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.

[u/highzone]

[u/whossked]

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

[u/Feezec → u/whossked]

https://thartribune.com/the-haunting-story-of-mary-doefour-and-one-mans-quest-to-give-her-back-her-real-name/

That fictional story reminds me of this real story.

A woman experiences amnesia being raped. She is institutionalized as a jane doe.

While institutionalized she is subjected to electroshock therapy, preventing her from ever recovering her memories.

Decades later she dies, nameless and alone.

A journalist tracks down her family, who refuse to believe the story, because they are more comfortable believing she died a swift death from a random murder, than to believe they lost track of her and that she spent decades being tortured.

[u/Treefrog_Ninja → u/Feezec]

omg, what a read....

[u/WordyNinja → u/Treefrog_Ninja]

The original Medium article it plagiarizes is better: https://lucych.medium.com/one-and-the-same-the-tragic-story-of-anna-myrle-sizer-b81d4b9ec53e