We're All Mad Here

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” […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

“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 […]

  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 […]

  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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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.