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Morbid Link Du Jour!<\/h3>\n
Here’s a fascinating article sent to me by Eleanor<\/strong> which displays photographs of suitcases and the items within them that belonged to psychiatric institution patients. \u00a0The dehumanization of the patients once they entered these institutions is always emphasized to me by the fact that their suitcases, containing the things that really mattered to them – their last links to the lives they left behind (great title for a book!) – were taken from them and stored in anonymity. \u00a0They couldn’t even be granted a few token items from home. \u00a0So sad…<\/p>\n But as I read this article I thought, why isn’t this photographer mentioning the earlier book on the same collection of suitcases, The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic<\/a>?\u00a0He obviously used that book as a stepping stone to photograph the full collection, so I’m left feeling a bit suspicious about his motives for leaving it out. \u00a0Sure enough, there’s a comment here from the book’s author, Darbey Penney:<\/p>\n “Unfortunately there is a good deal of misinformation in this article. Much of what is said about how and why the suitcases were kept, why they were not returned to families, etc., is completely inaccurate. Mr. Crispin says that a few of the suitcases were displayed by the NYS museum in 2004. In fact, there was a huge, 6,000 sq. foot exhibit- of which I was a co-curator \u2013 about the lives of more than a dozen of the suitcase owners, not just a display of a few suitcases. And that exhibit was the result of 6 years of research by myself and my colleague Peter Statsny, MD, and others as well as exquisite photographs by Lisa Rinzler, taken many years before Mr. Crispin\u2019s. In 2006, we designed a traveling exhibit with The Exhibition Alliance, which is still touring, and a website,\u00a0http:\/\/www.suitcaseexhibit.org<\/a>. Dr. Stastny and I published a book, The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic<\/a> (Bellevue Literary Press, 2008), again, before Mr. Crispin took his photographs. It is disappointing that Mr. Crispin does not acknowledge our extensive previous work on this subject.”<\/p>\n In any event, the photographs are lovely and sad. \u00a0Thank you, Eleanor<\/strong>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Thank goodness someone at the Washington Post has finally put together a\u00a0photographic guide to the world’s embalmed leaders<\/a>. The fact that the United States doesn’t do this sort of thing is a serious cultural flaw. \u00a0My favorite is Lenin. Still a handsome devil!<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/gallery.mailchimp.com\/c6b93ffeed2f362e41fe4aa72\/images\/78ce9c40-3925-4207-9ebd-5da923c5d820.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nGhastly! – Embalmed Leaders Edition<\/h3>\n
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