History of Mental Health in the US

IMPORTANT MESSAGE: This post is not meant to encourage suicide, nor is it meant to discuss it. This has nothing to do with suicidal ideation. If you or someone you know is experiencing real suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at (800) 273-8255. You are not alone.

At some point in our lives, we have all experienced a moment in which our brains begin to think of doing the unthinkable; something that we would never think of doing. For instance; imagine yourself standing atop a very tall building. You glance over the edge to see the traffic and life thousands of feet below you. All of a sudden, you hear a voice in the back of your head; “Do it. Jump.” You know that you’d never do it, but here you are thinking about it. What is up with that?

Don’t worry, you’re not crazy. In fact, it’s pretty common for the brain to think of such things. As it turns out, there is actually a term for it; known as, in French, l’appel du vide, or more commonly known as “the call of the void”, is the term used to describe the sudden impulse to do something drastic.

While there is not an exact reason as to why this thought process occurs within the brain, one theory suggests that the brain immediately thinks of impulsive thoughts, such as jumping off the edge of a building, is because the scenario is the strongest choice in which one can make in a certain situation.

What do you think?

Sources:

https://www.healthline.com/health/call-of-the-void#is-it-normal

~I would also recommend Daniel Howell’s YouTube video below!~

~Daniel Howell, “EVIL THOUGHTS,” YouTube video, 4:45, posted by Daniel Howell, December 9, 2013, accessed on September 13, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6nuxmV6Zko~

For my project I will be focusing on the therapeutic use of psychedelics as discovered during the 1960s and the revival (and continued stigma) of the practice in modern medicine.  This primary source is an episode from April 1967 of the talk show Firing Line hosted by William F. Buckley Jr.  Buckley is interviewing the eccentric psychologist Timothy Leary about his own philosophy and practice of using LSD.  The interview is significant for the debate over the legality of Leary’s advocation, as a licensed professional, for the illegal drug and its potential danger.  Leary’s counterargument is that while LSD should provide a warning label, there should not be a law prohibiting its use due to its ability to open one’s mind and potentially open a door to a happier perspective.  The argument is further complicated by Leary’s imposition of spirituality on the mental state of tripping which Buckley argues is further evident of the danger of LSD.  Buckley believed that the heightened state of consciousness could cause a “not-well-adjusted person” to develop a reliance of escapism or addiction to the drug.  Leary makes a number of declarations to the future of LSD use which will be interesting to explore during this project.    

This week’s discussion topic deals with race and Civil War era mental health issues. My topic is suicide in the 19th century and one of my sources is this text that I purchased from Amazon. It is well written without a bunch of technical jargon and covers many different topics faced by Civil War era Southerners, both during the war and in the aftermath. Dr. Sommerville addresses suicides from all social classes and Chapters 3 and 4 deal exclusively with “African American Southerners in Slavery and Freedom” (pages 85-147). There is a great deal of information, with individual case studies, but the one fact that stood out was that: “The enslaved who tasted freedom appear to have been most susceptible to thoughts of suicide.” (pg. 105)

Diane Miller Sommerville. 2018. Aberration of Mind Suicide and Suffering in the Civil War- Era South. Chapel Hill The University Of North Carolina Press.