The "Cure" for Hysterical Women Behind Asylum Walls

Life Magazine advertisement from August 22, 1912.

The concept of the "weaker sex" in the 1800s made women more susceptible to charges of mental illness or emotional breakdown. Before the mid-1800s, women who suffered from depression or mental illness were believed to have an incurable disease of the soul. Many of these women were sent to institutions popularly known as the mad house, the insane asylum, or the nut house. Some were undoubtedly sent to local parish priests for exorcisms.

Because of existing gender stereotypes and a patriarchal society, women who disagreed with their husbands or families could be committed without formal legal proceedings or medical exigency. Institutional records indicate that women were labeled mentally ill and committed at a much higher rate than their male counterparts.

Biddy Hughes was Michigan's Eloise Asylum's first official mental patient. She was committed by her family in 1841 when she was in her mid-thirties. She was kept behind locked doors until her death fifty-eight years later.

Being a woman in the nineteenth century would make any woman hysterical--a collective term then used to describe all manner of women's mental health issues--ranging from menstruation-related issues, pregnancy-related issues, post-partum depression, chronic fatigue, and anxiety. The word hysteria derives from the Ancient Greek word for womb--thus womb disease.

Asylums were essentially warehouses for non compliant women. Once committed, these unfortunate women were subjected to a daily life of neglect and abuse. These indignities only drove troubled women deeper into mental illness regardless of why they were there. Insane asylums were not places for treatment or cure of the mentally ill.

Women had no voice to protest nor did they have any advocacy beyond the asylum gates. They lacked the solidarity to stand up for themselves or each other. Once admitted, it was next to impossible to be discharged. Bad treatment by attendants and terrible living conditions led to many asylum suicides from constant harassment, violence, loneliness, and despair.

In the Victorian age, the perfect wife did not demand time or rights for herself. She was supposed to be subservient to the needs of her family. Her husband in particular. Women with strong personalities and active minds could never conform to that role without sacrificing the core of their beings. Unsatisfied and vindictive husbands could have their wives committed for stepping outside the boundaries of her role as a wife.

Married women were sent to asylums for nymphomania, promiscuity, bearing an illegitimate child, or being the victim of rape. Women who practiced sex outside of marriage were accused of moral imbecility and could be committed for the public good. Many husbands used commitment as a convenient alternative to divorce.

By the mid-nineteenth century, doctors began regarding mental illness as a medical problem. With little formal training, they tested their quack theories on mentally ill patients. Perhaps the most egregious example of a gratuitous treatment was devised by male doctors who created a condition they called Hysterical Paroxysm.

Doctors would give female patients "pelvic massages" to release the women's pent-up libido and frustrations. It wasn't long before women were being treated for frustration and anxiety as outpatients in doctors' offices. After the electric vibrator was invented towards the end of the century, women could effect this treatment in the privacy of their own homes.

Doctors of this era believed women who tried to improve their station in life by asserting their independence, getting an education, or living outside the family unit without a husband were considered suspect. Women who were outspoken, volatile, or expressed discontent were labeled mad if they refused to fit the stereotypical mold of the passive housewife. Many women were driven to mental illness by the rigid strictures polite society imposed upon them.

Mental health researchers in the Victorian age devised three archetypes of the mad woman:

1. The Ophelia (named after the heroine in Hamlet). These women were pliant and pleasant--code words for easy to control.
2. The Crazy Jane. These patients represented psychotic women who were clearly disturbed and needed to be watched.
3. The Lucia (named after Renaissance poisoner Lucretia Borgia). These patients were prone to violence and considered dangerous.

Imposing these labels on women was a way for men to garner further control over women and possess them more thoroughly. Doctors of the day warned against any activity that might change a woman's domestic status. Suffragettes and women's rights advocates were particularly troublesome for the status quo and challenged the system.

Meanwhile, Edith Lanchester was committed in 1895 by her brother for refusing to marry. She was diagnosed as insane by reason of "over-education" while her brother took full possession and ownership of their jointly inherited estate.

"When We Called the Insane Asylum Eloise" link:
https://fornology.blogspot.com/2018/05/when-we-called-insane-asylum-eloise.html

What Is Madness Anyway? Simply a Personality Disorder?

My research into the minds of mass murderers and serial killers informs me that if a person feels he or she can take the lives of innocent people without guilt or remorse, that individual is incurably a psychopath and a permanent danger to society.

Extreme behaviors the average person might simply call insane, the legal and mental health communities call personality disorders representing a wide range of aberrant behaviors, but despite the euphemism they all spell grief and tragedy for the victims and the people who love them.

Mental illness is rampant in America. We see it in our families, in society at large, and on the nightly news. No sector of society is immune from it. To better recognize and understand what personality disorders are and how the mental health community categorizes them, I've attached a link from the National Mental Health Foundation. This is a national crisis.

http://www.nmha.org/go/information/get-info/personality-disorders

Mental Health and John Norman Collins - Two Extremes Too Hard To Comprehend At Once

Doing research for The Rainy Day Murders has lead down corridors my researcher and I could not have envisioned when we began this true crime project over three years ago. But one key area of information has remained closed to us, the mental health records of John Norman Collins. That information is privileged and protected.

Shortly after Collins was arrested, his second attorney, court appointed Richard Ryan, arranged a "private" lie detector test for Collins to take. After the examiner revealed the results to the defense attorney, Ryan suggested to John's mother that they go for a diminished capacity plea, commonly known as an insanity defense. 

Loretta Collins became unglued and fired Ryan on the spot. He is said to have left the conference room shaken but no doubt relieved to be off the case. When the legal team of Joseph Louisell and Neil Fink took over, there was no more talk of an insanity defense.

Early on in our investigative research, my researcher, Ryan M. Place and I invoked the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to obtain Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) documents. Every time the Collins' case comes up for review and reclassification, Collins is offered psychiatric services. In the space provided on the form, he always writes, "Not interested."

Most people would agree that it is impossible to help someone who doesn't want to be helped. What good are psychological and psychiatric services to a person whose existence is built upon the mirrored reality of delusion? To break through that wall of falsehoods would be to admit guilt and responsibility; a narcissistic, psychotic personality will not tolerate this.

*** 

Several months ago, I received an email from Kristin Bronson, whose father worked briefly with John Norman Collins in an official mental health capacity. What follows is a loving tribute to her father:

"My father (now deceased) was in the mental health profession all his life, first at Mercywood Sanatorium and then at the University of Michigan Neuropsychiatric Institute. He worked with a vast number and all kinds of patients and always worked very hard to find a way to reach and help them. He usually succeeded, though not often enough. One lost is one too many.

"My father was involved in the evaluation and treatment of John Norman Collins. He was the only patient I am aware of that my father bailed out from his case. It gave him the shudders. 


"My dad said that Collins was never going to change. He was too evil. It really got to him, even just being around Collins. He was wickedness incarnate! There were other killers my father worked with, but this one was too much even for him who loved every human soul alive.


"Rest in peace my beloved father, William Arthur Bronson, born September 7, 1926. You helped so many people regain their lives and paid a price to do so."

Ghost of a Soul (Part Four of Four)

Charles Manson

The integration of mind, body, and soul is the business of growing up human. Our notions of right and wrong become established as our conscience develops in childhood. The Golden Rule of  "Do unto others - as you would have done unto you" travels well across many religions and cultures around the globe. This may be the guiding principle that grounds us to society and binds us to other people.

Dr. Martha Stout, Ph D, a clinical psychologist and faculty member in the department of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, has convincing data to support her belief that ninety-six percent of the population has a conscience and some attachment to other humans. Fully four percent of the population are not inhibited or encumbered by conscience and suffer from attachment disorder - the inability to relate to people in meaningful and lasting ways. These people go through the motions of life without fully participating in it. It is as if they are absent from their own lives.

Their emptiness gnaws away at them from the inside. Unexposed, it is fed by a need to dominate and control others to meet their egocentric ends. Life becomes a power play where "winning" means everything. Dr. Stout makes the keen observation that "If all you had ever felt toward another person were the cold wish to 'win,' how would you understand the meaning of love, of friendship, of caring?"

Ted Bundy

Sociopaths are preoccupied with themselves. Their narcissism is compounded by their lack of feeling for other people. Their social detachment can range from callous indifference to protracted dehumanization. They may play on our pity when the occasion calls for it, but their game is not getting our sympathy, it is drawing us into their web of influence to accomplish their own ends. 

Being master manipulators, when they have their prey in their clutches, the demon in them is aroused and all Hell breaks loose where they play out their God or Satan fantasies of omnipotence.
 
Dr. Stout's book, the sociopath next door (sic), suggests ways people - young women in particular - should deal with the sociopathic personality. I have adapted them below to reduce her list of thirteen to ten.

1. Accept that some people literally have no conscience. It's not your fault!
2. Don't let preconceived notions of people's roles (doctors, teachers, clergy, policemen, family, etc) interfere with your instincts. Listen to your inner voice. If something doesn't seem right or feel right about a person, don't ignore it.
3. A series of broken promises, neglected responsibilities, or misunderstandings are warning signs. Strike three and you're out!
4. Question authority! (related to #1) Blind obedience is dangerous. Dr. Stanley Milgram from Yale University conducted the famous "Authority Compliance" study in 1961-1962. He discovered that "at least six out of ten people will blindly obey to the bitter end an official looking authority in their midst." In this case, a "researcher" in a white lab coat clutching a clipboard.
5. Suspect over-exaggerated flattery or concern for others called "counterfeit charm." It often signals an "intent to manipulate."
6. Don't play their game. Avoid contact or communication with them and document everything.
7. Question their appeals for pity, and curtail your need to be polite or to speak with everyone. 
8. Don't try to save them. Their behavior is not your fault, unless you enable them.
9. Never be a party to a sociopath's deceptions or help him/her conceal their true nature. If you do, from that moment on, you are ensnared in their web.
10. Defend your personhood and your mental health. People who seek to diminish you have an infinite capacity to inflict harm and damage at your expense. Get some help!

John Wayne Gacy

The Two Faces of Evil - Identifying Sociopaths (Part Two of Four)

Broadly defined, a sociopath is a person without conscience - a person who does not experience guilt like most people. Sociopathy is a "non-correctable disfigurement of a person's character." In its extreme manifestation - it leads to psychopathic behavior, the subtext of my next book The Rainy Day Murders.

In my last post, I cited a statistic from Martha Stout's fascinating study, the sociopath next door (sic). She convincingly states that one in twenty-five people are sociopaths - that equates to four percent. Of that segment of the population, roughly twenty percent are behind bars. What of the other eighty percent? Where do they hide?

The answer is chilling - at home, at work, and at large! The successful achievers of this group might go into high finance, high government office, the board rooms of corporate America, and of course, the military. These are high-octane professions where conscience is not a part of the collective dialogue - failure is not an option - their game is not culpability - it is winning at all costs.

Most garden variety sociopaths do not play out their schemes on so vast a stage. At work, they harass and intimidate their co-workers with mean spirited mind games - people in positions of petty authority are known for this. At home, they extract their pound of flesh behind closed doors - usually secure in the knowledge that the fear and shame of their victims will insure their family secrets. Many sociopaths are known for their ability to charm and deceive people. How do we recognize these predators before they do us serious harm?

Here are ten traits to look for. If three or more seem to apply, watch yourself:

• Sociopaths are narcissists who know the words but not the music of life.
• Something is missing from their "genetic marbling." They suffer from attachment disorder.
• They are easily bored and need continual external stimulation.
• They are not comfortable in their own skin.
• They are absolutely self-involved and high-strung.
• They tend toward hypochondria and "pity plays."
• They are not team players.
• They show unremitting self-interest.
• They use and abuse people with impunity.
• They are manipulators.

Other than that, they look just like the rest of us. Why are sociopaths and psychopaths so often described as charming? Look for the answer in my next post. It may surprise you.

Fifteen Things You Should Give Up To Be Happy

Our Declaration of Independence has a radical statement which had never appeared in any political document before July 4th, 1776 - the idea that individuals have a right to the "pursuit of happiness." This may be the wellspring where Americans derive our characteristic optimism.

In my travels to Europe, I am always struck by how serious people seem to be. Where Americans tend to smile and enjoy a hearty laugh out in public, Europeans tend to be stoic and reserved.  Americans feel that happiness is a birthright, and when we don't feel happy, we feel like something is wrong or missing from our lives.

The expectation to be happy all of the time is unrealistic. Life is not a continuous laughfest - it has its ups and downs which most of us realize. But then there are those people who are devoid of happiness - which leads to depression and other mental health disorders.

There are doctors you can consult, pills you can take, liquor you can drink, and groups you can join, but the potential for greater happiness lies within you if you can be honest with yourself. Ultimately, happiness is a self-improvement project. Get started by opening the link below.

http://www.purposefairy.com/3308/15-things-you-should-give-up-in-order-to-be-happy/#