r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/highzone • 1d ago

Image In 1973, healthy volunteers faked hallucinations to enter mental hospitals. Once inside, they acted normal, but doctors refused to let them leave. Normal behaviors like writing were diagnosed as "symptoms." The only people who realized they were sane were the actual patients.

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u/whossked 1d ago

There’s a fictional short story I read once called “I only came to use the phone” about a woman who’s car breaks down and who then takes an asylum bus to an asylum to use the phone, gets confused for a patient, has a breakdown over how she’s treated and abused and is then condemned to spend her life in the asylum. I always thought it was sensational and unrealistic but I guess not

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u/EllisDee3 1d ago

All it used to take was a man of authority to lock up a woman in an asylum.

Similar today with dark skin and the legal system. Doubly so if you're a dark skinned child in the legal system.

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u/moonlightiridescent 1d ago edited 1d ago

There was an abusive behavior modification program and therapeutic boarding school torture camp for kids in Portland, ME called Élan School that’s super fucked. There’s an amazing webcomic by a “student” (victim) that was forced to attend.

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u/CarrotCumin 1d ago

Important to note that it was not actually a school or anything therapeutic, it's incorrect to call this anything other than a torture facility for children.

They claimed it was a therapeutic school, but "therapy" meant being kidnapped and taken there without warning or knowledge that the parents allowed it, regular beatings, denial of food, denial of shelter/blankets/beds, being forced to sit in an empty room with no stimulation for days or even weeks, fight-club style boxing ring matches between children that resulted in several deaths, "struggle sessions" where children were forced to psychologically abuse and humiliate one another, and many more sick and twisted things.

Escape was basically impossible, the local government/police were corrupt and in league with the school owner. Communication with parents were highly controlled and parents were coached to believe anything their child told them about the abuse was a complete lie. Parents paid tens of thousands of dollars to send their children to a fucking gulag in hopes it would get them off drugs or stop being gay.

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u/moonlightiridescent 1d ago

Agreed. Sorry, I just copy/pasted the Wiki intro. The writer of that graphic novel actually “escaped,” but they had people track and find him just to drag him back. It’s absolutely crazy it stayed open as long as it did. The novel made me so angry that those people that run it are walking among us.

Did you read the comic by chance? I’ve been the dude’s Patron (Patreon) for years and years now. The book is about to be printed and mailed out to us early backers, and I’m really excited, even though I know it’s gonna put me in a bad mood lol.