from a musical family, James wrote his first song on guitar at 14. By the time he was 22, he was being called “the new voice of rock.” But as he’d risen in his career, James’ family history of depression and addiction had come with him.
www.patreon.com/allmadpod
SONGS:
“You’ve Got a Friend” (written by Carole King, performed by James Taylor)
“Fire and Rain” (written and performed by James Taylor)
It’s been awhile since I gave voice to a piece of writing: this week, I read Virginia Woolf’s ON BEING ILL.
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CW/TW: Suicide/ suicidal ideation, childhood sexual abuse
Virginia Woolf is as famous for her suicide as she is for her writing. Born into a family with a history of mental health and being a victim of sexual abuse, Virginia never stood a chance. Even so, she produced some of the most famous English literature in history and pioneered new writing styles that endure to this day.
www.patreon.com/allmadpod
SOURCES
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Woolf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4817111/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7112729/#B24
Many true crime podcasts have covered the death of Elisa Lam, a Canadian college student. But few have covered what was considered a large factor in her death: her bipolar disorder. This is a different look into the mysterious Elisa Lam case.
www.patreon.com/allmadpodcast
TW: Eating disorders, suicide
Happily retired from her running career, Suzy Favor Hamilton was looking forward to leading a more normal life. But soon, Suzy found quiet life in Wisconsin unbearable; she needed something exciting to fill the space running had left. Hoping to satisfy her insatiable sex drive, Suzy signed up to be a Las Vegas escort. Before she knew it, she had left behind her husband and daughter to live there full time, but when a tabloid reporter discovered who she really was, her world exploded.
www.patreon.com/allmadpodcast
TW: Eating disorders, suicide, adult language
Suzy Favor Hamilton went to the Olympics three times. She was one of the fastest runners in the world. But her undiagnosed bipolar disorder gave her performance anxiety that showed itself in panic attacks and depression. Suzy felt that, even as an Olympian, she was never good enough, and her biggest fear was that she was just like her bipolar brother, Dan.
Philadelphia, one of the oldest cities in the United States, prides itself on preserving and remembering its history. So why is it that the story of Mary Lum Girard, business assistant and wife to one of the richest men in American history, has been swept under the rug? Her husband, Stephen Girard, has several locations in the city named after him, but none of them mention Mary. The only note of her can be found as a tiny post script on a plaque lauding her husband- a plaque that hangs in the lobby of the hospital where she was committed for her insanity.
This episode is a collaboration with Josh Hitchens, host of the podcast Going Dark Theatre, which can be found here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/going-dark-theatre/id1486051154
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CW: This episode contains discussion of suicide
Mark Drybrough and Nadia Kajouji both completed suicide after being sent instructions on how by a friend on the internet. But who was this friend really, and why did they encourage dozens of people online to kill themselves?
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Everyone knows Charlie Chaplin, but few people know about his mother Hannah. The daughter of a mentally ill mother, and who developed syphilis-related psychosis, Hannah still managed to impart her performing skills to her son Charlie. While Hannah never reached the level of fame that her husband or sons, grandchildren, and great grandchildren did, her legacy is carried on in their performances.
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Dr. Teleka Patrick suspected she was schizophrenic. But she was worried that if she got an official diagnosis, she’d lose her psychiatry license, so she kept her suspicions quiet and tried to get on with her life. But her mental illness ended her marriage. It earned her a restraining order from her pastor. And eventually, it led to her mysterious death.
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What happened in the months and days leading up to the murder-suicide of the Hart family? What was the trigger? Mental illness? Marital problems? Or just the Hart mothers being unable to see a future for their kids?
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On March 25, 2018, Jennifer Hart killed her family of 8 in a shocking murder-suicide. No one who knew the Harts could believe that this perfect, happy blended family met such a tragic end. Jennifer had kept everyone at arm’s length while crafting the picture of perfect family online. Behind the scenes was abuse, neglect, and starvation.
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Clennon King Jr. was the first black man to run for president. But before blazing that trail, the professor at an all-black college tried to enroll in the University of Mississippi to earn his doctorate. The school, also known as Ole Miss, was whites only, and it was declared that any black man who pursued a position at a white college had to be insane. After being ruled mentally ill and spending two weeks in an asylum, King’s life was effectively ruined, no matter how much he tried to fix it.
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Empress Sissi of Austria is often compared to Princess Diana for her charitable work, her mental health issues, and her untimely end. This is the story of a reluctant empress.
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Jimmy Stewart is one of the most famous actors in Hollywood history. He was also a pilot during World War 2. Returning with hearing loss, a hair-trigger temper, and PTSD, Jimmy wasn’t sure if it was worth it to return to Hollywood, or even continue with his life.
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When Christine Collins’ nine year old son Walter went missing in 1928, she insisted the LAPD find him. When they introduced her to a boy who claimed he was Walter, Christine knew he wasn’t her son. Considering her too much trouble, the LAPD committed her to the Psychopathic Ward of the Los Angeles County Hospital. But there was even more to Walter’s disappearance than just a boy gone missing and another acting as an imposter. Christine’s story would soon be found to be connected to a serial killing mother-son team and one of the most devastating murder cases in California history.
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Winston Churchill is one of history’s most famous depressives. But as one of the most noted Churchill biographer was working on his own book about the man, he realized that there was almost no evidence to support the claim that Churchill had a diagnosis of depression. How did someone with no depression diagnosis become famous for conquering his depression to save the world?
Main sources:
Podcast: What Really Happened? hosted by Andrew Jenks
Book: Clementine by Sophia Purnell
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If Mary Wollstonecraft was the first feminist, her daughter, Mary Shelley, was the first “goth girl.” The author of Frankenstein, Mary battled with depression for most of her life. She doubted her writing talent, her husband had a wandering eye, and all but one of her children died. Still, she managed to created a completely new genre of writing and break some glass ceilings on the way.
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Mary Wollstonecraft is considered by some to be the first feminist. Brave though she was, she still suffered from depression, attempting suicide several times. In her short life, she had an impressive amount of adventures and produced an amazing amount of writing.
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Why are we furiously washing our hands to try and prevent getting the Corona Virus? Because of this week’s subject!
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Francesca Woodman, with her dark, Gothic photographs and a life ended in suicide, was the quintessential “depressed artist.” Or was she?
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Rachel talks about depression, something she is very familiar with.
Artwork by Suhana
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16 year old Ethan Couch took a drunken joyride in 2013 that led to 4 deaths and 9 injuries- yet was only sentenced to rehabilitation. Why? Because a psychologist testified that Ethan suffered from affluenza- meaning, he was too rich to understand that actions had consequences. Is affluenza real? How will this ruling affect similar cases in the future?
PROMO: Fresh Hell Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fresh-hell-podcast/id1456161753
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Dorothea Dix suffered an abusive childhood, but escaped through school and, eventually teaching. After a nervous breakdown, Dorothea went abroad for a vacation, but ended up falling in with a group of healthcare reformers. She adopted their method of investigating hospitals and reporting her findings to the government and took it home to America. She traveled through the US, trying to fix the mental health system and treatment of the insane. What she left behind was a kinder, more efficient healthcare system.
(Please forgive the audio quality… it’s been quite a week.)
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ADULT LANGUAGE is featured in this episode!
This week’s episode was a collaboration with Kate from Ignorance Was Bliss. We talk about Narcissistic Personality Disorder, how it affects relationships, and what someone has to display to be diagnosed with it.
Listen to Ignorance Was Bliss: https://iwbpodcast.podbean.com/
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A teenager makes a splash in the Civil War scene with her incredible speeches. Backed by anti-slavery sponsors like Lucretia Mott and Susan B. Anthony, Anna Elizabeth Dickinson took the world by storm.
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What, a facility that didnt torture its patients?! That’s right, we’re taking it easy this holiday week and talking about the State Hospital for the Insane at Danville!
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“Triggered snowflake” has been a favorite taunt in comment sections online. But what IS triggering, actually, and are trigger warnings really helpful for people with trauma?
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Prodigy William Sidis had everything he needed to succeed in life- but being a prodigy kind of ruined his life.
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A child prodigy has an air of mystery and magic around them. But as it turns out, their existence isn’t so easy.
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Gaslighting is a common tactic used by sociopaths, narcissists, dictators, and cult leaders. Often times, it’s applied so slowly and meticulously that it’s hard to detect.
Domestic Abuse Hotline: 1-800-799-7233
Rachel examines the new-ish trend of the Wine Mommy and how it’s affecting our culture.
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Rachel continues telling the story of Michelle Carter and Conrad Roy III.
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Special thanks to my boyfriend Cameron for playing Conrad in this episode!
The case of Michelle Carter made the nation ask, “can someone force someone else to kill themselves?” According to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, yes, and that’s exactly what Michelle did to her boyfriend Conrad Roy. In part 1 of 2, we look at the two teens, their respective mental illnesses, and the work up to the fateful night of July 13, 2014.
National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1-800-273-8255
Opening in 1911 to serve the black community of Maryland, the Crownsville Hospital wasn’t the godsend it was supposed to be. Treating exclusively black patients for decades, the hospital bylaws forbade the hiring of African-American staff, prolonging medical racism and making Crownsville merely a dumping ground for the wayward members of the black community… and things didn’t get much better into the 2st century.
Waterbury Asylum was opened to house the criminally insane another Vermont asylum didn’t want. Run by superintendents who enthusiastically supported eugenics, to be a patient at Waterbury was to lead a difficult existence.
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After unofficial diagnoses caused Barry Goldwater to lose the 1964 presidential election, the American Psychiatric Association established a new section of their Code of Ethics: Section 7. This prohibits any psychiatrist from diagnosing a public individual whom they have not personally examined. Section 7, otherwise known as the Goldwater Rule, made the news again during the election of 2016, when a group of mental health professionals voiced concerns about the mental health of President Donald Trump. Is Section 7 outdated, or should psychiatrists continue to keep their diagnoses of public figures to themselves?
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Something a little different this week: Rachel covers 3 topics that can’t fill a whole episode, but are fascinating anyway.
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Camille Claudel was a French sculptor who struggled for recognition in the 19th and 20th century. Known more for her affair with artist Auguste Rodin, she was labelled a crazy and tragic case.
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What is it about certain people that make you instantly like or dislike them?
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When Jeremy Perkins started hearing voices, his Scientologist parents did everything they could to treat him in only methods approved by the Church. But those actions would have deadly consequences.
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Scientology has been made famous by celebrities like Tom Cruise and John Travolta. But how did the religion become so anti-psychiatry?
The three podcasts I mentioned:
Last Podcast on the Left
Behind the Bastards
Citation Needed
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CW: rape
When a Polish tourist dies after jumping out of a hospital window in Egypt, officials write her off as a depressive who didn’t want to live anymore. But Magdalena Zuk had no history of mental illness- so why did she apparently have some kind of mental breakdown three days before her death? What happened in Egypt?
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The plays of Tennessee Williams often feature young women with disabilities, physical or intellectual, as well as mental illness. But Williams didn’t just use these for dramatic effect; he was inspired by his older sister Rose, who struggled with mental illness all her life.
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Stories of feral children have been around since the 1300s. But are any of them real?
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When an entire family is massacred, everyone from the one remaining family member to the police are sure they know who did it: the schizophrenic daughter. But is it really that simple?
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Art by Lisa Russo
We’re getting back to basics this week and talking about the four humors!
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In 1944, with World War II dominating the headlines, two doctors at the University of Minnesota were determined to discover how to rehabilitate the starving victims of war before the war ended. They recruited 36 men to take part in what would become known as the Minnesota Starvation Experiment, and the study still affects the way those with eating disorders are rehabilitated today.
Diana Spencer became the newest member of the British royal family in 1981, marrying Prince Charles, heir to the throne. The public loved her, and she was dubbed The People’s Princess. But Diana’s marriage was less than perfect; the Prince constantly commented on her weight, causing Diana to become bulimic and suicidal. The Prince didn’t believe her threats were real, making her feel even more desperate. The Queen refused to grant them a divorce so, desperate to get her story out. she met with a journalist who published a book about her marriage and mental health struggles. Soon after its release, more and more people in Britain started to seek treatment for eating disorders they’d previously kept secret; this was called “the Diana Effect.”
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In (late) honor of National Eating Disorder Awareness Week, Rachel does an overview of eating disorders, including interviews with fellow podcaster Tawny Platis and actor/personal trainer Ashley Kelley. Both women are in recovery from an eating disorder and graciously tell their stories. If you or someone you love is suffering from an eating disorder, please contact the National Eating Disorders Association by calling (212) 575-6200.
Click here to listen to Tawny’s hilarious history podcast The Dirty Bits, and click here to watch Ashley’s show Peanut Butter and Kelley.
To support this show, go to patreon.com/allmadpodcast
Rachel does a dramatic reading of Dostoevsky’s THE DOUBLE.
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In August 2018, the American Psychological Association released The Guidelines for Psychological Practice with Men and Boys, which officially declared traditional masculinity as psychologically harmful to males. Detractors were sure the study was coerced by the #MeToo movement and shouted that men were going to be forced to be feminine. But the document itself says nothing of the sort.
Just before she started a new teaching job in Kensington, Maryland, Hannah Upp disappeared for a second time. The first time was 4 years earlier, days before her second year of teaching in New York City began. Somehow, Hannah emerged from both incidents virtually unscathed. She moved to St Thomas, in the Virgin Islands, to start another teaching job. Everything was going well until the island was hit by back to back hurricanes in September of 2017. When the storms passed, Hannah was gone again.
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In 2008, middle school teacher Hannah Upp vanished in New York City. When she was finally found, she had no memory of her time missing, and no idea what caused it. Doctors couldn’t figure it out either.
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Photo by Nicole Bengiveno, The New York Times
You’ve probably heard the phrase “mad as a hatter.” But what about hatting made people so mad?
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Episode artwork by Brandie Titus
Veronica Lake was one of the most famous actresses of Hollywood’s Golden Age, despite the fact that her career only lasted about 11 years. Battling what was probably untreated schizophrenia through bad marriages and other tragedies, Veronica never felt like she belonged in Hollywood.
Rachel does a dramatic reading of Edgar Allen Poe’s THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER.
Acquired from Project Gutenberg.
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Stanley McCormick lived a charmed life as a member of a prominent Chicago family until his early thirties. After years of showing signs of mental illness, he was diagnosed with dementia praecox at the age of 32. His wife Katharine, the first woman in America to earn a biology degree, tried to convince his doctors to test him for hormonal imbalances that could be causing his issues. In response, she was barred from being in the same room as Stanley for twenty years as she fought to become his sole guardian in what the papers called “The Freudian Equivalent of the Scopes Trial.”
26 year old Emma Fillipoff disappeared on November 28, 2012. A talented writer and photographer, Emma moved across the country from her friends and family at the age of 25. While initially having a great time, she started to exhibit strange behavior: obsessively rearranging objects, claiming to hear furniture talk, and paranoia that she was being stalked. After being dropped off at a gas station by a stranger, Emma wandered off and was never seen again.
If you have any information pertaining to the Emma Fillipoff case, please contact the Victoria police non-emergency line at 250-995-7654 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
https://www.gofundme.com/find-emma
Schizophrenia is described by the DSM 5 as a “severe and chronic” mental illness, characterized by disorder thinking and auditory hallucinations. But there’s more to schizophrenia than just hearing voices.
Happy Thanksgiving, listeners!
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Medical science has a dark history with human experimentation. In 1920, a behavioralist and his graduate assistant wanted to see if Pavlov’s theory of conditioning in animals could be applied to humans, too. For the cleanest of slates, they decided to use a 9 month-old baby who became known as Little Albert. Over three months, they conditioned the infant to fear white, furry objects, but were unable to uncondition him before he moved away with his mother. Did Little Albert live a life filled with fear? Who WAS Little Albert?
Mildred Mitchell-Bateman was a woman ahead of her time. A female, black hospital supervisor by the time she was 33, Mitchell-Bateman served not only as the director of West Virginia’s mental health department, but was also chosen by President Jimmy Carter himself to serve on his mental health commission. Working in the field until the age of 87, Dr. Mitchell-Bateman had a hospital named after her to recognize her lifetime of achievements.
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Many thanks to Kate for inviting me to cover this topic with her! Check out her pod here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ignorance-was-bliss/id1341566170?mt=2
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Imagine the crunching of an apple causing you intense rage, or sending you into a panic attack. People with misophonia- literally “hatred of sound”- deal with this on a daily basis. As yet unrecognized by the WHO and APA, misophonia is a little-known disorder that nevertheless affects perhaps 20% of the population.
Petition
Nikola Tesla, born in present-day Croatia, is known as one of the founding fathers of electricity. He started to invent things as a young child, while also dealing with possible Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and hallucinations. After moving to America and getting into a lifelong tiff with Thomas Edison, Tesla filed for over 700 patents and lent his electrical talents to changing the entire world.
I got a call a few weeks ago from a friend informing me he’d just inadvertently attended a cult meeting. The Landmark Forum (formerly The Forum, and EST) is marketed as a collection of seminars about leadership, public speech, and relationship skills. Sounds pretty innocent, and even helpful… but according to records, Landmark seminars, which involve verbally violent Attack Therapy, have caused many people- mentally ill and not- to have psychotic episodes, nervous breakdowns, and even to disappear forever. At least three murders have been linked to Landmark members, and it leads one to ask… what is Landmark really?
In the 1600s, two hospitals opened in the southeast of France to house and treat the destitute of the area. As with most of our facilities, they failed at this for a few hundred years before they started to make any headway. But by the mid-1800s, l’Hopital Bicetre and Hopital universitaire Pitie-Salpetriere, operated by the same doctors and superintendents, started to use moral treatment and other modern approaches to treating mentally ill patients.
Dr Franz Mesmer, the namesake of “mesmerisation”, believed that ill health was caused by a buildup of fluid in the human body. He also believed that some people (himself included) had the power to move that fluid out of the way with their mere concentration. Mesmer became incredibly popular in Europe in the late 18th and early 19th century, treating people as famous as Mozart and Marie Antoinette.
Go to patreon.com/allmadpodcast to become a patron and access the bonus episode about Marie Theresia von Paradis!
In 1795, James Tilly Matthews was thrown into Bethlem Hospital for accusing the Prime Minister of treason. While there, he started to believe that a terrorist gang was playing with his brain using magnetic waves, which they used to affect his physical and emotional health. Over 10 years, he explained this device, called an Air Loom, to John Haslam, the hospital apothecary. What emerged was the very first book-length record of mental illness- even though some people didn’t even think Matthews was insane to begin with.
In 2004, the family of missing woman Brooke Henson were notified that Brooke’s social security number had shown up on a job application in New York City. Brooke’s family was cautiously optimistic- though they wanted their family member to be alive, none of the other information matched their Brooke. And they were right to doubt, because the woman using Brooke’s name and information was actually 28 year old Esther Reed, a conwoman who had been stealing identities for the past eight years. She would elude the police for two more years before they finally caught her in Tinley Park, Illinois on February 2, 2008- the very same day as the mass shooting in a local store. Had Esther’s crimes made the leap from identity theft to murder?
Esther Reed was 30 years old when the law finally caught up with her. After over a decade of petty crime that escalated into multiple identity thefts, the Secret Service was after her for possible espionage and a murder. What began as Esther’s effort to escape her crippling social anxiety disorder spun out of control, and when the police found her, she had a lot of explaining to do.
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Social Anxiety Disorder, when it first appeared in the DSM III in 1980, wasn’t thought to have much of a negative effect on the people who had it. But as more research was done, it was discovered that social anxiety disorder could actually wreak havoc on someone’s life. From shying away from higher education to being unable to attend social events, people with SAD experience intense anxiety and dread when faced with any sort of social situation- sometimes even ones that take place away from people, like on the computer.
UNSTRUCTURED: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/unstructured/id1359992964?mt=2
“I was spanked as a child, and I turned out fine,” goes the usual response to one speaking out against spanking. But is anyone who was spanked ACTUALLY fine, or are the effects of the punishment showing themselves in insidious ways? Some escape the effects, but most don’t.
A strange affliction befalls a number of Japanese tourists who visit Paris, France: Paris Syndrome. Symptoms include nausea, dizziness, derealization, hallucinations, and paranoia. Some experts don’t believe it is a thing, but it’s not just restricted to the Japanese in Paris. Jerusalem Syndrome, the more extreme version of Paris Syndrome, affects all types of people when they visit the historical city. So are these disorders real? And if they’re not, what is going on?
Athens Lunatic Asylum opened in 1874. Initially reknowned for its top-notch PTSD treatment for Civil War veterans, it took the normal turn of over population and abuse. In 1978, patient Margaret Schilling went missing. A month later, her body was found in the attic of one of the unrenovated buildings. When the body was removed, it left a stain on the floor that no amount of scrubbing would remove… a stain that remains to this day.
Not so way back when, it was considered fact that the moon’s phases controlled human behavior. Even today, people consider the full moon the catalyst for increased crime and mental illness. In the 1800s, a criminal could be granted a lighter sentence if their crime occurred during the full moon, as they were considered less in control of themselves. While no longer considered law, if someone has a strange day, they will probably ask, “Is it the full moon?”
In 1826, a new diagnosis of neurasthenia appeared on the medical scene. Covering everything from anxiety to headaches to fatigue, it soon gained the nickname of “Americanitis”, as Americans loved to be diagnosed with it to prove how very American they were. To be pronounced neurasthenic was exclusive to the upper classes and very much sought after as a status symbol. But it wasn’t all fun and games; some doctors believed that a mild neurasthenic headache could develop into full-blown insanity if not treated.
The first episode in a series about ye olde diagnoses. The day a young woman got her period way back when was considered to be the day she essentially went crazy. A girl or woman who menstruated but hadn’t yet had sex was almost guaranteed to come down with the Virgin’s Disease, also known as green sickness and chlorosis. Turns out, they were ACTUALLY probably suffering from anemia, but olde misinformed doctors prescribed sex to these women, believing that sperm could save them.
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In 2006, the body of Joyce Carol Vincent, a British woman, was found abandoned in her London flat. Tragic enough, but then it was discovered that Joyce had died in 2003. Two years before, Joyce had suddenly quit her job and cut off contact with everyone she knew. No one heard from her again until they read about her death in the newspaper. Why did Joyce cut off contact? Was she trying to hide from an abusive fiance? Did mental illness play a part?
In a single year, Rose went from a happy teenager to an emotionally broken one. Her sister Violet watched in horror as even their psychiatrist father was at a loss for what to do, and wonders if she’ll go crazy too.
“Silver Water” by Amy Bloom is read and performed with permission from Bloom’s literary agent.
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Sir Isaac Newton is considered one of the founding fathers of mathematics, but while he was making his amazing discoveries, he was also dealing with mental illness and had two mental breakdowns in his lifetime, No one really knows what he had- bipolar? Schizophrenia?- but back when Newton was alive, it was actually considered a requirement for a genius to be insane as well.
Ever get weird tingles when you hear a certain sound or feel a certain object? There’s a term for it: Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, or ASMR. The newest internet fad, people have been gleefully giving themselves “brain orgasms” to YouTube videos since about 2011. But where does it come from? Can everyone experience it?
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Clips in this episode from:
ASMR DARLING
THE JOY OF PAINTING WITH BOB ROSS
GIBI ASMR
THE SLEEP WITH ME PODCAST
FREDSVOICE ASMR
First released as a bonus episode, this is an interview I was invited to do with creators of the audiodrama THE DIARIST, Donna and Beth. We talk mental health treatment in the 50s, women’s rights, and Beth’s dog pops in for a visit.
If you haven’t listened to THE DIARIST yet, do it! It’s well-written, well-acted, and very engaging.
Rachel interviews playwright Lydia Blaisdell, who wrote her play She Buried the Pistol about her great-grandmother, Cora Blaisdell, who was committed to a California asylum when she was 36. Cora was institutionalized until her death over 30 years later. Lydia discusses the process of finding medical records, what an asylum was like in the 30s and 40s, and how today, we may not be as progressive about mental illness as we think.
For more information about Lydia’s appearance in the Fringe, follow the link: https://behindthecurtaincincy.com/2018/05/17/world-premiere-solo-piece-by-award-winning-ny-playwright-excavates-the-creators-mad-great-grandmother-at-the-cincy-fringe-festival-in-she-buried-the-pistol/
In 1988, a woman tried on a new identity as Becky Sue Turner. A few months later, she changed her identity again, to Lori Erica Kennedy. Under this name, she married and had a child, only to kill herself a few years later. Upon going through her things, her former in-laws discovered that she was not who she claimed to be, but for seven years, not even forensics could find out who she really was.
From 1944-1959, Maurice Duplessis was Premier of Quebec, Canada. He had built a reputation for disregarding the civil liberties of Canadians, and one of his biggest moves was having 20,000 orphans (some of whom weren’t actually orphans) declared mentally deficient. Why? To make money off of them, of course! In the process, the lives of 20,000 people were changed forever, and some would never recover.
Chris Nowinski’s WWE career, from debut to retirement, lasted almost exactly two years. In 2003, he received a kick to the jaw so severe that he couldn’t remember who he was directly afterward. So he dropped out of the WWE, added a PhD to the Harvard degree he already had, and tried to solve sports’ concussion problem.
Justin Strzelczyk was drafted into the NFL right out of college, where he was a standout player. Coaches loved him because he was obsessed with the game and gave his all. But giving his all may have done him in; four years after he was released, Justin got in his car took a 411 mile drive that ended in a fireball.
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), under other names, has been being researched since the 1920s. In the ’50s, it was called “punch drunk syndrome” and was thought to only affect boxers. But recent research has proven that not only can CTE occur in people who have ANY extensive exposure to head trauma, whether it be sports or fighting for their country. Almost impossible to detect in living people, the question now is- how can we save the affected before it’s too late?
Diane Arbus took after her mother’s depression, but her photography talent was all her own. After starting a successful fashion photography business with her husband, Diane struck off on her own to take the pictures she really wanted: those of “freaks.” Circus performers, multiples, the intellectually disabled- she saw beauty and bravery in them and wanted to record it. But not everyone saw her photos that way. She was called an artistic vampire, a voyeur, and seen as mocking her subjects. Despite this, and her terrible depression, Diane managed to become one of the most successful photographers in history.
For a fraction of the population, their greatest wish is to remove a body part. It’s not quite known what causes the phenomenon known as Body Integrity Identity Disorder, but one theory is that it’s caused by the same part of the brain that is responsible for phantom limbs. But people with BIID are seen as weird for wanting to remove a perfectly good part of their body, and the discovering doctor finds it hard to forsee a world where BIID will be accepted as a normal condition.
Ernest Hemingway took his own life in 1961, only the second of five Hemingways to do so. Two of his siblings and his supermodel granddaughter followed his lead. Does suicide run in families? Is it learned behavior? In either case, can anything be done about it?
Ernest Hemingway ended his own life in 1961 after a lifetime of brain injuries and battling mental illness, but he was far from the only member of his family to do so. 5 people over 4 generations of Hemingways have died by suicide- and that doesn’t include all of the attempts and wives and husbands who have successfully killed themselves. The media dubbed this “the Hemingway Curse.” But is it real?
Too often, if a man and a woman present in the ER with identical symptoms, the woman will be written off as simply “anxious” and sent home without treatment- or sometimes, being told she had been treated but was actually given a placebo. It’s not always based on gender, though- doctors are hesitant to give patients with mental illness procedures such as bariatric surgery, out of fear that the mental illness will cause them to react poorly while in recovery. Rachel shares some of her recent medical stories in which both her gender and her mental illnesses played a part in her treatment.
The Martha Mitchell Effect: a clinical term for when someone (usually female) is labelled mentally ill for reporting truth stranger than fiction, with or without a history of insanity. Named for Martha Mitchell, of course, the woman notorious for drinking, gossiping… oh, and blowing the whistle on Watergate. Her life was ruined by the defamation that followed, and her subsequent death was not the end of the scapegoating of truth tellers. In 2004, Susan Lindauer, a political peace activist, was arrested for colluding with the Middle East and “predicting” 9/11. She was labelled insane and sent to a psychiatric hospital for insisting that her story of innocence was real. The more she insisted, the crazier the law believed her to be.
Failure can be frustrating. A lot of failure can be REALLY frustrating. And Charles Guiteau failed a lot. Was it that that led him to assassinate a president? Was it a lifetime of syphilis? Or was it insanity?
Was Joan of Arc crazy? No one can seem to agree whether the teenager who saved France in 1429 was truly speaking to God or if she had epilepsy. Or migraines. Or tuberculosis (EVERY TIME, GUYS!) But whether she was schizophrenic, was truly speaking to God, or was just a really clever teenage girl, Joan changed history.
PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/allmadpodcast
Artwork by Michael C Hayes
In the 1860s, 8% of asylum patients were admitted due to “religious excitement.” While that’s no longer a diagnosis, 24% of schizophrenic patients in psych wards today report having some form of religious delusion. But religious delusions exist outside the psych ward, too. Religious fanatics are willing to blow up buildings and murder to please their God; anyone who doesn’t agree with them is wrong and deserves to be punished. But why does someone become a fanatic? And is it really possible to be “touched by God”?
When it comes to seniors and mental health treatment, society generally accepts that the older crowd are against it. They think it’s shameful or it’s witchcraft, right? WRONG! But, if people of a certain age are open to treatment, why aren’t they getting it?
In the early 1990s, Edward Gingerich was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and as an Amish man, was not allowed to treat it with medication. But after toe massages and thrice-daily molasses drinks didn’t work, he was finally allowed to take some. It worked like a charm, but the second he told his bishop he didn’t want to take them anymore, they supported him, a pattern that would continue even after he committed murder.
Rachel talks about how she made the decision to go on medication for her anxiety and depression. She also rips SSRI Stories (dot) com a new one.
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The Urban Asylum at Dalldorf was built in 1880s Berlin and was a comparatively good facility to be at. In 1920, a young woman was admitted who refused to reveal her identity for two whole years. The staff called her Miss Unknown. When she finally started talking, a rumor spread that Miss Unknown was actually one of the Romanov daughters who had survived the murders of the Tsar of Russia and his family. Checked out of Dalldorf and housed by supporters, “Anna”, as she now called herself, was questioned by friends and family of the Romanovs who were determined to get the truth out of her- was she an imposter, or their lost Anastasia?
WE’RE ALL JUST PRETENDING episode: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-8-question-passing-peas-secrets-about-instagram/id1272482475?i=1000399878428
PATREON: www.patreon.com/allmadpodcast
In 1973, Dr David Rosehan gathered a group of colleagues and friends to pull a Nellie Bly. They got themselves admitted to 12 different psych wards in 5 different cities to observe what life was like there. It wasn’t pretty. Hospital personnel were miffed after Dr Rosenhan published his study two years later and challenged him to try it again, because this time, they were ready.
Elizabeth Cochran was one of the first “stunt journalists,” going where no woman had gone before. Too poor to afford much of an education, she dreamed of becoming a writer. After writing an anonymous letter to a newpaper editor, Elizabeth was hired as a freelancer for the paper, writing under the pen name “Nellie Bly.” Infiltrating the Blackwell Island Women’s Insane Asylum, Nellie Bly exposed the poor treatment suffered by the mentally ill as well as fighting for many other social justices.
Dr Shirley Turner did not appreciate being broken up with by fellow doctor, Andrew Bagby… so she shot and killed him in November of 2001. It didn’t take long for the police to figure out who did it, but somehow, Shirley, who ran back to Canada, managed to avoid conviction. And then she discovered she was pregnant with Andrew Bagby’s baby, and all hell broke loose.
Shirley Turner made it clear that she wanted to be a psychiatrist to make money, not to help people. Usually that just makes someone seem selfish or shallow, but Dr Turner was labelled a psychopath by her coworkers, Her career wasn’t like she had pictured it, and neither was her personal life. Before she received her Master’s degree, Shirley had been divorced twice and was trying to juggle three kids along with her residency hours. A stable relationship was not to be, and each time she was dumped, Shirley stalked her ex: harassing phone calls, driving thousands of miles to see them, even physically assaulting them. But Dr Shirley Turner was just warming up.
In 1892, early-day feminist Charlotte Perkins-Gilman published The Yellow Wallpaper in a literary journal. At first regarded as a piece of gothic fiction, the piece was soon corroborated by mental health professionals and eventually changed the way post-partum depression, among other ailments, was treated. Enjoy Rachel’s dramatization of Gilman’s piece.
The reason the Libby Zion Law was created is discussed with JJ and Ted from Conspiring to Argue. 18 year old Libby should never have died on that evening in 1984- but was it murder, or simply a flawed system?
After his mother’s death in 1988, John duPont threw himself into sports. He built a training facility he called Foxcatcher Farms and opened it to athletes. His money turned the world of USA Wrestling around, and soon Foxcatcher Farms was hosting world-class wrestlers, training for the Olympics. John was on top of the world… sometimes. In addition to his mood swings, he started doing drugs, carrying loaded weapons around, and acting on superstitions to an offensive level. But all of that was nothing compared to the day he became a murderer.
John DuPont became a murderer in 1996. But before that, he was a boy desperate to belong. Ignored by his parents and unable to excel at his favorite thing, sports, John was a sad kid. As he grew up, his eccentricities were ignored because people loved what his money did for them, and that willful ignorance sealed John’s fate.
June and Jennifer were the only black kids in their 1960s Welsh school, and people assumed that that was why they never grew out of their special twin language. But by eleven, they refused to even speak to their family, and when people tried to separate them, each girl grew catatonic. After dropping out at 16, June and Jennifer went on a crime spree and made a pact: when one twin died, the other got to live normally… and both June and Jennifer prayed for that day, when they would finally be rid of their “dark shadow.” PATREON: www.patreon.com/allmadpodcast
Why are so many Halloween costumes labelled with the word “psycho”, so many haunting stories start with suicide, so many haunted houses given an asylum theme? What is it about mental illness that scares people so much that even after All Hallow’s Eve, we both relish and fear stories about a deranged psych ward escapee? And how harmful is this to the every day stigma of mental illness?
PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/allmadpodcast
Alan Turing has been called one of the most important people of the 20th century. The inventor of what would become stored-memory computers, Turing worked as a cryptanalyst during WW2. His work with his colleagues is believed to have shortened the war by years and saved millions of lives. And yet, when it was discovered that Turing was gay, all that was forgotten and he was arrested for gross indecency. He had to choose between jail and repairative therapy that could very well take away his mathematical ability.
Penis shocking, porn watching, Gatorade drinking- just a few of the suggested treatments to banish homosexuality from your mind and body. While being gay was once considered breaking the law, it eventually became regarded as a mental illness. Often blamed on a child’s parenting, conversion therapy became a popular way to make your kid “normal” before it was too late.
Note: Around 4 mins, I say “North America” when I meant “North Korea”
THE TREVOR PROJECT
24/7 hotline: 1-866-488-7386
CRISIS TEXT LINE
Text HOME to 741741 from anywhere in the USA, anytime, about any type of crisis
NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION HOTLINE
1-800-273-TALK
VETERAN’S CRISIS LINE
1-800-273-TALK, press (1)
CRISISCHAT.ORG
LGBT NATIONAL HELPLINE
1-800-246-PRIDE (youth)
1-888-843-4564 (all LGBT)
1-888-234-SAGE (elder hotline)
PFLAG List of Hotlines
PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/allmadpodcast
In the late 1800s, Dr. Franz Gall published his ideas on the physical human mind. He believed that the brain was divided into seven different “personality” organs, and that the size of each organ dictated the strength of the trait. He called it “phrenology.” These “findings” catapulted the Western world into a frenzy, with phrenology becoming a part of academia, law, and medicine, even being used to decide human beings’ fates.
Alcoholics, horse thieves, non-conformists, and yes, those with mental illnesses were all people who were committed to the Hiawatha Insane Asylum, otherwise known as the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians. Run first by a clueless superintendent and then a cruel one, Canton Asylum was a mess from the start. Patients were chained to radiators and refused life-saving surgeries. The conditions at Canton were well known- so why was it open for decades?
Misnumbered in the beginning and co-starring the crickets in my backyard.
PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/allmadpodcast
In the mid 1800s, a strong-willed Elizabeth Ware married Theophilus Packard, a Calvinist minister. After moving several times due to Elizabeth expressing “outlandish” religious ideas, Theophilus conspired with two local doctors to have his wife institutionalized. Even after she was released, Elizabeth was forced to take her husband to court to keep her money, possessions, and children after Theophilus abandoned her. What happened in that court room changed history and set laws that we still follow today.
In 1972, Geraldo Rivera investigated Willowbrook State School. What his cameras and microphones picked up distressed not only the Staten Island community, but people all over the country. It was discovered that for 14 years, the “students” at Willowbrook were experimented on by doctors from Yale and NYU, who gave the children hepatitis in order to study its growth. Rivera’s expose prompted some changes to be made in the system, but was it enough?
Vivienne Haigh-Wood and Tom Eliot met in England when Eliot was studying at Oxford. Just three months after meeting, the two married, and so began one of the most tempestuous marriages in history. Vivienne is described in one of two lights: the femme fatale who led Tom down a depressive path, and the muse without whom Eliot’ s career would not exist. It may have been a little bit of both.
Way back when, if a relative was annoying you, you could just toss them into an asylum, no diagnosis needed- especially if they were women. Dullness of the mind; overexcitement. Menstruation; menopause. Religious fanaticism; atheism. Suppressed masturbation; too much masturbation… it was almost impossible NOT to be insane. And things didn’t get much better as the years went on. Until the 1990s in many cities, there were laws on the books entitled “Ugly Laws,” which forbade anyone who was deformed, mentally ill, or otherwise unsightly to be in public. Bottom line: keep your head down and don’t annoy your dad!
“It’s so great that President Smith is finally bombing that country!”
“But when President Johnson did the same thing, you thought it was a terrible idea.”
“Well, this is different.”
Why do humans constantly revert to what-aboutism, where, no matter their views on a subject, if someone or something they like is part of it, they say that THAT particular person is okay doing it? Why do we run away when evidence is shown to us regarding a strongly-held belief? Shouldn’t we be happy to have more information? Listen with an open mind this week as Rachel talks about bias and polarization in regards to more recent events.
The Kennedy family is internationally famous for their high-achieving, beautiful, and influential members. But America took a stand to help the intellectually disabled because of the daughter they hid away: Rosemary. While surpassing her siblings in beauty and personality, Rosemary was born intellectually disabled and soon lagged behind her fast-moving family. Her parents believed that if they held Rosemary to the same standards as her siblings, she would overcome her disability- and therefore, she never truly got the help or education she needed.
After blossoming in London, Rosemary returned to the country that pushed her aside, and she began regressing. Soon her tantrums led to seizures and her parents didn’t know what to do. Her eldest brother was being groomed to be the first Irish-Catholic President of the United States. and they couldn’t afford any mistakes. And so Joseph Kennedy, Sr brought Rosemary in for a lobotomy.
SOURCES:
ROSEMARY: THE HIDDEN KENNEDY DAUGHTER, Kate Clifford Larson, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2015.
Disability discrimination in the Bible
Eunice Kennedy Shriver
JFK Library website
Humans have been trying to break into their skulls since there were humans and skulls, and we were still at it in the 1930s. After studying under an Italian doctor, Dr Walter Freeman returned to the States to perfect what he had learned overseas: the lobotomy. Armed with an ice pick and a hammer, Freeman traveled across America in his “lobotomobile”, claiming his procedure cured everything from schizophrenia to headaches. But often his patients could no long live independently or lost the ability to speak or walk. Also discussed are the stories of Howard Dully, 12 year-old lobotomy patient, and Henry Molcuson.
CORRECTION: It seems the term “lobotomobile” was never used by Freeman; a biographer coined the phrase in the 1980s.
What is a lobotomy?
History of lobotomies
Howard Dully on NPR
Losing Their Minds (article)
Trepanning
On May 30, 2014, Morgan Geyser invited her two best friends, Anissa Weier and Bella Leutner, to a sleepover for her 12th birthday. The next morning, the girls went to a nearby park to play hide and seek. But unbeknownst to Bella, her two friends had been planning to kill her for months, as a sacrifice to Slenderman, a creepy internet legend. Morgan and Anissa stabbed her 19 times.
Later, it was revealed that Morgan was suffering from early onset schizophrenia. But Anissa had no history of mental illness. What was it about the combination of these two little girls and their imaginations that pushed them to attempt actual murder for an imaginary man? Did they actually believe, or are they faking to get a lighter sentence?
A meme has been making the rounds, claiming that today’s students’ stress levels match that of psych ward patients in the 50s. But is this really true? Are students today dealing with more mental illness in a less helpful environment?
In 1940s Harlem, Dr Frederic Wertham was worried about the youth in Harlem. So was Reverend Bishop, who ran Harlem’s Episcopalian church. Together, with a diverse staff of volunteers, they opened a clinic in the basement of Bishop’s church. Charging only 25 cents- and nothing if someone couldn’t spare that- they treated children, veterans, and the elderly. They made their mark by pioneering the idea that black people and white people were born with the same wants and needs, and that blacks could respond to mental therapy just as well as whites.
This week we’re talking about how mental health is treated today in the black community- and so it’s not just a white girl telling you facts, we have a guest! My friend Cameron of the Halfway Sober podcast talks about his experience living with a mental illness as a black man.
The presence of African Americans in North America was first documented in the 1600s, and since then, blacks have been “other”ed, physically and emotionally. Believed to feel no pain, black were ignored and experimented on while their psychological needs were cast aside. Eventually hospitals for the black mentally ill were constructed, but help wasn’t always what they provided…
Given up by her alcoholic mother at age 4, Marie Balter was adopted the next year. Abused by her adoptive family, she tried to strike out on her own, but after a suicide attempt, found herself at Danvers State Hospital. After 20 years on the ward, Marie achieved miraculous things, all while giving back to the mental health community.
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Danvers State Lunatic Hospital, built in rural Boston in the 1800s, was created with humane treatment in mind. But an overflow in patients resulted in botched lobotomies and missing charges, landing Danvers on every list of horrific hospitals.