This is Part 3 of “Misery Rules in Shadowland,” and this is the conclusion of this three-part narrated series. Misery Rules in Shadowland was a newspaper article written in the Daily Oklahoman all the way back in 1946 by then reporter, Mike Gorman. Mike Gorman had received numerous complaints from readers all over the state about the unsanitary conditions and inhumane practices inherent in the Oklahoma state mental hospital system. In the 1940s, the state of Oklahoma had three state mental hospitals for whites, one state hospital for Blacks, a state hospital for epileptics, and a state hospital for “mental defectives.” Both incensed and curious, Mike Gorman took two weeks to tour them all before then writing his lengthy firsthand account of all that he had seen and witnessed. And as bad as what he had been alerted to had been, what he personally found was actually even worse. Much worse.
This lengthy article penned by Mike Gorman provides a very rare, very accurate view of just what mental hospital life was like during this time period. Their understanding of mental illness - which was still rather primitive in numerous ways - is clearly displayed, as are many of the treatments that they felt sure might help address and alleviate it.
And while the methods, the tools, the treatments, the labels, and the times have almost completely changed… the attitudes and practices of our government and of our society in general toward the majority of today’s mentally ill and mentally disabled have hardly changed at all. Today, we like to look at the little collection of small psychiatric facilities thinly scattered around the country and pat ourselves on the back over how much more enlightened and caring we are toward the mentally ill in today’s society…and yet the overwhelming majority of today’s mentally ill and disabled are either being warehoused in our nation’s prison system or are simply altogether homeless. And sadly, for the hundreds of thousands of mentally ill people being warehoused in our nation’s prison system, the circumstances under which they’re being kept today differ very little from the dark era that Mike Gorman reveals and shared in his 1946 bombshell of an article. So, as we conclude this look back into the 1940s and see how the mentally ill and mentally disabled were viewed and treated back then, it’s very important that we understand that, for hundreds of thousands of today’s mentally ill and disabled, this present time that we live in continues to be little different and just as heartbreaking.
And the question has to be asked, "What are we going to do about it?"
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