  Short Stories
This week: A History of Madness Edited by: Shannon  
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Welcome to the Short Stories Newsletter. I am Shannon and I'm your editor this week. |
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This newsletter has been nominated for a "Best Newsletter Editing" Quill Award! 
Whether you're into reading and writing historical fiction or simply interested in gleaning story ideas from the past, the internet contains inexhaustible resource material.
Recently, I researched the history of mental illness, its "treatments", tortures, and taboos for a work in progress. While contemporary society embraces and accepts the fact that some people are born mentally ill and others develop mental illness later in life, people weren't always so understanding.
The earliest evidence of "treatment" for mental illness dates back to 5000 BC and the discovery of trephined skulls. In olden days, everything was attributable to the Devil. If someone was acting "crazy" he or she must be possessed. In an effort to assist the demon's egress from the victim's body, a hole was drilled in the skull. The patient oftentimes kept the bits of bone as a keepsake or charm. The practice of drilling a hole in someone's skull continues to this day, but for an entirely different reason.
When a person sustains a traumatic brain injury, neurosurgeons will remove a large "bone flap" to help reduce the swelling. I live in Boise Idaho and work as a registered nurse at a tiny 13-bed physician-owned surgery center. On June 7, 2012, former Mrs. Idaho Jamie Hilton struck her head in a horrific fishing accident. A coworker of mine, neurosurgeon Dr. Thomas Manning, performed a decompressive craniectomy on Jamie during which he removed 25% of her skull, storing it inside her abdomen for 42 days to keep the bone safe and alive.
Hippocrates, largely regarded as the Father of Modern Medicine, came to believe mental illness is caused not by a spiritual disruption in the body, but rather a physical one.
He studied the pathology of the brain and suggested that mental illness stemmed from imbalances in the body.
These imbalances were in the "four essential fluids"; blood, phlegm, bile, and black bile which produce "unique personalities of individuals." In order to restore the body’s balance, the Greeks used techniques such as phlebotomies, bloodletting, purging, and imposing diets on the afflicted (Foerschner).One treatment that Hippocrates advocated was changing the occupation and/or environment of the patient. 1
Mental illness was stigmatized: embarrassing, taboo, something to be hidden away and forgotten. Eventually, asylums were built to house the lunatics, and family members were more than happy to dump them off at the gates. Bethlem Royal Hospital, better known as Bedlam, was perhaps the most notorious of these institutions. Inside Bedlam's walls people were subjected to barbaric "treatments" and tortures: rotational therapy (patients were suspended from the ceiling in a chair and spun up to 100 times per minute), ice baths, starvation, beatings, isolation, purgatives, bloodletting, dissection, and death. Literally adding insult to injury, for a penny people could pay to stare at the lunatics, oftentimes bringing sticks with which to poke and agitate them.
For a penny one could peer into their cells, view the freaks of the "show of Bethlehem" and laugh at their antics. Entry was free on the first Tuesday of the month. In 1814 alone, there were 96,000 such visits. 2
Over time and across the globe, "therapies" included (but were not limited to) tranquilizer chairs, insulin-induced comas, lobotomy, fever therapy (intentional malarial infection), exorcism, restraints (chains, straight jackets, and Utica Cribs), diathermia, and electroconvulsive therapy.
In the late 1800s, investigative reporter Elizabeth Cochran Seaman, better known by her pen name Nellie Bly, faked lunacy in an effort to be committed so she could report the asylum goings-on from an inside perspective. Her findings, later published as a book titled Ten Days In a Mad-House resulted in positive change: public opinion shifted to a more compassionate stance and monetary assistance poured in to provide patients with better care. Nellie also got famous in the process.
But not all famous "patients" were mere observers. The great American novelist Ernest Hemingway suffered from loneliness, depression, anxiety, paranoia, and was well known to self-medicate with alcohol. The alcohol didn't dull the pain, however, and he opted for ECT.
Meyers writes that "an aura of secrecy surrounds Hemingway's treatment at the Mayo", but confirms he was treated with electroconvulsive therapy as many as 15 times in December 1960, and in January 1961 was "released in ruins". 3
To think of that brilliant mind being fried by electricity, not to mention Hemingway's all-consuming devastation and misery, fills me with such sadness it's hard to describe. While it's inconceivable to me, apparently ECT is making a comeback.
Most people might be quicker to associate electroshock therapy with torture rather than healing. But since the 1980s, the practice has been quietly making a comeback. The number of patients undergoing electroconvulsive therapy, as it's formally called, has tripled to 100,000 a year, according to the National Mental Health Association.
During an ECT treatment, doctors jolt the unconscious patient's brain with an electrical charge, which triggers a grand mal seizure. It's considered by many psychiatrists to be the most effective way to treat depression especially in patients who haven't responded to antidepressants. One 2006 study at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina found that ECT improved the quality of life for nearly 80 percent of patients. 4
In addition to the mentally ill, society has a history of locking away its mentally handicapped individuals. In the 1800s, prominent citizens couldn't afford (i.e. didn't want) the stigma a "retarded" or physically disfigured child would bring to the family, so they often built a "Disappointments Room" inside their homes in which to hide away their dirty little secrets. In 2016 The Disappointments Room starring Kate Beckinsale hit theaters. While the film is based on actual events, the movie version falls flat and is itself a disappointment.
Fast forward to the twentieth century and Geraldo Rivera's exposé of Willowbrook State School. Because of this Peabody Award-winning documentary, public outcry, and education, society changed the way it treats the mentally challenged. Asylums and state schools knew the gig was up; their days were numbered. Beginning in the 1980s, mental institutions and state schools around the world started closing their doors, releasing thousands of people back into society to be cared for at the community level.
Have you written a story about mental illness and/or its treatment? Do you scour online resources for story ideas? Reply to this week's newsletter with your thoughts and comments and I will share them in next month's edition.
P.S. Everyone who shares their thoughts about this week's topic will receive an exclusive trinket. I will retire this month's limited-edition trinket at 11:59 p.m. WDC time on June 13, 2017, when my next short stories newsletter goes live.
Thank you for reading.
Other links of interest:
 Geraldo Rivera's award-winning Willowbrook exposé.
Willowbrook II
Unforgotton: Twenty-Five Years After Willowbrook
A History of the Madhouse
The Lobotomist
American History
Jamie's Story
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Notes:
1. http://historycooperative.org/a-beautiful-mind-the-history-of-the-treatment-of-m...
2. https://books.google.com/books?id=-e3AAwAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PT43#v=onepage&q=penny...
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Hemingway#Idaho_and_suicide
4. http://www.nbcnews.com/id/26044935/ns/health/t/shock-therapy-makes-quiet-comebac... |
I hope you enjoy this week's featured selections. I occasionally feature static items by members who are no longer with us; some have passed away, while others simply aren't active members. Their absence doesn't render their work any less relevant, and if it fits the week's topic I will include it.
Thank you, and have a great week!
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The following is in response to "Web of Lies"
Mara ♣ McBain  writes: Your Newsletters are always so interesting. As a nurse, you see a lot of horrible and crazy things. I'd heard of Munchausen Syndrome but wow to really see it up close and personal. SMH The rehoming is the one that gets me. It's crazy that it is legal to re-home a person almost as easily as a pet. My current WIP is about two people that survive the foster care system so I've been doing a lot of reading on it. Some of the horrors kids go through make me sick to my stomach. Re-homing has even fewer safe-checks.  It's a scary world.
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Sum1  writes: I found your story about Munchausen by Proxy to be very sad. It's always amazed me that an adult could kill their own child. I won't say what I think they should endure for doing something so horrific. The Munchausen story was fascinating and repulsive. I must live (have lived) a sheltered life.
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GaelicQueen  writes: I must say, I truly feel I've lived a sheltered life after reading this edition. Rehoming adopted children like adopted pets that don't work out; Cotard delusion - believing yourself to be dead; Dead Man's Fall - crossing one foot over the other while dying standing upright; Munchausen Syndrome and Munchausen by Proxy - making yourself or child dangerously sick repeatedly. Thank you for the informative mental issues. 
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willwilcox writes: This one was 'The Best of the Month'. Great job!
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Sally  writes: What an insightful, fascinating newsletter! Thank you, Shannon. This has inspired me to write a medical-crime-or-something story. Brilliant!
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Loreli  writes: Madness. Utter madness. I wouldn't want to be stranded in a tropical paradise, much less Siberia. I mean no one has ever been able to conquer Russia because of this place they are dropping them in.
I mean does it say that to win ... the others have to die??
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Princess Megan Rose GOT Fox  writes: I have worked in mental health for 16 years in nursing. I have the Diagnosis Made Easy Book. My book is 15 years, what year I am not sure. I have learned about diagnosis by working with the mentally ill. The woman cutting herself and stuffing feces in herself is sad. I have dealt with cutters, women hanging themselves {luckily they survived} and all types of things. I enjoyed this newsletter and mental health are stories waiting to be written. You mentioned hunger games and I have never seen these movies but the winter games sound interesting. I enjoyed this newsletter. It is informative and something I can relate to. Thank you for sharing.
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Happy Earth Day 2024!  writes: Truth stranger than fiction? Definitely true according to this newsletter.
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BIG BAD WOLF is hopping  writes: Sometimes one has to look twice at a story, as the truth is often stranger than fiction.
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dragonwoman writes: I found this newsletter even more fascinating than usual. I enjoy Murders and Motives and The Devil You Know, myself.
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brom21 writes: Cotard Delusion is not just something that I could be inspired by; it is also something I can empathize with. I’m schizophrenic and there was a time when I was teenager where I believed I had no soul. It was very frightening. I have written a few stories about different affects that my disordered had on me. One of them was a Writer’s Cramp entry a while ago. Along the same line maybe thinking you’re literally invisible may fall under Cotard Delusion. I had no idea there was a name for all this. Concerning writing from real life events, I am presently writing a supernatural story based on the Easter account. It is ending up to be a very touching story involving two children. Game2:Winter will not be something that I will watch. I watch little television as it is. More than that I do not enjoy reality shows no matter how outrageous. These show will just get more desperate as they go on.
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JustTurtle writes: Wow! Thanks for the interesting newsletter. I've heard of some of those conditions, but overall there are so many bizarre and terrible ones, I hope that they're rarer than rare. But as a writer looking for fodder, their lives could prove a treasure trove of goodies. What must their lives are really like? What's their perspective on things and how do they think? Were they born with issues or did they develop issues later in life? Yep - If you were looking to create a seriously dysfunctional character, I can see how it wouldn't be difficult if you search the halls of medicine and psychiatry. Thanks for the tip :)
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Elle - on hiatus  writes: Wow, some of those true stories were incredibly sad. I don't know if I could take something like that and use it in fiction. It'd feel like I was profiting from someone else's pain. I don't mind taking a funny mannerism or a snippet of an overheard conversation, but those situations just seem...too awful. 
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Quick-Quill  writes: This was very interesting. I learned a lot. I'd heard the references but your explanation was thorough. Thanks, I'm printing it and adding it to my research binder.
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Jaeff | KBtW of the Free Folk  writes: I'm always fascinated by psychological disorders. More than one of my stories has been inspired by ideas from reading about unique or unusual mental states. 
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eyestar~* writes: This was a fascinating read. I do not have tv so would not see these shows. I see where story writers could certainly get some bizarre ideas from real life. Such a sad state of affairs when folks want to hurt themselves and children. thanks for sharing reality.
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Dragon is hiding  writes: I'm definitely not planning to watch this... it sounds scary and slightly disturbing. 
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LinnAnn -book writer  writes: I was really interested in the adoption part. I had an adopted grandson who ended up a psychopath. But then you moved to the people who think they are dead, and more. I've never heard of that. Great newsletter! Thanks for all your work. I couldn't figure out how to collect the trinket. But it was a great idea to get us to read the newsletter, I hadn't read it.
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Hannah ♫♥♫ writes: Hi, Shannon. These would all make great additions to stories, and the 'Munchausen' and 'Munchausen By Proxy' are chilling and so sad. I've see a few shows on the proxy one. It's a good thing medical staff are now very aware of both conditions. Thanks for another entertaining newsletter. Hannah ♥
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ruwth  writes: Shannon, I am a bit concerned. I am wondering what kind of disorder a person has if they "enjoy reading the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders." LOL (Actually, this newsletter really caught my attention and I plan to reread it -- after I grab my copy of the DSM-5...) Amazon:0890425558 -- do brackets work here:
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The Run-on King PDG Member writes: Hi Shannon, In reading your article thoughts passed my mind I was reading one of the news listings from MSN. I realize as writers we can use real life. But most times real life is stranger than fiction. I picked up that we can get all kinds of interesting ideas from reading the news like MSN. I picked up several horror story ideas from what you wrote. One good one was what if someone was rehoming children for a monster like a vampire or ghoul. I even thought of one for my genre what if someone was rehoming and abducting our children to resettle an abandoned world. I see your point we can pick up ideas for any genre all we have to do is open our eyes and look around us. Of course there are many I could come up with for murder mysteries or mysteries from just what you mentioned here.
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Jeannie Cheering for Martel  writes: I love watching true crime, too. Mysterious phenomena, I’m there! Anything bizarre catches my interest. But what happened to Megan is a travesty. Rehoming her at only seven, only to be put in the hands of sexual predators. Unbelievable!
Interesting newsletter about these different weird ailments, or story ideas as you suggested. I’ve heard of catfishing, but not this kind you mentioned. I felt sorry for your co-worker, and I hope she’s okay.
Let’s just say, out of all the weird story ideas, Game 2:Winter makes you wonder what people do for $1.7 million. Granted, it’s a lot of money, but think about it. You’re putting your life in danger, and you’re with all these other adventures for nine months, who’ll do everything to win. 340 applicants signed up for this! They must be desperate or something, or maybe they like the rush. Who knows?
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Steev the Friction Wizurd writes: Fascinating "Web of Lies" newsletter. I think there may be a connection between the abnormalities you described and our normal lives of wakefulness and dreaming. I've had a lot of experience with dreaming thanks to sleeping problems and I think dreams offer some insights into the way the mind may work or fail to work.
There is one type of dream which is so real that it seems like reality. Waking from this type of dream is very difficult. I remember once it took several seconds for me to "return" to reality and the illusion of the dream world being my true reality was perfect. It was an intense experience.
But it suggests that it's not impossible for the "dream creation" process of the mind to take over and be the dominant process. If that happens, then a lot of the bizarre things you described would follow just because the person is no longer living in a reality based on perception only, but has the dream element added to it. And they don't know it. They can't even say anything about it because there is no way for them to know.
In fact, how do I know how much of my current reality is dream-based instead of perception-based? I don't know. All I can do is try to be vigilant. Look for contradictions. Be flexible in my thinking and always leave open the possibility that I am wrong.
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Beacon - House Night's Watch  writes: Hey there
I have read this and I find it really interesting. I have been wanting to
write a story based on real events and there are things in my life that I
would like to write about. Like placing my main characters and my life
into it. I can change the names of the people I knew while growing up.
Maybe sometime, I could write about it.
thanks
Beacon43
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eyestar~* writes: Oh my gosh! too real. I do not get tv shows but I have heard of real life shows. The documentary sounds fascinating and the Manchausen Syndrome seems so unreal.Wow! I think there would be a lot that could be incorporated into a story --and one might not believe it. I have written about real life in a journalling way but nothing really bizarre or thrilling. I enjoy your out of the box commentary and inspiration. Brilliant.
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Tiggy-Cheers for House Martell  writes: Awesome newsletter, Shannon! I found it very interesting, particularly the section about Cotard Delusion - I scribbled a few ideas for a story straight away. On the other hand, the part about Rehoming was quite shocking.
Thank you, I really enjoyed reading this newsletter!
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Fivesixer  writes: Interesting, Shannon...I'd recently read the book Nothing Is True And Everything Is Possible , which is about the Russian reality tv boon in the last decade, more or less. It seems like they're trying to one-up the Big Brothers and Real Worlds with Game2: Winter...and one has to wonder how, if successful, this might translate to American audiences...given that the Russians looked to the US to make better television, and how liberally the US has borrowed/stolen successful tv ideas from the UK. Fascinating!
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Andy~hating university writes: I don't really put a lot of my real life into my writing. I might work in something that happened in a queue at the shops, or travelling on a bus or train, or maybe something odd that happened at work, but you'll never really find me in my writing. My odd sense of humour and some of my more controversial opinions might slip into the narrative, but that's usually about as far as it goes.
About the only story I've written based on actual events is "Invalid Item" . It's based on a close friend of mine who had a crappy childhood because of his mother, before finally being adopted after her death. My story has a slightly happier ending than the real "Jaxon", but I tweaked it for National Adoption Week. Because of everything that my friend went through, adoption has always been something close to my heart.
The idea of rehoming is really upsetting. I saw what being bounced around did to my friend growing up. Some of these kids wait years to be adopted, and the thought of them being shipped off to some new family just because they have developed problems is just horrible.
 to the Russians for their brilliant new game show concept. I'll take "What Will We Come Up With Next?" for 1000 Roubles, Alex!
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Dee writes: Shannon, you and I share a love of the ID Channel and the Investigation Discovery Network. I am studying criminology and psychology, so this channel is rather like, my "bible" for educational purposes. I often get ideas for stories from shows like this, and others. My story, Coming Up Roses, was an idea I came up with from an incident on a show I saw on the ID Network. People watching is a hobby I picked it up when vacationing for years in Provincetown, Mass. Talk about a cast of characters! I keep notebooks of names, descriptions and little blurbs of people I see and hear.
Great newsletter! You have a unique and fascinating perspective of the world around us!
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Angus  writes: Hi, Shannon! I'm also a big fan of the Discovery ID channel, and although I've never heard of this Cotard Delusion, it gives me a great idea for a horror story! Thank you! Great Newsletter, and I look forward to your next one tomorrow!
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Walker writes: My muse now has a fire lit underneath it! I absolutely love reading on disorders and watching true crime related shows. Anything from serial killers to "no way did that ever happen" but "it so did" stories to untrue creepy/horror stories that make you not sleep anymore and you'll find me hooked most of the time. It's just something that's fascinating to me.
I may have to check into watching Game2:Winter. Part of me says no, but my other fascinated half tends to take over when it has to do with creepy stuff like this no matter how disturbing it may be. It sparks so many questions! Why is this even happening? Who knows, maybe curiosity built up enough to spur an idea to actually set something like this into actual motion. Who in their right mind would do something like this? That's just it, maybe they're not in a right minded state.
Stuff like that is just so mind boggling at times, but maybe that's why it interests people. You might not always get a 100% this is why this happened sort of answer, but at least it opens eyes and keeps at least some people eager to learn more.
I haven't written a story based on actual events yet, but it is definitely something I'm interested in doing.
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AJ wants U 2 meet The CanMan! writes: It wouldn't surprise me in the least bit if that orange blob who, somehow, managed to become POTUS #45 had a hand (and such a teensy-weensy hand to do so much damage) in coming up with that horrible reality show out of Russia.
Sadly, the climate is ripe in too many ways for making such a show popular.
Your entire list of strange news inspires me to write many items in various genres, but I know that the very idea of such a satanic reality show is making me chafe at the bits to write against something like this ever happening.
God's gift of life has been reduced to its lowest denominator!!!
I believe in freedom of speech and freedom of the other arts as well -- however, I believe that there are times when this freedom gets taken too far.
If a bunch of people want to go out into a brutal wilderness and try to survive, that's their choice. However, if this is to be broadcast to a world of watchers, certain guidelines need to be in place, and there needs to be safeguards put in place to where nobody gets murdered.
I'm sharing something I wrote many years ago about being creeped out by an inanimate object -- in my case, a fireplace damper -- for no apparent reason. I hope that you will read this, share this, and, hopefully, add to the discussion I've started on this. "Invalid Item"
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QPdoll  writes: Of all of these the two that bother me the most are the rehoming and the Munchausen by Proxy. Both of then infuriate me. I don't understand how people can do the things they do. I understand the Munchausen by Proxy is a mental disorder and I'm assuming people don't know they have a problem, they just like the attention. Or maybe they do know they have a problem and don't know how to address it. As far as the rehoming I can't believe that the family wouldn't take up some kind of counseling or help for their adopted child that has "behavioral issues." And I find it interesting that the child suddenly developed these issues. It's all amazing to me and not in a good way.
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Short Stories: May 17, 2017 Issue [#8249]
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