Thank you. I can't tell you how this makes me feel because there are no words. But you found the words and shared them.
The movie should have stayed alive! But someone decided that hysteria was real. Easy to guess who.
You are such an incredible writer, Linda. Gather your History of Women essays into a book. Everyone who has been following will share with everyone they know!
That sounds like a heartfelt and deeply appreciative message. Are you looking to refine it, add something, or perhaps tailor it for a specific audience?
Thank you for writing this. My grandmother was institutionalized by my grandfather for 6 months against her will in late 1950s in Oklahoma. He was always abusive but locking a mother away from her 3 small children was a new low even for him. She received electroshock therapy and came out a very different, very compliant person. My dad, her eldest kid, never forgave his father. I'm a millennial. None of this was that long ago.
WOW, what a great article! Women nurture and give birth, and without that miracle humans would die out. Yet so many abuses have been made against women, often because of the amazing ability we have to give birth. There have been many improvements, because of strong people like those mentioned in your article, but we have a way to go.
This is why I keep telling my female friends not to trust psychology/psychiatry. The entire discipline was literally created to be weaponized against women as a mechanism of behavioral control. Yet now women go to therapists and spill their guts thinking that it can never come back to bite them. But the second they say something wrong... We can't be forcibly medicated anymore, but we can absolutely still be put on "psych hold" in an institution designed to traumatize and brutalize us into submission.
dude. if you think people aren’t still being medicated against their will in asylums that have rebranded as “behavioral health” then you are completely delusional.
it’s untrue. if you’re hospitalized against your will they ABSOLUTELY can keep you indefinitely and for you to take meds.
that’s how i learned to throw up with a toothbrush.
so if you’d like to know what’s still happening to mostly women,
nonbinary, and neurodivergent people across this shithole country, let me know.
and if you refuse the oral meds, the staff can and will hold you on the filthy ground and forcibly inject you.
Yes. Thank you- It was cool to learn about this history, but at the same time, this violence still happens now, all the time. Especially to women, especially to anyone who is not conforming, especially to those who are traumatized, and especially to children, who literally have no rights.
I was admitted when I was 19 by my father and the police… long story. i remember one night they wanted to give me benzodiazepines which i am strongly against, but they said it was for sleep. i said no thank you. the man stood at the end of my bed and said “we will keep you here longer if you don’t take them.” and from there it was a stand off. after that night i switched my behavior entirely and pretended to be fine and normal. i lied through pearly whites to get myself out of there. did anything i could to get the fuck out. some girls who seemed normal entirely reported being there against their will for months. i didn’t want that to be me. i reassured the entire staff that i was fine and just having a moment, blaming it on the car crash i had recently been in. since then, i don’t tell people when i’m not doing well. the experience of psychiatric care traumatized me entirely.
Enjoyed reading this, but one thing made me go ? about ye olden days. If only women could be insane due to female hysteria and body parts floating around... how did they explain insane men? :P
Talk to any woman with ME, (& read the history of psychiatrists in the UK who have built their careers on psychologising it) Long Covid, any invisible auto- immune condition, endometriosis etc and you will hear how this is very current.
As I write this there are several young women in hospital with very severe ME who have been sectioned and are not getting the treatment they need, because the doctors mis-interpret their symptoms as psychiatric. Read the Times journalist Sean O’Neil’s reporting on the illness, death and inquest last year of his daughter Maeve, and watch all the media coverage too.
If you’re a woman, check your medical notes for references of psychological conditions you’ve never had, and had no knowledge that your doctors have decided you may have (this is important and could impact the treatment you receive in hospital). If you have daughters, check their records.
It is, and very shocking. Last year was a particularly brutal year for trying to get these women the treatment they need, alongside Maeve’s inquest. It’s not a new issue, but the media here in the UK did pick up on it last year, though nothing significant has changed yet medically.
Free with ads on YouTube or you can get 55 Steps on Amazon Prime as well. I'm watch tonight. Thank you for this, the smelling salts, I never knew the logic behind that....
Oooof did this one hit hard. These are facts that most of us know already. I have read stories like this before of course. But the delivery that is yours alone had such impact. Thank you for making your voice heard. And reminding all of us to do the same. These are the things that matter so much.
Thank you for sharing this. I have so much rage hearing about stories just like this one, coupled with my own "womanly experiences" with the medical field. We need to keep sharing stories just like Eleanor's.
Thank you. I can't tell you how this makes me feel because there are no words. But you found the words and shared them.
The movie should have stayed alive! But someone decided that hysteria was real. Easy to guess who.
You are such an incredible writer, Linda. Gather your History of Women essays into a book. Everyone who has been following will share with everyone they know!
Love and Hugs,
Linda
That sounds like a heartfelt and deeply appreciative message. Are you looking to refine it, add something, or perhaps tailor it for a specific audience?
Thank you for writing this. My grandmother was institutionalized by my grandfather for 6 months against her will in late 1950s in Oklahoma. He was always abusive but locking a mother away from her 3 small children was a new low even for him. She received electroshock therapy and came out a very different, very compliant person. My dad, her eldest kid, never forgave his father. I'm a millennial. None of this was that long ago.
WOW, what a great article! Women nurture and give birth, and without that miracle humans would die out. Yet so many abuses have been made against women, often because of the amazing ability we have to give birth. There have been many improvements, because of strong people like those mentioned in your article, but we have a way to go.
This is why I keep telling my female friends not to trust psychology/psychiatry. The entire discipline was literally created to be weaponized against women as a mechanism of behavioral control. Yet now women go to therapists and spill their guts thinking that it can never come back to bite them. But the second they say something wrong... We can't be forcibly medicated anymore, but we can absolutely still be put on "psych hold" in an institution designed to traumatize and brutalize us into submission.
dude. if you think people aren’t still being medicated against their will in asylums that have rebranded as “behavioral health” then you are completely delusional.
it’s untrue. if you’re hospitalized against your will they ABSOLUTELY can keep you indefinitely and for you to take meds.
that’s how i learned to throw up with a toothbrush.
so if you’d like to know what’s still happening to mostly women,
nonbinary, and neurodivergent people across this shithole country, let me know.
and if you refuse the oral meds, the staff can and will hold you on the filthy ground and forcibly inject you.
Yes. Thank you- It was cool to learn about this history, but at the same time, this violence still happens now, all the time. Especially to women, especially to anyone who is not conforming, especially to those who are traumatized, and especially to children, who literally have no rights.
Fuck. 💔
I was admitted when I was 19 by my father and the police… long story. i remember one night they wanted to give me benzodiazepines which i am strongly against, but they said it was for sleep. i said no thank you. the man stood at the end of my bed and said “we will keep you here longer if you don’t take them.” and from there it was a stand off. after that night i switched my behavior entirely and pretended to be fine and normal. i lied through pearly whites to get myself out of there. did anything i could to get the fuck out. some girls who seemed normal entirely reported being there against their will for months. i didn’t want that to be me. i reassured the entire staff that i was fine and just having a moment, blaming it on the car crash i had recently been in. since then, i don’t tell people when i’m not doing well. the experience of psychiatric care traumatized me entirely.
> while she screams that she does not give consent. Over and over. I do not give consent
As a teenager, I once said something to that effect to a bully. I hadn’t yet learned this only helps them further humiliate you:
“Did I ask for your permission?”
“No.”
“Then why do you tell me I don’t have it?”
He was right, of course.
Enjoyed reading this, but one thing made me go ? about ye olden days. If only women could be insane due to female hysteria and body parts floating around... how did they explain insane men? :P
Men are not insane. They are eccentric, or brilliant, or geniuses, which comes with some quirks, of course. /s
I don't know whether to laugh or cry about this.
Talk to any woman with ME, (& read the history of psychiatrists in the UK who have built their careers on psychologising it) Long Covid, any invisible auto- immune condition, endometriosis etc and you will hear how this is very current.
As I write this there are several young women in hospital with very severe ME who have been sectioned and are not getting the treatment they need, because the doctors mis-interpret their symptoms as psychiatric. Read the Times journalist Sean O’Neil’s reporting on the illness, death and inquest last year of his daughter Maeve, and watch all the media coverage too.
If you’re a woman, check your medical notes for references of psychological conditions you’ve never had, and had no knowledge that your doctors have decided you may have (this is important and could impact the treatment you receive in hospital). If you have daughters, check their records.
This is all still happening now.
😱 this is absolutely horrific.
It is, and very shocking. Last year was a particularly brutal year for trying to get these women the treatment they need, alongside Maeve’s inquest. It’s not a new issue, but the media here in the UK did pick up on it last year, though nothing significant has changed yet medically.
Wow! Thank you for exposing this! I had never heard of this woman or this film!
I teared up reading your account of the harm she endured.
Free with ads on YouTube or you can get 55 Steps on Amazon Prime as well. I'm watch tonight. Thank you for this, the smelling salts, I never knew the logic behind that....
I have tardive dystonia which is a form of dyskinesia and it’s hell everyday.
🤗🤗🤗
oh my gosh, this is such a beautiful piece. I cited it in my newest post! thank you for sharing this story.
Oooof did this one hit hard. These are facts that most of us know already. I have read stories like this before of course. But the delivery that is yours alone had such impact. Thank you for making your voice heard. And reminding all of us to do the same. These are the things that matter so much.
Such an important read. Thank you!
Thank you for sharing this. I have so much rage hearing about stories just like this one, coupled with my own "womanly experiences" with the medical field. We need to keep sharing stories just like Eleanor's.