Safety pin cocktail
Ever since I cracked my skull at age 8 I have been fascinated by psychopathy, mental illness, and general weirdo behavior. The neurologist, fearing my head would explode, had me undergo an electroencephalograph. The machine was in the hospital’s Psychiatric Ward, which was populated by interesting individuals: I remember nurses chasing a man in his underwear down the hall while he frantically summoned Batman on an invisible walkie-talkie. Now that was a formative experience.Â
In Edge, Christopher Badcock expounds on the Imprinted Brain Theory, which aims to sort out contradictions in explaining mental illness. The essay includes this helpful chart comparing hypo-mentalistic (autism) and hyper-mentalistic (psychosis) disorders. (I strongly advise that hypochondriacs stop reading this NOW.)
| Autism/Asperger’s syndrome | Psychosis/Paranoid schizophrenia |
| gaze-monitoring deficits | delusions of being watched/spied on |
| apparent deafness/insensitivity to voices | hallucination of and hyper-sensitivity to voices |
| deficits in interpreting others’ intentions | erotomania/delusions of persecution |
| deficits in appreciating shared-attention/groups | delusions of conspiracy |
| theory of mind deficits | magical ideation/delusions of reference |
| deficit in sense of personal agency/episodic memory | megalomania/delusions of grandeur |
| literalness/inability to deceive | delusional self-deception |
| pathological single-mindedness | pathological ambivalence |
| early onset | late onset |
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The Glore Psychiatric Museum in St. Joseph, Missouri features an extraordinary collection of artifacts from the state lunatic asylum, including this artistic arrangement of 1,446 items swallowed by a patient and removed from her digestive system.Â
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Meanwhile my lovely friend Ige sent me this image from his dream sequence:
a perfect example of delusional behavior.Â
Does anyone remember that horror movie Asylum that used to air on Channel 9 after The Waltons? In the first episode, a man murders his wife, chops her up into pieces, wraps the pieces in newspaper, and stores them in a freezer in the basement. Along with the pieces he tosses in her chunky bracelet, which turns out to have magical powers: the pieces wrapped in newspaper come alive and attack him. In another episode, an inmate of the asylum constructs a doll that is a perfect miniature replica of himself, down to the innards. Then he attempts to escape from the asylum via his mini-me; unfortunately an orderly steps on him.Â
One of my favorite horror movies is Dead Of Night, in which Michael Redgrave (father of Vanessa) plays a timorous ventriloquist with a murderous dummy.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
November 23rd, 2008 at 11:34
i know the asylum movie you mentioned. channel 9 used to screen it often in the early afternoons, after a variety show (was it eat bulaga?) during weekdays. sometimes they show charlton heston’s the omega man also. i don’t have an idea about the waltons.
one of the scenes in that movie used to haunt me. it is the scene where the severed head of the murdered wife, wrapped in newspaper, rolled and stopped on top of the stairs of the basement. the head is still breathing and is facing the husband who is in the basement. i am not sure if it is correct but that is how i remember it.
November 23rd, 2008 at 12:41
Either I am both or, I’m just genuinely hypochondriac.
November 23rd, 2008 at 16:09
I don’t know if I already qualify as a psychotic, but lately I have developed a morbid fear of driving. I fear that the drivers of public utility vehicles are on a conspiracy to hunt me down and destroy my car and kill me. They cut me off, swerve in my lane, give me the looks,brake for no apparent reason, and obstruct my path deliberately. So far they haven’t succeeded, I being elusive and alert. However, I have intelligence reports, and personal confirmation that a big government agency is in cahoots with these thugs. This “agency” is notorious for its murderous u-turn slots, concrete barriers, and pink urinals and metal fences, which their “highly trained” operatives deliberately install in unlit areas so that I and other “high value targets” may have a higher chance of being liquidated. Their leader is a guy who wants to be both the Philippine’s Placido Domingo, and its president someday. Scary! Gotta go, I forgot to take the red pill today.
November 26th, 2008 at 06:35
were those hammer horror movies? they scared the crap out of me but i watched them over and over.
April 19th, 2009 at 21:36
Hey Jessica! I’m sorry for the very late comment. I don’t know if you are already
watching this, but I think you would really dig Discovery Channel’s Most Evil.
There’s a particular doctor who made up a scale to measure someone’s evil-ness.
They refer to criminals, specifically serial killers. The show explains the childhood
history of the criminals, their methods of killing, and their rating in the said scale. It
is very unnerving yet educational.
From that show, I have learned that there is a recipe for someone to become a
serial killer. I am not sure if I am recalling correctly so forgive me.
1. You should have brain damage (congenital or from an accident).
2. You should have a certain mental illness (genetic or caused by an accident)
3. You should have a history of child abuse.
I hope I have been of help to you.