Mental Health and Insanity
Poetry of the Insane
While he was attending physician at the Illinois State Hospital for the Insane, Dr. Charles Mayos collected poems that were written by his patients. Of course, all poets are a bit insane, but the ones that interested him were actually locked up and labeled psychotic. Eventually, in 1933, he published a collection of this verse in a book he titled Poetry of the Insane. [St. Petersburg Times]
The publisher mustn't have thought there was a large market for such a book, because only 300 copies of it were printed , which now makes it quite rare — and valuable. Copies fetch up to $200.
I've never got my hands on a copy of the book. (Not willing to pay that much for it.) Below is the only poem from it I can find online. I've read much worse poetry from people who are supposedly sane.
Awakening by Anonymous |
| The hue of sorrow everywhere The jagged rocks seem marble tombs, Yet through the barren waste way over there, A lily blooms. As up the rugged heights revealed, I creep, and deem the world as wrong; A singer trills above the love unsealed, His mating song. I pierce the gloom with purer eyes, For here I know that Heaven is — I yield my empty self and realize These are all His. |
Posted By: Alex - Fri Feb 15, 2013 -
Comments (7)
Category: Books, 1930s, Mental Health and Insanity
Rube Goldberg Machine, Now Featuring Real Humans!
Posted By: Paul - Thu Oct 04, 2012 -
Comments (3)
Category: Rube Goldberg Devices, Mental Health and Insanity
Your Brain on Mescaline
In the early 1950s, German photographer Leif Geiges created a series of abstract images in order to try to portray "exactly what the mescaline subject sees and hears during the course of his artificial psychosis" — as Newsweek put it, which ran his images in its Feb 23, 1953 issue. This was before mescaline was made illegal, back when psychiatrists still believed that the experience of taking mescaline approximated the mental state of a schizophrenic and therefore could be of great experimental value.As for the mescaline imagery itself, Newsweek explained:
"Wallpaper patterns come to life, change to demoniac caricatures, threaten immediate destruction"
More in extended >>
Posted By: Alex - Tue Sep 18, 2012 -
Comments (12)
Category: Dreams and Nightmares, Drugs, Psychedelic, Photography and Photographers, Science, 1950s, Brain, Mental Health and Insanity
The Complete Blacky Pictures!
Thanks to the stellar research powers of Alex B., we now have the complete set of these oddball Freudian prompts.
Click on the image to enlarge.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Jun 28, 2012 -
Comments (9)
Category: Art, Children, Alex, 1950s, Mental Health and Insanity
Harmless
"The story is about a husband and father and his battle with pornography. Actual home movies and interviews tell the story of the terror the family faces when a box of pornography is opened and something is unleashed."
Backed by a religious group. Surprised?
And if you haven't guessed, despite the subject matter, it's Safe For Virginal Eyes.
Posted By: Paul - Sat May 05, 2012 -
Comments (10)
Category: Family, Husbands, Ineptness, Crudity, Talentlessness, Kitsch, and Bad Art, Movies, PSA’s, Sexuality, Genitals, Mental Health and Insanity
Boredom at Work: The Empty Life
This is like some episode of MAD MEN created during the actual era. "He makes friends with every ten-dollar tramp that comes along..."
Excellent!
Posted By: Paul - Tue Sep 28, 2010 -
Comments (7)
Category: PSA’s, Work and Vocational Training, 1960s, Mental Health and Insanity
Your New Pet
Creepy Crawlies:
How To Care For Giant African Millipedes
Posted By: Paul - Fri Sep 10, 2010 -
Comments (3)
Category: Insects and Spiders, Africa, Mental Health and Insanity
Inexplicable!
I rest my insanity case, judge.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Apr 02, 2010 -
Comments (11)
Category: Television, Sex Symbols, Mental Health and Insanity
Mental Hospital
First-person trip to "the bughouse," interspersed by comments of all-wise narrator. Now, with more electroshock!
Posted By: Paul - Tue Mar 23, 2010 -
Comments (5)
Category: 1950s, Mental Health and Insanity
| Who We Are |
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Contact Us |