Ep. 77: Archaic cures for crazy

This week Mark’s doctor gave him some pills to help him with his sleeping problem, which got him thinking about how lucky we are to live at a time when we can be prescribed a pill rather than experiencing some of the horrendous historical treatments for mental illness we discuss in this episode.

Highlights:
[0:00] CoRri tells Mark about the Neubauer twin experiments

[21:45] We talk about anxiety surrounding the events unfolding in Ukraine and what it means to be living in “interesting times”

[39:00] We discuss our watch-along and Christian Bale’s inscrutable accent

[51:26] What we watched!

[75:30] The medication Mark was given to sleep has him thinking about historical treatments for mental illness

Stuff we referenced:

• The twins of Auschwitz – https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30933718
• CSUF professor’s book sheds light on a mid-century scandal – https://www.ocregister.com/2021/11/05/csuf-professors-book-sheds-light-on-a-mid-century-scandal/
• Three Identical Strangers: Was the twin separation study ethical? – https://www.newscientist.com/article/2208369-three-identical-strangers-was-the-twin-separation-study-ethical/
• A U.S. Science Experiment that Deliberately Separated Jewish Identical Twins from Birth – https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/a-u-s-science-experiment-that-deliberately-separated-jewish-identical-twins-from-birth-b7ce8deaca4f
• ‘Three Identical Strangers’: It’s not too late to address the ethical violations – https://www.statnews.com/2019/02/07/three-identical-strangers-address-ethical-violations/
• Twins reveal horror of being separated at birth — and for years after – https://nypost.com/2021/12/11/twins-reveal-horror-of-study-that-kept-them-apart-for-decades/
• Lessons From a Controversial Study That ‘Deliberately Divided’ Twins – https://news.fullerton.edu/2021/10/lessons-from-a-controversial-study-that-deliberately-divided-twins/
• 60 Years On, Twin/Triplet Study Still Raises Questions – https://www.medpagetoday.com/psychiatry/generalpsychiatry/80829
• Records from controversial twin study sealed at Yale until 2065 – https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2018/10/01/records-from-controversial-twin-study-sealed-at-yale-until-2065/