Vee, thanks for your broad, systemic overview. I agree with everything you say about the inhumane, fraudulent, and unscientific approach of the mental health system, from its earliest days to the present, as well as the effects of historical and intergenerational trauma. In writing my memoir, I took a first person narrative perspective based on my own lived experience as a child, teenager and young adult. I therefore touched tangentially on the macro issues you bring up, without going into a polemic from my current vantage point. My intent was to bring to light the macro issues you so clearly highlight, through my micro experiences. Could I have shared my story “from a different perspective and through a different lens?” Sure, I guess, but it would have been my old man thinking lens instead of the feeling lens of my younger lived experiences.
Steve- I agree with your comment and Phil’s comment. It was totally reprehensible on the part of the shrink, lacking both empathy and professional judgement.
Thanks, Phil, for your kind and astute comment. I think back in the 50s most “crazy” people got labelled with schizophrenia. You are observant to note that my dad was cyclical and super emotional. He was sensitive and had a lot of anxiety and possibly panic attacks. I remember him getting up very early, getting fully dressed, and pacing up and down our hallway in an agitated state. Today he might be labelled with schizo-affective disorder or anxiety with panic disorder. Who knows. And, yes, sending him out to the bus stop after electroshock was totally inhumane and , IMO, malpractice even for those times.
Here’s a little informational addendum to my article:
The facility known as Overbrook Asylum, or the Essex County Hospital Center, was a psychiatric hospital located in Cedar Grove, New Jersey, that operated from 1898 until its closure in 2007. It was established to relieve overcrowding at the Newark Hospital and eventually grew into a self-sufficient campus of 34 buildings on 325 acres, housing thousands of patients during its peak.
The original site was demolished between 2015 and 2018, with the land subsequently converted into Hilltop Reservation (a county park) and a residential development of townhomes
Mary, thanks for your insights. Yes, there is so much historical and intergenerational trauma that’s usually invisible to us in our current generations unless we dig for it. As the youngest son, my speculation is that my father was carrying his mother’s unexpressed grief and depression from losing two children. I don’t know anything about what happened to my grandparents before leaving Russia, but I know historically it wasn’t pretty. That’s why they emigrated in the first place.
Vee, thanks for your broad, systemic overview. I agree with everything you say about the inhumane, fraudulent, and unscientific approach of the mental health system, from its earliest days to the present, as well as the effects of historical and intergenerational trauma. In writing my memoir, I took a first person narrative perspective based on my own lived experience as a child, teenager and young adult. I therefore touched tangentially on the macro issues you bring up, without going into a polemic from my current vantage point. My intent was to bring to light the macro issues you so clearly highlight, through my micro experiences. Could I have shared my story “from a different perspective and through a different lens?” Sure, I guess, but it would have been my old man thinking lens instead of the feeling lens of my younger lived experiences.
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Sharilyn, I’m glad you got to have your dad in your life, and that he got better treatment.
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Steve- I agree with your comment and Phil’s comment. It was totally reprehensible on the part of the shrink, lacking both empathy and professional judgement.
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Thanks, Phil, for your kind and astute comment. I think back in the 50s most “crazy” people got labelled with schizophrenia. You are observant to note that my dad was cyclical and super emotional. He was sensitive and had a lot of anxiety and possibly panic attacks. I remember him getting up very early, getting fully dressed, and pacing up and down our hallway in an agitated state. Today he might be labelled with schizo-affective disorder or anxiety with panic disorder. Who knows. And, yes, sending him out to the bus stop after electroshock was totally inhumane and , IMO, malpractice even for those times.
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Someone Else: I can feel the love in your comment. It touches me.
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Here’s a little informational addendum to my article:
The facility known as Overbrook Asylum, or the Essex County Hospital Center, was a psychiatric hospital located in Cedar Grove, New Jersey, that operated from 1898 until its closure in 2007. It was established to relieve overcrowding at the Newark Hospital and eventually grew into a self-sufficient campus of 34 buildings on 325 acres, housing thousands of patients during its peak.
The original site was demolished between 2015 and 2018, with the land subsequently converted into Hilltop Reservation (a county park) and a residential development of townhomes
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Mary, thanks for your insights. Yes, there is so much historical and intergenerational trauma that’s usually invisible to us in our current generations unless we dig for it. As the youngest son, my speculation is that my father was carrying his mother’s unexpressed grief and depression from losing two children. I don’t know anything about what happened to my grandparents before leaving Russia, but I know historically it wasn’t pretty. That’s why they emigrated in the first place.
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