Mental Stigma
A national epidemic
To this day, there is still not enough known about mental illness, and this lack of knowledge on the subject leaves room for fear to be born, and grow into stigma. Anyone suffering from such an affliction can tell you how difficult it is to get to the places that treat you, and what low quality of care you receive most places. Seeing a doctor only once a week a lot of places. But this is not new. The treatment of the clinically insane dates back to the 1930s, starting with psychoanalysis and Sigmund Freud. Freud believed everyone had subconscious desires that led to mental illness. After Freud comes Walter Freeman and the lobotomy technique, which pokes holes in the prefrontal cortex of the brain, an area in charge of memory, and dopamine, and memory among other good things. This procedure turned patients into vegetables. If they were still acting up after they were treated with shock therapy which is as bad as it sounds. In 1950 thorazine, the first antipsychotic used in America was introduced, and things got better. We became a prozac nation.
The plight of the exotic entertainer lies a lot in mental illness, and a co occurring substance abuse issue. These are not people that need to be poked and shocked. These are people that need basic human kindness.
