Geel, Belgium:  Eight Centuries of Deinstitutionalized Treatment for Mental Patients

From the Wikipedia page:

Geel is well known for the early adoption of de-institutionalization in psychiatric care.[3] This practice is based on the positive effects that placement in a host family gives the patient, most importantly access to family life that would otherwise have been denied. The legendary 7th-century Saint Dymphna, who had fled to the Geel area from Ireland, is usually credited with this type of care. The earliest Geel infirmary and the model where patients go into town, interact with the community during the day, and return to the hospital at night to sleep, date from the 13th century.[4]

Posted By: Paul - Mon Feb 13, 2023 - Comments (0)
Category: Communes, Utopias, and Other Alternative Societies, Europe, Mental Health and Insanity

Asneezia, Part 2

Two weeks ago I posted about 'Asneezia,' which was the name that a doctor in India (G.D. Shukla) gave to the condition of being unable to sneeze. His non-sneezing patients also suffered from mental illness. He published his report about Asneezia in 1985.

I was somewhat skeptical about the reality of Asneezia. But yesterday, purely by chance, I came across the newspaper story below from 1958 about doctors at a New England psychiatric hospital who noted the odd fact that their patients never suffered from allergies, and so never sneezed. "If you hear a sneeze," one of them said, "you can know it's a staff member's."

As far as I know, Dr. Shukla (reporting about Asneezia in 1985) was unaware of this earlier report from 1958. But having two independent reports of a connection between not-sneezing and mental illness, from different times and different cultures, would seem to confirm the reality of the condition.

Boston Globe - June 16, 1958

Posted By: Alex - Mon Nov 07, 2022 - Comments (0)
Category: Health, Mental Health and Insanity

Unlikely Reasons for Murder No. 11

In 1952, a schizophrenic with an eccentric theory of physics murdered a random person.

“Have they dropped the electronic theory?” he asked her.

“I don’t know anything about it,” she replied.

Before she could say more, he fired the gun at her.

“I just wanted to kill somebody,” he told police. “I was going to shoot anybody. It was my book. They wouldn't look at my book. They wouldn't even look at it."

Peakes had done the calculus: Shooting people gets you in the papers. And if you shoot physicists because they rejected your theory, your theory gets in the papers.

Full account here.

The initial coverage below.

Article source: The South Bend Tribune (South Bend, Indiana) 15 Jul 1952, Tue Page 1

Posted By: Paul - Wed Nov 02, 2022 - Comments (0)
Category: Death, Science, Scary Criminals, 1950s, Mental Health and Insanity

Mindfork

b'Mindfork', b'Catherine' b'Dubeau', provided by the National Film Board of Canada

Posted By: Paul - Sun Sep 11, 2022 - Comments (0)
Category: Surrealism, Cartoons, Twenty-first Century, Mental Health and Insanity

Angry Boy

Posted By: Paul - Wed Aug 10, 2022 - Comments (0)
Category: Family, Children, Hygiene, PSA’s, 1950s, Mental Health and Insanity

Follies of the Madmen #539

Source: Times Colonist (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada)29 Feb 1956, Wed Page 13

It's worth taking a look at the other more-legible images after the jump.








More in extended >>

Posted By: Paul - Mon Aug 08, 2022 - Comments (1)
Category: Fashion, Advertising, Cats, Dogs, North America, Mental Health and Insanity

High Spirits

A unique defense.

Source: Daily News (New York, New York) 08 Mar 1943, Mon Page 219

Posted By: Paul - Sun Oct 17, 2021 - Comments (0)
Category: Eccentrics, Police and Other Law Enforcement, Religion, Mental Health and Insanity

Juror Goes Insane

I would totally cite this precedent when trying to get out of jury duty.



Source: The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) 26 Jan 1909, Tue Page 9

Posted By: Paul - Sun Mar 21, 2021 - Comments (1)
Category: Law, 1900s, Mental Health and Insanity

Donald Campbell, the man who couldn’t stop talking

In 1933, Donald Campbell, a truck driver, fell from his truck and hit his head. A year later he developed a bizarre condition. He started talking incessantly, non-stop. His talking was so compulsive that he couldn't even sleep. His talking was perfectly rational. He answered questions clearly. But he couldn't stop.

Doctors attributed his condition to encephalitis, or brain swelling. After about a month his non-stop talking subsided, and doctors thought he had recovered. But within four months he was dead. Strangely, the cause of his death was cancer and seemed to be unrelated to his non-stop talking.

Pottsville Evening Herald - Aug 17, 1934

Pittsburgh Press - Sep 5, 1934

Cincinnati Enquirer - Jan 6, 1935

Update — A newspaper recorded an example of some of Campbell's rambling monologue:

Posted By: Alex - Thu Jan 07, 2021 - Comments (4)
Category: Health, Mental Health and Insanity, 1930s

Marion Zioncheck, Bipolar Congressman

Congressman Marion Zioncheck , America ' s crazy MP , is in gaol at Washington after having been accused of standing on his landlady and hurling bottles and a typewriter through the windows of his wrecked Washington apartment uttering wild cries all the time . The incident occurred at the end of a whirlwind honeymoon tour . Mr . Zioncheck has just returned to America with his bride from the turbulent South American island of Porto Rico , which they were requested to leave after figuring in a series of " incidents." On one occasion the Congressman pelted passers-by with coconuts from his balcony . Then the couple arrived back in Washington they were soon involved in the dispute with the landlady , Mrs . Benjamin Young , who told the ambulance men that "Zioncheck ruined my home , called me vile names and stood on me " . It is now stated that Zioncheck intends to run for the US Vice - presidency .

Read the whole sad story--ending in suicide--here.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Oct 08, 2019 - Comments (0)
Category: Bad Habits, Neuroses and Psychoses, Death, Government, Officials, 1930s, Mental Health and Insanity