The hospital, we abandoned our symptom, and we behaved the way we usually behave. The question was, would anyone detect we were sane . The answer was, no. Host your new book, the great pretender, centers around the story of this man. Who is he . Susannah hes a stanford professor who was the architect of this amazing study with the incredible footage you just played, called on being sane in insane places. Just has he has described, he and seven other people reportedly went undercover in Psychiatric Hospitals around the country to test the nature of diagnosis and see if their sanity would be detected. As he said, they were not. The study was done in the early 1970s. Why are you interested in it today . Susannah it came from a very personal place. I had my previous book, my memoir, brain on fire, which targeted my experience that was briefly misdiagnosed as a serious Mental Illness. Originally bipolar disorder and then schizoaffective disorder. After that book came out, i was inundated by
A group of colleagues and i gained admission to Psychiatric Hospitals by simulating, by faking a single symptom. We said we heard voices. The voices said, empty, dull, thud. The moment we were admitted to the hospital, we abandoned our symptom, and we behaved the way we usually behave. The question was, would anyone detect we were sane . The answer was, no. We have tested her for every Infectious Disease and all of the results are negative. Or eeg is completely normal. Her mri is normal. Its all normal. Her condition continues to regress. Mania, paranoia. First they are saying its schizophrenic, than they are saying its psychotic. We should look at hospitals better equipped to deal with this. You look fine. Host when did this happen to you . Susannah i was 24 at the time. A lot of that time i dont remember. Its always very bizarre to see it recreated in movie form. I wrote about about a time that is very much lost to me, and then it was recreated, so i have very strange feelings about
Antarctic are learning all about isolation. Social distancing is hard but its key to preventing the spread of the corona virus if we carried on as normal and one infected person infected on average 2. 00 others over a 5 day period then after 30 days that one person would be the source of more than 400. 00 infections. Reducing contact with others by 75 percent the total would be just 2 and a half infection. But what effect does isolation have on the mind and body. Lets find out by heading to a research station in one of the worlds loneliest places the at. A. Time out for the expedition members at germanys neumeier research station and arctic this is the 1st time. Theyve seen the sun after 9 months of darkness. This long period in isolation was extremely difficult for everyone here. I went to work and routine is what really helps and doing a lot together but at the same time giving everyone enough space. It can get pretty lonely here in the world southernmost continent trying times for s
It was a pleasure and an honor for me to be speaking with you today. Thanank you. What kept going through my mind as i read your new book is with a hard look at last have been for you to write. You uncovered so many deep and extremely painful parts of your past and your family. Can you tell me more about your writing process and how you decided to go about writing this book . Guest it was starting to come together in 2017 i wrote a story for the New York Times about what happened to my exhusband and it was called the lawyer the addict so i did a lot of research for that piece and research and thinking about it and exploring it with my family and my children and seeing if it was okay with them to go ahead and tell the story and figure out why we were doing it and what it meant to us. All of it was largely t to makig meaning out of something that felt almost arbitrary and shameful and guiltynd also to try to understand what was going on for peter and in the Legal Profession in terms of S
A research station in one of the worlds loneliest places the at. A time out for the expedition members at germanys neumeier research station in antarctica this is the 1st time that theyve seen the sun after 9 months of darkness. This long period in isolation was extremely difficult for everyone here. I wanted to work and routine is what really helps and doing a lot together but at the same time giving everyone enough space. It can get pretty lonely here in the world southernmost continent trying times for station manager and doctor baggage to go back and the 8 other german team members far away from their families. Berlins shotty hospital is investigating the impact of this isolation the crew have to undergo medical tests and even a cat scan of the brain before their departure and on their return as well as giving all sorts of samples. Were collecting all the bottle i substances that we can get our hands on blood urine stool and every few months some hair samples. The scientists and th