{"id":8980,"date":"2023-10-03T20:40:51","date_gmt":"2023-10-04T01:40:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/?p=8980"},"modified":"2023-10-03T20:40:51","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T01:40:51","slug":"mfdj-10-03-23-psychiatric-quackery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/?p=8980","title":{"rendered":"MFDJ 10\/03\/23: Psychiatric Quackery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s Restorative Yet Truly Morbid Fact!<\/h3>\n

Addressing the American Psychiatric Association in 1933, President James May bemoaned the state of the profession. Few medical schools employed professors in the field of psychiatry. Mental illness, May said, was \u201ca medical playground\u201d in which neurologists, neurosurgeons, and psychiatrists competed with gynecologists and ophthalmologists in speculations on the causes of psychoses. From about 1930 until the introduction in 1954 of Thorazine, the first usable antipsychotic drug, the curative landscape resembled not a playground so much as the Wild West. Every few years, a new sheriff would ride into town, promoting a new wonder cure that eventually yielded to the next, short-lived fashion.<\/p>\n

In the 1930s, for instance, a Trenton psychiatrist named Henry Cotton pulled patients\u2019 teeth and removed their large intestines to cure mental illness, which he believed to be caused by \u201cautointoxication.\u201d For a while, fever was thought to be restorative for mental patients, especially for the stiff-gaited victims of general paresis, the physical and mental paralysis that accompanied the advanced stage of syphilis. Some hospitals kept malarial mosquitoes or diseased rats on hand to bite treatment subjects and induce fever. Others injected blood from fever victims into the paretics, who crowded the mental hospitals until the discovery of penicillin. For the ostensible purpose of boosting patients\u2019 white blood cell count, some doctors injected horse blood into their subjects\u2019 lumbar cavities, mixing the blood with spinal fluid. Then sleep therapy, or \u201cprolonged narcosis,\u201d came on the scene. In theory, a week-long, drug-induced nap would help restore a patient\u2019s exhausted nervous system.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nSome of Henry Cotton’s teeth-removing handiwork<\/em><\/p>\n

Culled from: Gracefully Insane: The Rise and Fall of America\u2019s Premier Mental Hospital<\/a><\/p>\n

\nCrime Scene Du Jour!<\/h3>\n

Here’s another of those mysterious French crime scenes:
\n\"\"<\/a>
\nAffaire de la rue Erard No.8, Assassinat de Mme. Veuve Noyer<\/em><\/p>\n

Culled from: Police Pictures<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Andersonville Prisoner Diary Entry Du Jour!<\/h3>\n

I\u2019m going to continue the diary of Andersonville prisoner Private George A. Hitchcock as a daily journal entry so we can \u201cenjoy\u201d his struggles over time (and I will update the archived version<\/a> as I go so you can refresh your memory on his full story)\u2026\u00a0 Here\u2019s today\u2019s entry:<\/p>\n

June 17th<\/sup>.<\/strong> We found three men from Sherman\u2019s army who have just come in, and one has a woolen blanket. We have gone in together, and, after looking several hours, secure sticks, and set up a shelter. Five of us get under, \u00a0but find that we can only lie on our backs. There are now over 20,000 prisoners here, and the stench in every part of the camp is well-nigh unbearable. We are assured, however, that we shall get accustomed to that after a few days. Great numbers are dying every day, many from scurvy. At night drew rations of rice and sow-belly; the rice is half-booked, and only half a pint of it at that.<\/p>\n

Culled from:\u00a0Andersonville: Giving Up the Ghost<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s Restorative Yet Truly Morbid Fact! Addressing the American Psychiatric Association in 1933, President James May bemoaned the state of the profession. Few medical schools employed professors in the field of psychiatry. Mental illness, May said, was \u201ca medical playground\u201d in which neurologists, neurosurgeons, and psychiatrists competed with gynecologists and ophthalmologists in speculations on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-facts","category-ghastly"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8980"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8984,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8980\/revisions\/8984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}