MetaFilter posts tagged with insanity

Thud, empty, hollow.

grounded — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 20:59:08 -0800

Revisiting Dr. Rosenhan. Between 1969 and 1972, seven friends embarked on what became known as the Rosenhan Experiment, posing as patients in a dozen psychiatric hospitals. While the medical staff diagnosed the poseurs as 'schizophrenic', their fellow patients quickly caught on to their ruse. The resulting paper, On Being Sane in Insane Places, became an instant classic.

Filling me up with the shivers

fire&wings — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 17:26:02 -0800

Violin. Them Heavy People. Egypt. The Kate Bush 1979 Xmas Special (QLYT)

Male mental illness in History

Kattullus — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 09:37:26 -0800

No matter their approach, the typical French physician who accepted the notion of male hysteria continued to think that its victims were in some way sexually abnormal: "Thus, despite Charcot's innovative work, the male victim of hysteria in late-nineteenth century French medical imagination was still frequently envisioned as an effeminate heterosexual, an overt homosexual, or a physical or emotional hermaphrodite." If not different sexually, male hysterics were said to be different in other ways, such as race or nationality, among whom African, African-American, south Asian, Arab, or Eastern European Jewish men predominated. Outside of France, other methods of denial appeared, such as the suggestion that male hysteria was restricted to Frenchmen. The medical literature of the time is full of evasions and denials and contradictions of the truths that Charcot had quite obviously demonstrated.

- Macho Misery, an extensive and interesting review of Hysterical Men: The Hidden History of Male Nervous Illness. Hysterical Men is by Professor Mark S. Micale and the review is by surgeon Sherwin B. Nuland who gave this interesting TEDTalk on electroshock therapy.

Need a lift?

cjorgensen — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 11:05:06 -0800

Kelly G lifts people and asks them questions. Annoying, obnoxious, but everyone has to have a hobby. Has to be seen to be believed, and I'm still not sure if I "get it," but like a train wreck I can't get myself to look away. The heaviest person she's lifted is 290 pounds. She's lifted an entire fire department (one fireman at a time). She has no website, but she's on twitter: KellyG5

buzzin the walls

allkindsoftime — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 14:17:21 -0800

At the beginning of windsuit base jumping, we were trying to get as far from the wall as possible...and now its getting boring so we play around. (money shot at 3:10)

Liar's Poker was not intended as a how-to manual.

bitmage — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:08:07 -0800

The End of the Wall Street Era. “We always asked the same question,” says Eisman. “Where are the rating agencies in all of this? And I’d always get the same reaction. It was a smirk.” He called Standard & Poor’s and asked what would happen to default rates if real estate prices fell. The man at S&P couldn’t say; its model for home prices had no ability to accept a negative number.

The author of Liar's Poker on the collapse of the subprime industry.

Photographer or Terrorist, You Make the Call

theichibun — Thu, 29 May 2008 17:27:04 -0800

On April 3, The Memphis Flyer ran a story describing a town hall meeting in Shelby County in which citizens were instructed on the art of finding a potential terrorist. Among the 'qualifications' are having a camera and taking pictures of well known or important structures.

Mental Illness Might Be Caused By Microbes

amyms — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 23:05:11 -0800

Are you batshitinsane? Viruses and/or bacteria may be the cause.

Terminus

homunculus — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 18:20:36 -0800

Terminus. "After inadvertently offending a strange entity that accosts him on his way to work, a 1970s businessman quickly finds himself in the midst of a bizarre predicament." 205.2 MB Quicktime available here. [Via Neatorama.]

Wain's World: How the Artist Went Insane When the Cat Got His Brain

jonp72 — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 12:37:04 -0800

Louis Wain became one of the most famous British illustrators of the late Victorian and Edwardian era after trying to cheer up his wife Emily by drawing portraits of their pet cat, Peter. In addition to publishing a popular children's book about kittens, he was a founder of the U.K's National Cat Club who was instrumental in promoting the Cat Fancy movement, which encouraged Britons of all classes to view cats as lovable pets instead of household pests. Unfortunately, after Wain's wife Emily died of breast cancer, Wain gradually went mad due to psychosis and late onset schizophrenia, ending up in London's notorious Bethlehem Hospital (the etymological origin for the word bedlam). While at Bedlam, Wain continued to draw, but his cat portraits transformed into pure geometric abstraction and psychedelic fractals, but some see harbingers of madness in cryptically titled works, such as Early Indian Irish and The Fire of the Mind Agitates the Atmosphere. For more insight on Wain, check out this 1896 interview and this short film dramatizing the progression of Wain's schizophrenia through his art.

let's go crazy

madamjujujive — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 17:45:08 -0800

The 50 Craziest Pop Stars Ever - unsurprisingly, there is some crossover with the 50 Most Awesomely Dead Rock Stars.

Great White Sharks feeding on a whale carcass

KokuRyu — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 09:26:58 -0800

Great White Sharks feeding on a whale carcass. Ever wanted to see what a dead whale looks like? Find it here. How about multiple great white sharks feeding on said carcass? Find it here. How about a mad scientist who climbs on said carcass? And films said sharks with fricken' lazer beams feeding on stinking whale carcass?

We'll throw in the doghouse for only £100,000 extra... deal?

miss lynnster — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 17:39:19 -0800

Wow. And I thought California property was expensive. Lordy.

Russian Psychoanalytic Art Mystery

themadjuggler — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 02:49:04 -0800

"This was painted by a person with a rare and severe mental disorder. He was constantly seeing his own fantasies all around him. He also had a certain phobia..." (via Digg). The image is an imperfect reproduction of a particular postcard dated 1972. A blogger (in Russian) claims his psychiatry professor found one aspect of this eerie painting that reveals the patient's disorder. Allegedly, only one of his students in the past 15 years has figured it out. The psychoanalytic mystery has piqued the interest (in Russian) of the online community. A number of supplemental hints from the professor and thousands of guesses later, the case remains unsolved. Skeptics have already decried the mystery as a traffic-boosting hoax, but a few signs still point to its authenticity. Most notably, the artist's reproduction of another classic painting contains the following note: "transferred in 1990 from Moscow mental hospital."

Ron Kind: pretty much responsible for the WTC attacks

nTeleKy — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 16:22:50 -0800

I'm Paul R Nelson, and I approve of ~~this message~~ anything that might get me elected. Why? Well, his congressman Ron Kind is the (cue menacing music) WRONG KIND. For starters, he pays for sex, but not soldiers (wmv). On top of that, he also voted to let illegal aliens burn the American flag (wmv). But worst of all? Because of him, we're dependent for oil on islamic fascists and nations that support terrorism. Elect Paul R Nelson, and he'll finish the job he started 23 years ago (wmv). Best. Smear ads. Ever. Check out the radio ads and his photo collection for even more stomach-churning right-wing meretriciousness.

Still in the shadows, an artist in his own right

crunchland — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 07:02:07 -0800

Interesting update on Maxon Crumb, fascinating guru brother of counterculture cartoonist Robert Crumb.

Bangkok to Britain in a tricycle

soiled cowboy — Tue, 16 May 2006 20:05:17 -0800

Two girls, three wheels, 10,000 miles: an epic overland adventure from Bangkok to Brighton. Two women are about to embark on a very long and very uncomfortable voyage: driving a "tuk tuk" from Thailand to Britain to raise £50,000 for the mental health charity Mind.

Black Monk Time

MetaMonkey — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 15:44:39 -0800

The Monks
Formed in the early '60s by American G.I.s stationed in Germany. After their discharge, the group settled in Germany to concentrate on finding a unique sound, and soon began to shave their hair into Monk's tonsures and appear in cassocks. One of the truely original bands of the 60's, The Monks are now often refered to as 'proto-punk'. The Monks experimented fervently, developing a unqiue sound, with heavy bass, repetitive but amelodic rhythms, nursery rhyme style, yet powerful vocals and a good helping of feedback. They recorded only one albumn, Black Monk Time, until their 1999 reunion.
Hear some tracks from the albumn (in realmedia), See and hear The Monks Live in Germany, Also, check out Monks - The Transatlantic Feedback, a documentary (with trailer, though there seems to be something wrong with it). [Trivia: the song I Hate You can be heard in the background in one scene in the bowling alley in The Big Lebowski]

Wikipedia's Bad Jokes And Other Deleted Nonsense

Gator — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 11:22:42 -0800

Wikipedia's Bad Jokes and Other Deleted Nonsense category is a veritable goldmine of...well. I had never heard of a Mushroom Tattoo, for example, nor did I know about the tragic exploitation of the Gnomish Nation or the truth about the American Revolution. Towards the end, Ronald Reagan's condition was even sadder than I thought. And why shouldn't we believe in Atlantis, or for that matter the bearatross or Alphonse W. Turkeyman?

mad meg

crunchland — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 08:50:40 -0800

Mad Meg does all of her work with a black ball point pen on notebook paper.

only 73 days left to study

Peter H — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 10:01:51 -0800

An LSAT game a day until the October 1st Test - Interesting and maddening/unique visual puzzles for preparation of the upcoming LSAT, posted one a day throughout the summer. From Jesse Fuchs, NYC LSAT tutor who also created the equally maddening and very fun Spooneye! The Card Game.

The greatest story ever told

boymilo — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 15:35:10 -0800

The greatest story ever told or The Tale of the Mad Feces King: Two slightly different edits of the same ultimate bad room-mate story, originally posted on the Something Awful forums.

sane/insane

dhruva — Fri, 20 May 2005 00:57:37 -0800

On being sane in insane places [via]

NYFD Bath House?

amberglow — Sat, 07 May 2005 15:43:48 -0800

Smell The Brimstone --Have you ever asked yourself, "Self, what if the folks at JibJab made another political cartoon, but before doing so were to remove their souls, morals, intellect, decency, and common sense?"--Good as You's review of this little flash piece, from the GodHatesFags crew (Phelps). I think it's so poorly done and insane, it's actually funny, but NSFW and offensive.

Ted Nugent is insane

shoppingforsanity — Wed, 20 Apr 2005 00:49:00 -0800

Is this a joke? I'm sorry, can you repeat that Mr. Nugent?