Welcome to Crazy/Old
Guinea pigs. Pee. Victorian notions of the body. Witchcraft. You know, just things you'd associate with with the history of mental health in America.
Before you send me a message: Yes, I called it Crazy/Old. Yes I did it on purpose.
A quick note: It’s no secret that I live with numerous mental ~peculiarities~ and that I love my psychiatric drugs. I also use the word “crazy” a lot to refer to myself (though I don’t use it to refer to unusual things or strange events; just actual issues of mental health) because I’ve been called it a lot and I’m reclaiming it. Don’t even think about emailing me about how the title is ableist because, well, I’m the person it would hurt.
Anyway.
Several years ago, I started writing a book about Lou Graham. Maybe you heard about that. Then the published canned it because writing stories about women is hard or something. I’m working to ensure that this book will see the light of day at some point (hopefully before my grandparents die; they will be really proud!), but the process helped me see that there is a.) a huge desire for more research and stories about Americans who lived outside of the History 101 narrative and b.) these stories have significant importance to where we are today and what we’re all dealing with all the time.
And I’m aware that there’s kind of nowhere to write about this kind of stuff because it’s really fucking hard to get anything published anymore in any capacity. Have you even tried to write a book if you aren’t already a celebrity chef or the child of a magnate or an actor with an honestly pretty uninteresting life story?
So this is what this newsletter is. It’s stories that I’m finding and sharing — stories about history, mental illness, and the history of mental illness — that I want to share.
From the discovery of lithium as a treatment (spoiler alert: Gout had a big role) to the words we use (like what the hell does “bananas” mean, anyway?), these are short-ish, sourced stories about specific oddities in the history of mental healthcare.
They’re American, mostly. Many are about people from numerous marginalized intersections. They will not make you feel great, but they make may you more interesting the next time you actually leave your house and socialize with other humans. But no promises.
ALSO if you are broke or a member of a marginalized group or you, yourself live with some kind of non-neurotypical situation, I can comp you a membership. Just send me a message on Twitter or something. We can work it out.