morbid curiosities

[Paddy]

i've just finished reading one flew over the cuckoos nest, and have since garnered a deep curiosity about how patients were treated in american instituitions of the 30's - 60's. did you know that lobotomy was advertised in Life magazine and on television as a cure for common depression, post natal depression, homosexuality and for people who had communist sympathies?

there's a story i read about a woman who was arrested whilst walking tyhe streets of some small town, apparently gibbering incomprehensibly. she was commited and spent the next 40 years in an institution. then one day a new nurse came on her ward who just happened to be able to speak romanian, and the poor woman was released the same say.

the story of frances farmer is one of the most upsetting though, read it here (http://www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/frances/)
if you have time.

does anyone else have any other interesting morbid fascinations?

[May Kasahara]

Reading through people's medical notes at work, although it is part of my job. Whenever a big hardback folder lands on my desk I always go through it, as I wonder what could have happened to a kid to merit that many notes.

Reading about cancer is another one, I really should stop.

[Paddy]

there's so much to read up on mental health. my stepdad's a psychiatric nurse, working on edinburghs highest security ward (paedos, psychos, schizos etc) and i used to really wonder how he had the mental and physical strength to do it, he had to commit his ex wife ffs! he'd come home after some shifts and wouldn't speak or turn his walkman off till he'd skinned a spliff and relaxed, then he'd tell us about how he had to cut some poor bastard who tried to hang himself down, using a pathetic little one inch long penknife.
i understand why and how he does it now that i'm older, and i also understand why he's so interested in the subject, and why he enjoys helping these people so much.
in fact, he's had to look after at least one person who i used to go to school with. he went over to amsterdam to try and break into the porn industry, and it just shattered him. he's also worked with a guy who i used to skate with when i was younger who had some kind of nervous breakdown and turned proper schizo. it just goes to show how many young people (and people that you know/used to know) that are affected by some kind of mental illness.

scary shit.

[Level]

I'm the same at my work.

When a case study comes in or I am at a loose end I'll gladly read through it when most of the other staff are like "not another one".

Apart from the fact I have to read them I also want to read about their lives and how it contributed to their mental health.

[Yer_Maw]

aye mental illness is my thing. Like any disease, it will with research reveal how very abstract workings of the brain such as perception and paranioa manifest themselves, as well as finding new treatments. V intresting methinks.

anyway if your wanting morbid, go to the world famous glasgow uni anatomy mueseum. All feotuses and fannys in jars etc. Easily the most intesting place i have skived on the internet in.

[May Kasahara]

Yeah, as I work in the Paediatric Neurology dept all the notes I get are from kids with (god, this is going to sound awful) really interesting things wrong with them. It is depressing as hell sometimes, especially the really little ones, but totally fascinating. Every time I get a word in dictation that I don't know, I'm straight onto Google to look it up. Gives you a real insight into the ridiculous complexities of the brain, even as a complete layman.

[Paddy]

Originally posted by Yer_Maw
aye mental illness is my thing. Like any disease, it will with research reveal how very abstract workings of the brain such as perception and paranioa manifest themselves, as well as finding new treatments. V intresting methinks.

anyway if your wanting morbid, go to the world famous glasgow uni anatomy mueseum. All feotuses and fannys in jars etc. Easily the most intesting place i have skived on the internet in.

yeah, we've got the Surgeons Hall through here. they've got two wallets made from Burke and Hares skin, and their entire nervous structures in human sized jars of chloroform.

[Tec]

I often sit in the park and wonder what would be the best position for a sniper.

[Paddy]

i do that all the time tec.

[Tec]

I thought i was the only one.

[Phil]

DMT innit

[Paddy]

you wouldn't be able to aim very well on DMT.

[garew]

I was in a psych ward last month. After gettiing sent to the emergency room. Bad, bad month.

[Jeniffer Mills]

Originally posted by Tec
I often sit in the park and wonder what would be the best position for a sniper.

i have these thoughts too sometimes..... maybe it`s latent fear of such event ...(?)

I used to imagine, when sitting in fast food restaurant, some sicko would enter the place and fire a gun randomly into people....... As i said...Based on latent fear.....

[Lady E]

oh garew sorry to hear that, are you ok?

nik-nak - check out the anti-psychiatry movement - RD Laing and Thomas Szasz - Ken Kesey was influenced by this. really interesting. labelling theory was one of the theories of the movement that i remember most (i studied it as part of my English A level) - which was that if a doctor says that someone is an alcoholic (for example), all the behaviour that they display, whether they are actually alcoholic or not, will serve to confirm this label. the doctor's word is law, and he (or she, in Nurse Ratched's case) becomes the representative of the law, almost the living embodiment, with absolute rights over the patient's mind and body. Foucault also writes about this in The History of Sexuality and Discipline and Punish.

The abuse of people via the medium of pyschiatric 'care' is something that impacts on all oppressed groups in history. it is a really interesting subject, and one that permeates our everyday lives through our behaviour towards others and our speech.

[Sheridan]

sometimes when I see two airplanes that are heading toward each other in the sky, I sit back and watch them kinda hoping they will crash into each other. but it never happens.

[Tec]

In this park near where i live i sometimes think it would very easy for a terrorist to fire off a heat seeking missle and blast a plane outta the sky as they fly quite low on there way to City Airport and Heathrow..its crazy but i always think.."if i was Al-Qaeda..i'd.."

Does this mean i'll do a Douglas when the pressure gets too much when i hit my forties?

[Paddy]

Originally posted by emma
oh garew sorry to hear that, are you ok?

nik-nak - check out the anti-psychiatry movement - RD Laing and Thomas Szasz - Ken Kesey was influenced by this. really interesting. labelling theory was one of the theories of the movement that i remember most (i studied it as part of my English A level) - which was that if a doctor says that someone is an alcoholic (for example), all the behaviour that they display, whether they are actually alcoholic or not, will serve to confirm this label. the doctor's word is law, and he (or she, in Nurse Ratched's case) becomes the representative of the law, almost the living embodiment, with absolute rights over the patient's mind and body. Foucault also writes about this in The History of Sexuality and Discipline and Punish.

The abuse of people via the medium of pyschiatric 'care' is something that impacts on all oppressed groups in history. it is a really interesting subject, and one that permeates our everyday lives through our behaviour towards others and our speech.

thanks for that emma, i'll check it all out tonight. i did all my research on walter freeman (mr ice pick lobotomy) last night.

[invisibledan]

i saw the film about frances farmer years ago. it was very upsetting

[garew]

Im ok, but it took major doses of seroquel to calm me. I couldn't sit still for 3 weeks. I hadn't slept for a month and had boils on my feet from pacing around the house. I was a normal lad a month prior. I just snappd. I think I'm getting better.

[Lady E]

Originally posted by garew
Im ok, but it took major doses of seroquel to calm me. I couldn't sit still for 3 weeks. I hadn't slept for a month and had boils on my feet from pacing around the house. I was a normal lad a month prior. I just snappd. I think I'm getting better.

i hope so, good luck with your recovery.

[Sheridan]

several years ago I had this crazy fascination with compound fractures. I wanted to see video or pictures of people who had broken their arm or leg. I think it all stems back to when I was kid and I watched joe theisman get his leg proper fucked on monday night football. damn LT screwing up our sure win at the super bowl!

[Paddy]

Originally posted by garew
Im ok, but it took major doses of seroquel to calm me. I couldn't sit still for 3 weeks. I hadn't slept for a month and had boils on my feet from pacing around the house. I was a normal lad a month prior. I just snappd. I think I'm getting better.

thats bad news garew, i hope you're doin well.

[JE:5]

I have a morbid fascination with all things to do with the cold war. I believe it was brought on by my dad telling me about nuclear bombs and what to expect if there was a nuclear attack when I was a kid. That led me to have panic attacks everytime a plane flew over quite low at night and nightmares about nuclear annihilation. Combined with the fact that down the end of the road was a RGHQ situated next to the park we hung around on.
Here is a picture of the actual place when it was being demolished -
http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/l/loughborough/index.html

We actually managed to get in there one day after it had been decommissioned, we found the keys near a skip! it had a very eery vibe inside and it was almost anechoic. I really want to check out some of the other bunkers listed on that site I linked to above, I find them fascinating.

[Paddy]

thats a good fascination JE:5, i love shit like that too.

[Jeniffer Mills]

Originally posted by Sheridan
sometimes when I see two airplanes that are heading toward each other in the sky, I sit back and watch them kinda hoping they will crash into each other. but it never happens.

Thats not nice! Imagine you were the one sitting in that plane, and someone down below would wish the same ....

[V Knid esq]

Anyone with morbid curiosities should check out the brilliant <a href="https://securehost2.zen.co.uk/headpress/default.asp">Headpress</a> journal.... Mrs Knid has a great fondness for reading about serial killers and other freaks, and she hit the motherlode when she discovered Headpress.

[Sheridan]

Originally posted by Warren D.


Thats not nice! Imagine you were the one sitting in that plane, and someone down below would wish the same ....

well if I knew about it I imagine I'd feel kind of upset. but it isn't like I really want it to happen. I don't wish ill will on them. I just want to see an explosion.

[nikrem]

i had a dream last night.

i was surrounded by bearded men pummeling watermelons with clowns shoes.

[thembuzz]

lol