RECLAIM OUR MAD HISTORY -- PILGRIM PSYCHIATRIC CENTER HAS LONG HISTORY OF NIGH

[Guest guest]

http://www.mindfreedom.org/mindfreedom/paul_e.shtml

 

 

3/2/2001 - RECLAIM OUR " MAD HISTORY " -- PILGRIM PSYCHIATRIC CENTER HAS

LONG HISTORY OF NIGHTMARISH HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

 

 

SCI News

 

(return to Right To Remember)

 

NEWS BRIEF -- March 2, 2001

 

RECLAIM OUR " MAD HISTORY " -- PILGRIM PSYCHIATRIC CENTER HAS LONG

HISTORY OF NIGHTMARISH HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

 

WEST BRENTWOOD, NY -- The psychiatric institution where Paul Henri

Thomas has recently received more than 40 forced electroshock is no

stranger to extreme " worst case " human rights violations.

 

Today, Paul Henri Thomas's hearing about whether or not he should have

more forced electroshock was adjourned without settling the question.

His supporters wait until next week to find out if -- at a reconvened

hearing -- the judge will order still another round of forced shock

against Paul's stated objections.

 

Paul's resistance is making history as his story mobilizes thousands.

Several media will apparently now publish news of his struggle to stop

forced shock in New York State.

 

It's a good time to reflect on other " mad history, " and Pilgrim

Psychiatric Center.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

PILGRIM PSYCHIATRIC CENTER -- LOBOTOMY HISTORY

 

Beulah Jones was admitted into Pilgrim Psychiatric Center in 1953, and

give 20 forced electroshocks. When those didn't " work " Pilgrim

Psychiatric Center on July 30, 1954-- eight months after admission --

administered a lobotomy to Beulah Jones.

 

Now Beulah's granddaughter is writing a book about her grandmother's

story, and she's started a web site about the issue of lobotomy:

 

http://www.psychosurgery.org/

 

The granddaughter -- Christine -- writes about her own mother's

memories of Beulah last day before the lobotomy:

 

" Her daughter still remembers the day Beulah was taken for surgery.

The children visited her, and were allowed to communicate only through

a barred door. Beulah was shaven bald. She kissed her daughter and son

goodbye through the bars. They lifted their baby sister so that Beulah

could kiss her too. The children never saw that woman again. After the

psychosurgery, the person who Beulah had been was destroyed, and the

doctors informed the family that she'd never recover. Later, this

mother of three was condemned by a board of psychiatrists as

'incurably insane.' Beulah remained an inmate in Pilgrim State for 20

years. "

 

Christine is looking for people who who would like to add to her book,

especially regarding psychosurgery (both positive and negative).

 

You can see photos of Beulah, and also 1941 photographs of Pilgrim

Psychiatric Center, at:

 

http://www.psychosurgery.org/photos.html

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

RECLAIM MAD HISTORY

 

Psychiatric Pat Deegan is calling upon people labeled with mental

disabilities to re-claim our history, and tell our stories in our own

words. She challenges the " master narrative " of the psychiatric

system. Deegan and the National Empowerment Center have secured a

grant to work on the history of psychiatric survivors.

 

http://www.power2u.org/how.html

 

Even a casual review of the web reveals other stories, abuses and

historical references to Pilgrim Psychiatric Center.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

JUST A FEW OTHER PILGRIM SCANDALS INCLUDE:

 

1987 -- Twenty workers are fired or suspended for abuse of psychiatric

inmates, and drug/alcohol use.

 

http://www.psychosurgery.org/pilart17.htm

 

1979 -- After investigating a death in Pilgrim Psychiatric Center, New

York State Commission on Quality of Care recommended that the center

improve:

 

http://www.ktb.net/~psycrime/pc-452.htm

 

1996 -- _New York Times_ " In a decision that has forced the

cancellation of at least 10 research projects, a New York state

appeals court has found the state's rules governing psychiatric

experiments on children and the mentally ill to be unconstitutional. "

 

http://www.breggin.com/courtorder.html

 

2000 -- Just last year, the publication Newsday exposed the fall out

from investigations of several deaths in Pilgrim Psychiatric Center.

 

http://mindfreedom.org/mindfreedom/news/pilgrim.shtml

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

LITERARY REFERENCES

 

The history of Pilgrim includes references by poet Allen Ginsberg:

 

[EXCERPT FROM POEM HOWL, by Allen Ginsberg]

 

....who threw potato salad at CCNY lecturers on Dadaism and

subsequently presented themselves on the granite steps of the madhouse

with shaven heads and harlequin speech of suicide, demanding in-

stantaneous lobotomy,

 

and who were given instead the concrete void of insulin Metrazol

electricity hydrotherapy psycho- therapy occupational therapy pingpong

& amnesia,

 

who in humorless protest overturned only one symbolic pingpong table,

resting briefly in catatonia,

 

returning years later truly bald except for a wig of blood, and tears

and fingers, to the visible mad man doom of the wards of the madtowns

of the East,

 

Pilgrim State's Rockland's and Greystone's foetid halls, bickering

with the echoes of the soul, rocking and rolling in the midnight

solitude-bench dolmen-realms of love, dream of life a night- mare,

bodies turned to stone as heavy as the moon, ....

 

~~~~~~~~

 

Allen Ginsberg's mother was in and out of Pilgrim and other

psychiatric institutions. Even though he tried to see his mother's

emotional differences as spiritual, Allen was convinced to sign the

papers for her lobotomy in Pilgrim Psychiatric Center in 1948. After

going in and out of institutions, she died in Pilgrim Psychiatric

Center in 1956. Allen, of course, was also a psychiatric survivor, and

also wrote some of his famous poetry about his other psychiatric

survivor friends, and his mother.

 

Three years after his mother's death, Ginsberg wrote " Kaddish for

Naomi Ginsberg " which many consider his finest poem, helping to

establish him as a poet.

 

http://www.rooknet.com/beatpage/writers/ginsberg.html

http://www.interferenza.com/bcs/allen.htm

http://www.charm.net/~brooklyn/Poems/Kaddish.html

 

~~~~~~~~~

 

Another -- brief -- artistic reference to Pilgrim is unfortunately

inaccurate. The film Joe Gould's Secret is based on a true story about

a New Yorker journalist in the 1940's who befriends a marginalized

street philosopher and writer, Joe Gould. While Gould eventually does

end up in Pilgrim Psychiatric Center, but the film doesn't depict its

horrors.

 

http://www.joegouldssecret.com/

 

The fairly recent film can be found in many video stores.

 

~~~~~~~~~

 

 

About Us | Advertising | Site FAQ | Privacy Policy

 

© Copyright 2003 Support Coalition International

Web site questions? E-mail the Webmaster.