Was Frances Farmer's Insanity a Misdiagnosis? 

Thank you all for watching the videos and a HUGE THANK YOU for those who support the channel on Patreon. Just as little as $5 a month helps the channel tremendously!!! click here: www.patreon.com/ageofvintage Thank you! 🙂

I remember seeing “Frances” with Jessica Lange giving her interpretation of her and it was a Heartbreakingly Beautiful performance- really Poignant. She should’ve won best actress for “Frances” but didn’t.

She is a fascinating subject. I will watch a bio of her with renewed interest. She was not easy to control and Hollywood just wanted a beautiful face and a voice that would always say yes. It's disgusting what was done to her and with the cooperation of her own mother.

Mental illness was so scary in the old days - even as a young adult in the 80s I was afraid to be diagnosed with any mental illness for fear of being put into some sort of asylum like they always showed us on TV and Movies.

How awful what a terrible price to pay for being free spirited, highly intelligent, and wildly creative! The betrayals this poor woman endured, let alone the complicity of, what I suspect, a jealous, spiteful, and vindictive stage mother. Well at least she's free now.

Less a misdiagnosis than the result of a nasty and vicious mother, somewhat jealous of her child who wouldn't comply. The cruelty inflicted was something people have grieved over ever since. That was what the psychiatric wo0rld used to do as they used people to experiment on as they tried out their treatments of victims. You were considered mentally 'disadvantaged' in those barbaric days anybody who defied authority, especially females, were crushed like this, if mothers were able or wanted to.

Of course it was, her mother wanted her to be a perfect Hollywood actress, and when Frances couldn't, she punished her.

She may have had a personality disorder, coupled with alcohol addiction. Her talent and beauty were destroyed.

I did not know about this actress until I watched the Jessica Lange film. It's horrific. Thank you fot this informative video.

"Frances," the film with Jessica Lange, came out in 1982, not 1992.

I do not believe she was insane she didn’t belong there, she was a very intelligent, strong willed woman, in a world that did not accept that, including her mother.

I saw an episode of 'This Is Your Life' featuring Frances Farmer. It was the only episode where the program brought on a guest with their consent. Normally, the person being featured was 'surprised' into appearing on the show, resulting in an exciting timeline of their history up to that point, including guests from their childhood. Ms. Farmer was asked to do this particular show, which addressed her past and it ended on a high note, along with a donation. It's the best episode ever saw!

Her’s was one of the saddest Hollyweird stories.

Francis Farmer was a beautiful, talented, very astute young girl..obviously (not sure) suffered from very deep depression?..all her life. Who wouldn't,..with such a controlling/cruel ignorant MOTHER!..My heart breaks this beautiful girl was put into a institution & lobotomised.?! to appease HOLLYWOOD'S control of her?...what a truly sad end for a precious young woman..Did her ignorant MOTHER do similar damage to Francis siblings?..who knows..

I never knew much about Frances farmer but that she had a few nervous breakdowns,in those days it was not understood as today,and you where sent straight to mental hospitals where electric shock treatments were done which must have been horrific,rest in peace Francis amen 🐦🌈🌸💖

God! poor young woman,not allowed to do anything She wanted with her life!

Sounds like she was ahead of her times

Her life is so tragic. If she had been born 30 or more years later, I think she would’ve had a better life and a far more recognized career.

There is conflicting accounts of her having a lobotomy. The claim has only been made in just one book and that film ' Frances' which was based on that book. Who knows the real story.

Britney Spears may have suffered this treatment, had she lived back then.

I don’t think she was lobotomized

Her book was harrowing. Supposedly this helped change laws about what could and couldn't be done to patients in institutions.

Excellent Nirvana reference.

Thank you for doing this I learned about Frances Farmer I don't know when I worked in television and it is a sad horrific story and it's hard for anybody to believe that a parent would do this to their child. But she was stunning and just wild herself in a way that was wonderful it was really Freedom she wanted to be who she was I thought she was a great woman

Thanks for another great video!! Please do one on Helen chandler! She is the best one on Dracula in my opinion, the most interesting and forgotten. You would be the first utuber to tackle the subject! Thanks again for all your great work!

Attractive actress, tough times back then but obviously a strong woman. Brenton 🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺

The music of your video is perfect like his content. Brava❣👏👍💯

Excellent work.

I always think of Kurt and Courtney when I think about FF.

No woman's insanity is a misdiagnosis. Some are just undiagnosed. Having said this they should be treated with compassion rather then psychiatrists

Thanks AOV❤

She was a brilliant actress. It’s too bad that is lost and all that is remembered, if anything, is her breakdown.

How sad.....😢

She as a brilliant powerful lady....the world was far too cruel to her. Love Frances

Great Narration.

Very sad

Mighty Saint Ronald Reagan did close the state hospitals but every county has an asylum don't kid yourself. Usually an acute ward (I went every Friday night for 2 years to visit inmates or patients) A skilled nursing facility is where most folks are placed (casually called a "sniff") and were certainly still placed in the 80's 90's and today. Feel free to volunteer for an organization like NAMI or local group like we were and visit folks. You don't have to know them or be a relative I came Friday nights and brought stuffed animals for men and women but had to get macho stuffed animals for the guys like a dinosaur character. It's much to traumatizing for me now to visit. I was one of the inmates so many times and in the 2000s triggers and trauma were considered superstitious. Now I know why I craved alcohol or drugs to use after the visits because I feel the pain and humiliation of being in there as well as the disgust of condescending and power tripping staff. If you haven't been put in there and your mother hasn't you should find it interesting and altruistic. I always invited folks to meet me on the outside and get established at our center which was founded on the now dead client movement clients helping clients. Our motto was 'Nothing about me without me". This is a veiled reference to the abuse of shock treatment.

OMG-SO SAD

I read a book on Francis Farmer many years ago though I've never seen anything she acted in. Know wonder if it was in the 1930s! Almost a century ago. She was lucky that she didn't cause any deaths driving while drunk frequently

Gotta look it up, but didn't she strike a hairdresser? Edit. I saw a clip where she was working as a hotel maid.

Mental healthcare is still problematic and stigmatizing _today._ I can't even begin to imagine the horror of being mentally ill/disordered in bygone eras. *_Especially_* if you had the societal "misfortune" of being a woman, in which case your options generally stagnated somewhere between _hysteric_ and _witch._ Fun times. 🙄

Similarities to Britney Spears?

She was absolutely miss diagnosed. All her life she was abused emotionally, physically, and sexually. Let’s break it down. She grew up in a broken home and was constantly neglected by her mother. Moving constantly not having constancy. A child needs consistency, love, guidance, protection, nurturing those are just the basics. She became a hollywood movie star at a young age. I would think that would come with incredible pressure and all eyes on you constantly. Back then being a woman in Hollywood was especially hard. Hollywood is toxic today it was just as bad if not worse then. If a woman didn’t have a strong man behind her (usually why there was so many marriages) she was subjected to being taken advantage of financially, mentally, physically, or sexually. As we have seen in the past from other actress and actor especially young. Being institutionalized. If you’ve never been through it as a patient yourself or have had a loved one as a patient you have no idea the trauma and treatments the institution puts the patients through especially in those days. Also back then especially the care for the patients was horrible. Over crowded, under staffed, dirty, the patients many times lacked basic care and were subjected to all forms of abuse. Have you ever seen a person receive electric shock therapy? It’s horrible. My mother had it done many times during my childhood and adulthood and was never the same. They claimed it would help every time. It causes much damage to the brain and makes you respond slow. They are still practicing electric shock therapy today. Or insulin baths? Or the medication that were and are still today. All this is damaging. For instance the drug Lithium is still given today the damages the body. It is horrible on the kidneys and you can suffer from lithium toxicity shock as to why the doctors frequently check the blood. I almost lost my Mother because of the drug. Frances was absolutely victim of abuse and trauma. Also, she was never lobotomized. In the hospital she was at Western State Hospital located in Washington State is a state run hospital still active today. Out of the 300 lobotomies performed Frances Farmer was not one of the patients.

I mean she did a lot of less than sane things

I believe she was what we know today as a "borderline personality", likely enhanced by alcohol.

Still just throwing those photos out in random order.

She merely follow da pinko Connie line

done a lot of research on Frances Farmer. not that it matters but I think Frances was gay at a time when that could be career suicide. she lived with a woman for the last part of her life and they were known around town as 'the lesbian couple'. but who knows? a tragic life none the less.

YES, SHE WAS MISDIAGNOSED