Placed in the monster pen · 3:32pm Sep 23rd, 2019
A popular setting for horror anything is the haunted asylum. See, it was filled with crazy people. Crazy people are all sociopathic professional serial killers, and when they die they all turn into ghosts with have an insatiable drive to kill stupid teenagers. Nevermind that the inmates of asyla generally had even fewer rights and protections than even regular prisoners for a ridiculously long time, and the mentally "normal" staff would visit unspeakable torment on them, or allow others to do that (in Bedlam you used to be able to pay a penny for a tour and another penny to poke people with sticks.) Because the sniffing sensibilities of people obsessed with imitating the prejudices and assertions of the moneyed class says so, an asylum is haunted because crazy people are evil subhumans with no rights to life or remaining free from being abused.
By the numbers, the mentally ill are in danger. Because mental fragility means we rely more or less on others to simply live something resembling a normal life our fates are not disconnected like others. That also means we're super exploitable, and due to lingering long historical narratives of the crazy as dangerous or disposable it's socially acceptable to allow some level of abuse or exploitation. And the thing is, social powers and the entertainment establishment really, really wants you to keep thinking like a Victorian bigot, like you too could become a slave-owning COLONIAL OVERSEEING titled aristocrat and you need to get down the lingo so you can impress the Earl of Cut-off-the-hands-of-black-people.
WHAT are mentally ill people? Easy. They're all cockney or Blackpool or Brighton lumpenproletariat who have sing-song voices and who want to kill you. They love tea parties, the imitation of being artistic and talking openly and gleefully about pulling out intestines or cutting off heads. It has to be so. I mean, after the end of the Hays code when American cinema went nuts with grim things and we reimiagined all quirky people as killers, all quirky people were killers. Clowns, hatters, costumed mascots, Santa Claus, and generally creative people. If you have an artistic streak, you're a mass murderer using blood to fuel your insane and meaningless creativity. All artists are dangerously kill-crazy, right?
I'm not mentally well, and have not been since I was born. On the spectrum, OCD, socially anxious, prone to panic attacks. I can turn some of that into creativity, and by and large the side-effects are... manageable. I, as an individual, have been told that if my mentally illness goes away that I'll stop being creative. So I need to be crazy... and that being crazy turns me into Sweeny Hatter the Ripper who obviously constantly talks about gutting people and playing with their corpses. I can't have morals and empathy and respect bodily autonomy and postmortem wishes. Didn't you hear what all the sane people say? I'm a monster. Any and all mental illness from anxiety to depression means that I'm a hideous danger to others and other others. I'm not statistically more likely to be molested, exploited, injured or killed by the mentally normal. I'll make people uncomfortable with weird speeches and disturbing images and then use a corpse for some kind of art project.
I'm not mentally well, and it's genetic. To the extent that some of these issues are coded in me there is no "cure." Just the coping mechanisms I've learned. I'm weak and feeble, at the mercy of others. But by the act of being abnormal, it's assumed I'm the second cousin of Victorian Ed Gein. That I have a studio full of bodies and am a shame on all the Upper Class moneyed noblepeople, that my existence is used as a plot point (Jane Eyre... good book, bad story, if that makes sense.) I'm not a danger. But the first inclination is to banish me to where the monsters live. By definition I'm a monster. Not because of my actions or anything. Because I have an illness, I'm exactly the same as someone who hurts people. And if I get hurt, monsters don't get sympathy. At best it's a nice joke and people will laugh at the mentally ill acting crazy and hurtful, slicing each other up with switchblade and painting with blood. Creative and crazy. I'm put where I am told to be put. And it's not nice. But I belong there. I guess.
I admitted to being mentally ill. What else could happen?
Thank you for your bravery
Agreed, I mean, while some mentally ill people, such as psychopaths and the like, are dangerous, the majority of them are more likely to be victims of crime rather than perpetrators. But we're here for you. Hell, in Outlast, a good chunk of the inmates were victims of the Mount Massive corporation and most are harmless. Save for Dr. Trager, who, IMS, was staff, Chris Walker, who does genuinely want to stop the Walrider, and those two twins who are rapists
I hate to sound frivolous, but to quote Shrek : "Join the club. We have jackets." Mental illness runs in my family, especially on my father's side. There was a lot of intermarriage on his mother's side of the family. Both my grandmother and her sister were hospitalized for nervous breakdowns. They were given shock treatments which were common at the time. My grandmother recovered with some memory loss. Her sister did not and remained in the care of the state till she died. My father's brother was bipolar and mentally disabled. He had to be hospitalized numerous times.
Creativity, I honestly have a problem with mental illness being directly connected to creativity. My Dad had depression and was very creative and inventive. My maternal grandparents were both creative but neither had a diagnosed mental illness. It is my opinion that mental illness gives you a perspective that few others have, but maybe the ability to act on it comes from elsewhere.
I hope I don't offend you with this. You always have my upmost respect.
I'm not happy with my previous post. I have a bad habit of reading something and picking up on the little stuff. You are right about the way the insane were treated and sadly are still treated. I know of some problem kids who were sent to "Bull Street", the State Hospital in Columbia, SC. They were not insane, just kids in need of guidance. One of them had nightmares about the place for years. My Dad had to go a few years ago because no other hospital could take him. His doctor apologized profusely before sending him.
I think the reason why haunted asylum stories exist is because we fear insanity. It's like the way we fear rabid animals like in Stephen King's "Cujo". We fear losing control of ourselves.
I think you might be overthinking this a bit. Everybody has coping mechanisms to appear 'normal.' To varying degrees, anyway, and with varying degrees of success.
And I don't think asylums are creepy because 'crazy people are evil subhumans,' I think it's because of all the pain and suffering that occurred in those places.
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I feel capable of writing this because I had a support network that saved me from that. It's always been clear I had issues. I remember therapy in elementary school, though some of that was also evaluation for being put in a special advanced track. I had the good and bad. But my family never medicated me, for better or worse. And as things got more complicated when genetics got more involved and it was clear I wasn't going to be standard, I was given care by them. I can come to grips with it because I was protected from the harm others end up with. And with the ease of reflection (and OCD acting like a rabid bulldog that won't let go) I can notice that "we're all mad here" tends to mean "we're going to wear your skin, American McGee said so." Plus I'm plain annoyed by the ubiquity and also pissed off by people turning all reboots dark and gritty (we did that in the 90s, get over it) and also turning all happy things dark and bloody, like clowns, dolls, and ponies (screw you, everyone, MLP is the exact opposite of a setting that could in any fashion turn into Fallout, it's literally the stupidest decision ever made, by a sadistic admitted troll with an ego the size of Betelgeuse.)
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It's true... But, that seems like some kind of transitive property. It's the Shutter Island/Silence of the Lambs effect. Or, Arkham asylum effect.
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I'm glad you had, and have, support. I know it can make all the difference.