In nurses training, I took care of lobotomized patients. Also patients who had endured insulin shock therapy and electric convulsive therapy. Nothing as sad as a patient who had a lobotomy. There is nothing left of the self. Just a smiling shell. So sad. In looking back at old records of patients, I found many female patients were committed by their husbands without any real substantial evidence . They were usually given ECTs and insulin shock therapy. After I became a nurse, in the community where I worked, , ECTs were still being administered. This was in the 80s and 90s. Very barbaric treatment. I think it’s been mainly replaced with medication.
@@Dreamer-gp8ye yes i had some sessions lol… ect today is not like before, just few seconds of shock while u are sleeping. but it didn’t cure me or anything so
imagine having a high iq and not wanting to wash an abusive husband's shit all day long, then he punishes you by entrapping you in a "mental" hospital where they rape and shock you all day. I would rather die than be a woman in America.
She was not a *bad girl* or a *fallen angel* she was an intelligent person, who had diverse views which unfortunately contradicted the societal norms of her day. The fact that she was superior and different to the crowd she associated with, caused upset and they began to gaslight, bully, and oppress her, to the point of destroying a very charming, intelligent, beautiful woman. My heart goes out to you Frances. I'm so sorry they hurt you. 😭😔💖 We haven't learnt a thing from the past, shame on us!
FRACTAL DREAMS you are so right in what you said about Ms FRANCES FARMER ( hope i have spelled her name properly). She was VERY SMART, BEAUTIFUL, TALENTED & CHARMING. It is HORRIBLE what she endured in these asylums. I HAVE NEVER BELIEVED IN SHOCK THERAPY, PUTTING people in BAD TUBS OF ICE COLD WATER, LOBOTOMIES OR ANYTHING ELSE THAT IS HARMFUL TO someone. My GREAT-GREAT-GRANDPA was put in an asylum & I DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT THEY DID TO HIM!! My GREATAUNT, his granddaughter lived with a VIOLENT DRUNK (her husband) for many years & ended up shooting herself ( she died), my mom had BIPOLAR DISORDER & Other symptoms of possible illness, & i have BIPOLAR DISORDER & BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER. Today we have GREAT doctors, treatments, medications, nurses and hospitals to help people. This POOR LADY lived in a time where doctors didn't know how to treat her or even how to diagnose her. RIP MS FARMER. You were a GREAT LADY.
One of my great aunts was committed by her husband. He was extremely abusive & she wasn’t afraid to fight back. So he claimed she was insane & she got sent away. Luckily her 5 sisters found out & they broke her out.
Yes,,didn't the nurse keep the poor baby in the birth canal until the doctor was ready to come around?! This obviously cut off oxygen to the brain,that's why she wasnt as bright as the other Kennedy kids,, so so sad,was hospitals fault
At what point is undergoing shock therapy for years, insulin treatment for 90 days straight and ongoing sexual abuse not also equitable to a form of personality lobotomization? One is a very specific procedure, but her entire story produced a near equivalent effect it seems.
She did have a lobotomy! Read Shadowland & Will There Really Be A Morning?..Alot of " patients" were lobotimized! Alot of these You Tube videos have MIS INformation!
Hollywood’s “Bad Girl”? She was progressive, outspoken, and extremely intelligent. Characteristics which were considered unbecoming of proper women in that era and time. She disagreed with the establishment’s view of what women were supposed to be and how they should behave. If anything the environment she was in that consistently tried to control and force her into an acceptable mold of knowing her place, and to always be an agreeable “yes” woman is what undoubtedly stressed her to her core causing mental anguish. I can’t imagine having the constant pressure of how you should present yourself to be likable for mass public consumption must be. Bless her.
Jessica Lange did such an amazing job in the movie 'Frances' I watched it as a kid and became instantly empathetic to mental illness, and the horrors of experimental 'treatments' especially labotomies.
My aunt was put through similar horrific treatment due to depression in the early 60s. She was put in a mental hospital where she had so much shock treatment that when I went to see her in the 60s, she uncontrollably shook continuously. It was horrific. She was kept there for a year, to supposedly prevent her from committing suicide. She lived to her late 80s.
My grandmother was given the maximum number of electro shock “treatments” for anxiety and depression at Langley Porter Hospital in San Francisco in the 1960s. Then People Against Psychiatric Assault came into being and the terrible violence of this technique was exposed. They freed my Grandmother and she lived well for another 20 years.There is so much hidden misogyny in psychiatric “care”.
We have failed to address mental health issues properly and need to do a better job today. Mental health is as important as physical health. I’m so sorry your aunt suffered from that treatment.
When I was a child I sometimes saw Frances in front of her home in Indianapolis to pick up the newspaper from her porch or get into taxis or large shiny cars that would honk. No one honked for a pickup back then. You would park and ring the doorbell. Sometimes she wore a robe in the middle of the day to step out for the afternoon paper or spend a few minutes sunning on the small brick porch. She was said to have no welcome for Christmas carolers but had really good treats on Halloween and a genuine interest in the children's ability to act like the characters they were dressed as. Rumor had it she owned the two dusty cars parked on the street in front of her house but never started or drove them, just kept them parked there so no one else could park there.
Probably one of the most intelligent, talented women in Hollywood. She had an abusive mother who took COMPLETE advantage of her. Read her autobiography "Will There Ever Be A Morning?". It's heartbreaking.
That bone structure evidently housed a beautiful mind. The psych hospitals were closed because of all the abuses directed at the patients from prehistory till 1975. I cannot imagine the horrors she suffered there. Today, we need to bring them back to properly house and care for the seriously and persistently mentally ill. Homeless people are the former residents of those hospitals. It is tragedy.
Speaking from my own experience, we should be very careful of those toxic and dangerous people who often cloaked themselves as "mother" "father" "brother" "sister" "relatives" or "friend"
Who pushed her into the wrong hands? The studio put Judy Garland on pills for weight, the other pills for other reasons, look how that extremely talented actress ended up at a young age of what 47? She looked 67.
@@jaylenbrownfan2112 I severed all ties to Disney in the 2000s. When I was a little boy I wanted to visit the Orlando, Florida theme park Walt Disney World. Today I have no desire to go the and in the foreseeable future I am staying out of Florida altogether.
From day one, her whole life was controlled by her mother. Her mother had her committed time after time after time. The studios back then actually DID control every single aspect of their lives. Her life was one great big giant mess. It’s sad.
Cari D, It's sad for the people who had to be around her during her psycho tantrums. Her life was a giant mess because she made it so. Her mother had nothing to do with the psycho tantrums that she had. She was an alcoholic and couple that with paranoid schizophrenia, and she was a nightmare to be around, not to mention deal with.
@@americanwoman9880 My thoughts exactly. Her mother was a character, I get that, my mother is a domineering person as well, and I feel that I inherited that nasty personality of hers as well, for which I have always wanted to get rid of it, but can't seem to, but the point that I'm trying to make is that her mother had nothing to do with the actions of her daughter. Frances was the one who attacked police officers, and Frances was the one who also assaulted a hairdresser and ended up breaking her jaw after she slapped her. Her mother had nothing to do with that. Why do people always have the need to blame the mother? I am always flabbergasted by that. I've read that Ms.Farmer took Benzedrine(sp?) which at the time was used as an appetite suppressant, however, during the 1970s there was some research that was done that showed that Benzedrine was in reality amphetamine labeled as Benzedrine, which caused symptoms that appeared similar to schizophrenia? I wonder how true that is of Ms.Farmer?
@@cindyaraya7317 You are unhealthily obsessed. I have scrolled down the comments here and you've replied to many (mostly those sympathising with Farmer) repeating the same things over and over. I would say a lot of this hits home personally for you. Your attitude towards people with mental illness is abhorrent. I feel very sorry for you and I hope you find some help to deal with whatever has happened to you.
I read the book about Francis back in the 1980's and I cried my eyes out at what the poor woman went through. Her mother was vile and was the cause of Francis' downfall. She went through horrific things at the asylum her mother put her in. I think Francis was ahead of her time.
@@MimiJoys No, I have read reputable sources that show her actions, which speak louder than words. I understand that Ms.Farmer went through was abominable, since asylums during that time just didn't have the necessary equipment much less the know how on how to deal with insane people. Quite frankly from what I've read of her haughty or her drunken behavior, I wouldn't have wanted to know her. For God sakes, this psycho broke the jaw of a hairdresser without provocation, enough with the baloney trying to turn into something she is not.
Growing up, my Grandmother who is still living "ALWAYS" told us about Frances Farmer , Always. She never liked what happened to her. Now I'm glad to have a little more "insight" with this story.
I agree editing was all over the place. The constant “click, subscribe” I counted 5 times in a 15 minute video was annoying especially when it was posted directly in the center of the screen, it would have been less distracting in the bottom left or right corners.
You can blame whoever you want... But for me, those Doctors were worse than Frankenstein!!! Electric shock therapy for everything and at the end the lobotomy! That's horrible... Even if you have a mental problem, you still have the right to be treated as a human! She had an addiction, like many others. Heroine was even in choughsirups that were given to children! Even today, 70% of drug addicts are thanks to the doctor and their pain prescriptions. They don't care about the consequences and how fast someone gets addicted to pills. Then they cut you off and you are stranded with the addiction. Then those people start buying pills at the black market, and how the tolerance raises so does the amount of pills and transition to harder drugs.
There was something about her eyes that was so expressive. One of those pictures you showed, sure looks like Jessica Lange, who played her in the movie version. They have an uncanny resemblance to each other. Both incredible at their craft. Frances had a tragic end, unfortunately. Very sad. I really feel for her. It’s more like she was punished for being progressive and ahead of her time. 😞
In her biography it was her mother that was abusive, controlling to the point where she even had her own daughter committed because Frances would not obey her!
She also made her own choices, not very good ones. That system seems to have always attracted individuals who already start more or less messed up, but then get worse while trying to adapt to it. They are looking for something they can't get from there. It might work better if Hollywood didn't try to project that image of very special artists but concentrated on being what has kept it alive, something that produces entertainment for the masses and requires poeple with high work ethics way more than it requires artists to survive because its main point is making money. Then perhaps the people who go there would go there with their eyes open and not get whacked in their face when they find out that they really aren't all that special, just luckier than others, and that they need to spend a good portion of their time as just efficient cogs in the machine if they really want that career, not as something worshipped for being so very special.
@@pohjanakka4992 I mean, she wasn't messed up at first. Everyone has issues. She had no more than the usual person at first. But people targeted her like she were a Satanist for her piece she wrote on god being dead. She was a huge target as a teen receiving hate from adults on a massive level. Then they shamed her on a massive level for wanting to go to the USSR. Then she was forced into a marriage she didn't want with a man who according to rumor was abusive and worked for a company that encouraged her to use drugs that harmed her mind and body for regular use. So honestly . . . I don't think she can be blamed much at all.
Who actually REALLY KNOWS what this beautiful woman REALLY endured in these torturous psychiatric hospitals!! They were known to be barbaric!! May she Rest In Peace.
I'm sorry, but this "biography" is not very well done. The narrative is at points confusing as to timelines and incredibly repetitive, with long passages that seem purposeless. the pictures were a nice touch and added interest at first, but then, like the narrative, became too repetitive. Some, showing her in various stages of her unraveling again and again, felt almost exploitative.
Knowing how much homophobia and misogyny went on in old Hollywood, I wonder whether she simply refused to sleep with guys to get ahead, and got punished for it.
@@zaftra nah, because back then the "casting couch" was well known. And basically the only way one got a job. Marilyn tried to say no once & got raped anyway... That's just how life was in grand old hollywood back in the day... Ps, people are allowed to speculate, that's kinda the point of the youtube comment section...
Such a heartbreaking story! I’m bipolar and only got diagnosed in 2000, at the age of 39. These horrible treatments of mental illness are no doubt the reason my parents didn’t seek treatment for me!
It's always a rock and a hard place when it comes to society and mental help, especially here in the US. It's better now than it used to be and it's still slowly trying to climb a steep cliff towards improvement with the basically non-existent federal funding. Not saying there aren't any horror stories anymore... there's still too many, including many of my own... 24 here and I never got diagnosed with autism until literally a few months ago. (I didn't even know it was possible to be diagnosed so late but apparently it isn't uncommon) As much as I want to give credit to mental health care for the far and few between who actually genuinely know how to help instead of hurt, there's still no other way I know how to describe the US and its, uh, "judgements" with handling mental health treatment besides "a rock and a hard place." It actually hurts when I hear foreigners believing the USAs advertising for having great education and healthcare (especially when coming from 99% of my family across the pond) and the struggle is so damn hard when I try to figure out where I should even begin when going to prove to them just how incorrect they are. There's a lot of cases here where it's "fucked if you do, fucked if you don't."
@@SylumSolosEverything true. Things aren't perfect, but they are a lot better then it used to be. I spent 10 years working in the mental health field and I used to teach trainings on the history of mental health treatments.
I am bipolar type 1. Diagnosed at age 21 (40 now). I can say that I have never had a single problem with the system in my area. Psychiatrists have all been excellent professionals. The psych nurses were great. The nurse practitioner who I've seen for many years is like my 2nd mother (love that woman). Even in the hospital, everything was ran excellently and humanely. I realize not all areas are like this and there may be scant care in some places. (Some areas are overcrowded, underserved and expensive). In my area we have a community clinic that is government funded and prorates care based on income. The poor don't pay anything. Some areas don't have these centers and you're stuck paying expensive co-pays to private psychiatrists (many private psychiatrists do not take insurance of any kind). Really the only mistreatment I've had are from ER doctors who have no clue about mental health. I've had more than one make snarky comments to me when I have went in with bipolar symptoms. But as for the psychiatric people, they've all been great in my 20 years using the system.
At 39, you were 21 years beyond the age of majority, or adulthood. No shade, but why did it take you so long to seek treatment or evaluation? Are your episodes so mild or intermittent that it wasn't problematic?
@@Agrownazzwoman2 My Brother in law got worse after age 30. You wouldn't guess it before 30. It's a brain chemistry thing so its not always present at 18 or apparent.
“Psychiatric care” was abusive and kind of like the doctors leaching blood was to medical practice in the past, only much worse. Destructive and dangerous. Toxic mother also got to help destroy her. Very sad.
@@janicesnyder9305 maggots and leeches* are actually still used, but only for very specific purposes, not to 'balance the sanguinus humour' *of course, they don't just go and gather them out of the wild... they're bred and raised in sterile conditions.
martin Francis farmer is my number one beauty of the 1930s.joan Fontaine the 1940s and Rhonda Fleming for the 1950s, I have no favorites of the 1960s because there is an incredible amount for this decade. Just my take.
I had a miserable relationship with my mother also which had an extremely negative impact on my life in a myriad of ways. My mother was beautiful, charismatic and powerful too. I had two good mothers- in-law who made-up somewhat for the ordeal with my mother. I got the impression Frances' mother was pretty disastrous for her too.
Judy Garland's mother was at the beginning of the abuse Judy suffered at the hands of her mother. She was also abused by the people at MGM, others that claimed they cared about her, starting when she was young, vulnerable and naive.
I remember reading a book many years ago, An Autobiography "Will there Really be a Morning" Frances Farmer, and was a book that I could not put down, just had to keep reading it because what I was reading was something that to me was quite unbelievable. I had never heard of her and wasn't until I read the book that I knew about her. I felt sorry for her and how life just was pushing her around and she was just retaliating and was misunderstood I guess. She certainly did not get on well with her mother and that was the beginning of her downfall as her mother wanted her to be different and because she wasn't going to be, her mother kept putting her into the Asylum to teach her a lesson on how to live. A terrible life for her and very sad outcome in the end.
Her autobiography left me feeling so sad, it effected me to this day. Alcoholism is a terrible mental health condition not to mention her lack of love and understanding from her own mother.
I requested ECT for depression. They zapped me only 4 times. It wiped clean my short term memories, though they eventually returned. Scary and useless.
Frances Farmer had an afternoon movie show in Indianapolis when I was in high school. She spoke slowly and seemed out of it - she was immaculately dressed and coifed. She lived not too far from my house. One day I saw the cover of a book Will There Ever Be A Morning - the Frances Farmer Story with this young beautiful woman's picture on it, I couldn't figure out how the woman in the picture could possibly be the one I watched on tv. I read the book and was horrified. She really had it rough.
Thank you for the constructive criticism. Who should take the music from videos? Would it be better if only the narration went under the video? We are open to the influence of our viewers.
@@ageofvintage2106 No the music is entertaining but fix the volume of the music in the background lower than your speech to help us focusing on your voice. Do you get what I'm saying...it's a technical thing.
I can’t get over how much she reminds me of Sara Paulson. I never saw it until now. But Jessica Lange did a fantastic job of portraying her in her film.
Is that where Nirvana got the title on IN UTERO?I commented on this video before watching it and got the answer,Kurt Cobain did write that song because of her,sad story of FRANCES FARMER😔
@@dianavazquez4266 the song is literally titled "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle" how could it be about the bass player of a different band ?
I had 1000s of ECTs and a backroom lobotomy in the early seventies. My parents were sexual sadists. I blame this country, they allow these practices to go on. Sick.
One of the saddest stories indeed. And yet we trust in and grant almost god-like status to psychiatrists and psychologists and we conveniently forget the bloody, cruel origins of the science of psychiatry. We forget that cruelty and inhumane abuses by psychiatrists, psychologists and nurses working in those institutions were the NORM rather than the exception until repeated public outcry and repeated lawsuits by the relatives of the abused patients brought about reforms in patient treatment. A lot of the psychologists and psychiatrists were the original sociopaths and psychopaths.
That book was semi-autobiographical and was largely based only on the author’s own story. The author was Joanne Greenberg under the name “Hannah Green”
@@jessm3846 yes, it was made into a TV movie, it was Kathleen Quinlan's first role, she would later star in " The Doors' movie by Oliver Stone, as Patricia Keneally, the Wiccan priestess by night/rock music mag reporter by day, who interviews Jim Morrison, has affair
@@jessm3846 Yes, and she was neither schizophrenic nor depressive, but suffered a dissociative disorder due to well-meaning lies told to her as a small child facing surgeries. She was repeatedly told it would not hurt. When pain cannot be avoided, a child should be told the truth.
This does not surprise me about these kind of people. They will forever change you UNTIL they destroy you.Stay far away. They’re past dangerous. Poor Ms. Farmer. She was so talented. I hope she gets her justice on the other side. 😢
Incredibly talented and attractive actress, the mother sounds like a right piece of work. Power and beauty obviously wasn't enough in Hollywood back then, not much has changed I think. Thanks for another great video. Brenton.🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺
Frances was an individual and rebelled against control. In that era women like that who broke convention were termed mentally ill. It's a sad story. I think the studio used her as an example to keep others in line.
And her communist inclinations were probably the source of a lot of adverse reactions from everyone. Even back then, communist tendencies were not welcome within the business, as far as I know. It wasn't until later, during McCarthism, that people on the left were openly discriminated against, but having a leftist ideology was not something that went in her favor, for sure.
I am very sad to say that this was done to my to my sweet Aunt , she is still alive, it was done in the late 60s, the reason, it is very sick, it was bc she was caught dating a man of color , my grandparents took her to Europe, had it done, I call her my Sweet Auntie, one of 2 twins , she calls me her Angel. It was HER first date ever and sadly her last date ever, never married neither of my twin Aunts did, she never worked again, (she met the gentleman at while wirking at a bank)the family had money made sure was and is taken care of the lobotomy most DEFIANTLY changed her, but what made her have severe mental health issues to this day , from time to time she does have to go to the mental hospital, was how & why it was done but the brutal, horrendous treatment by staff while in the hospital, My Auntie has severe PTSD, I love her so very much ! I have personally witnessed what this treatment , how they were treated, did to someone, I wept while watching this, poor Frances! , how anyone believed that type of treatment would help anyone is beyond me, that along with how "mental" patients were really treated, especially women, there has not been one movie that I would say has captured that hell! My understanding is that the staff & treatments were beyond what any other patient could or would do! Frances Farmer must have been a very strong women to have endured such a horrific act, I pray she had happiness love & peace in her later years! Shame on them! With Love from Washington State 💚🌲
She was in the right era, she just made poor choices. Mind you, I wouldn't say it was all her fault at all. If she was making choices like she did then, no studio would have her now. She is talented. She obviously had issues, but I believe she would have had better treatment now.
@@ShoutItFromTheHousetops unfortunately yes....this society in general is truly corrupted to it's very core. Even if you're not in the 'Entertainment/Music Industry' Life for some is MUCH stranger that fiction...smh
I read ‘Will there really be a Morning’ the story of her life, and it focused heavily on her relationship with her mother, who was very controlling - ultimately her mother gained control when she was sectioned. Very sad 😔
Jessica looked so stunningly gorgeous in that roll. Also her acting in it was amazing. Jessica Lange, Cate Blanchett, Eva Green and Angela Bassett are some of my favorite actresses. ~
Farmer almost certainly was bipolar and was having a manic episode before her arrest and transfer to the psychiatric hospital. For instance, she assaulted a hair-dresser on the set of a film (the woman filed charges). Soon after, she went to a bar and got into a fight. She left the bar and ran down the street topless. She then went back to her hotel room where the Cops finally tracked her down. Inside they found her naked and belligerent. They had to forcefully drag her out of the room. During her court appearance the next day she made a lot of strange statements, physically attacked the judge, and had to be restrained by the bailiffs. On her way out of court she attacked a Cop - knocking him down. She was sentenced to 180 days. A family member somehow arranged for her sentence to jail to be commuted in exchange for a trip to the psychiatric hospital. At the hospital, the docs diagnosed her with "manic-depression" which is what they called bipolar back then. (Manic-depression became "bipolar" in 1980). Later, she went to live with her parents, but constantly fought with them. Her mother then had her committed to a different hospital. The two psychiatrists there would change her diagnosis to schizophrenia. I think the original psychiatrist had the diagnosis correct - her behavior fits a bipolar manic episode perfectly. Schizophrenia requires chronic psychosis and "negative" symptoms which I just don't see in Farmer's later television interviews especially considering there were no good drugs for it back then. Even though psychiatrists knew what bipolar was back then, they had no effective treatments other than just knocking them out with sedatives. (Lithium wouldn't be FDA approved until 1970). Also, back then psych hospitals were much more like prisons than what they are today. Life in one wouldn't have been great. Farmer claimed she was a "sex slave" to the orderlies who routinely raped her, said she got gnawed on by rats, and there was feces everywhere. The lobotomy story is not true. There is no way that someone who had a lobotomy would be as lucid as Farmer was after her release from the hospital. The woman continued acting and did numerous TV interviews. A lobotomized person wouldn't be able to do that. Also, all the doctors deny she got one, her family denies it, as well as three boyfriends. There is simply no way Farmer had a lobotomy. Farmer was basically the 1940's Britney Spears. A bipolar celebrity who lived under a conservatorship ran by her parents.
ECT was a nightmare procedure for me. I had some 13 or more "treatments", two a week, until my wife saw how badly my memory had been affected and pulled me out. What it claimed to do and what it did were two very different things for me. At a different time, I was in a mental ward for two and a half weeks. In some ways it was all right; I was in one of the best facilities in the state and there were some beneficial programs there. At the same time, my doctor was a complete hack and made my condition worse with careless med changes. The amount of violence I saw also shocked me (no pun intended). There was an assault or a fight about every two or three days, just the sort of thing I needed to help with my depression. I'm a lot better now, with different meds and what not, and I will run before I get put in one of those places again. There are still a lot of awful things in the mental health field, and it's sad that this talented lady had to endure that before finding her happiest years.
ECT is an accepted and safe treatment today. Sometimes it is the only effective tool around for chronic suicidal depression or catatonia. It does produce some initial temporary memory problems.
because the power staff has on mental patients in these wards is absolute. and, as said: absolute power corrupts absolutely. that staff is usually formed of not-the-sharpest-tools sort of people who either went to work there seeking for this power in the first place, or just were corrupted by it in the process, which, I suppose, happens to them very quickly, very easy and somewhat insensibly, so they never resist this influence: they don’t even assume there’s anything they should resist, so…🤷♂️ because as I said, they (well, maybe not 100% of them, but still the majority) are hardly made of the best human material and are assured by their “noble” profession that anything they do is for the best, as long as they follow the orders and recommended protocols, stay in line, keep it clean and such… benevolent tyrants are the worst, and medical profession is full of them, with maximal concentration in the psychiatric field, where patients have their rights only de-jure, but not de-facto, where no one takes them and their complaints seriously, and if God forbid, they have the misfortune to be involuntarily committed, it’s worse than prison, because prisoners at least know the day of their release and aren’t tortured and poisoned “for their own good”, while even the worst side effects are dissmissed as miniscule compared to the ‘therapeutic’ effect of turning them into compliant and easily manageable zombies. what a perfect goal! bravo! /*sorry for being a bit emotional, I recalled my own experience with psych wards, and thoughts that ran through my head at the time…/
Same here, let me know too! Been a patient of the mental health machine of America since childhood and a huge psychology buff and advocate as a result, but I always love to be around for some tea spill too...
My highschool best friend killed himself because his mother's boyfriend was molesting him & all his siblings. She knew. She didn't stop it because she didn't want to loose her "man"...(as a matter of fact, it's not even 100% that his "suicide" wasn't actually murder by the boyfriend) this horrible mother actually then went to school to be a councilor. She's managed to convince even herself that she was somehow the victim. I totally am not surprised Francis' mother was a social worker... I bet she had everyone but Francis fooled into thinking she was a good person...
She was too good for Hollywood. Hollywood was a rough place back then...or even today. It was not hard to be confused as a young unexperienced actress.
So was rosemary Kennedy.. somewhere it says she had seizures....not true..I read s book about the Kennedys a few yrs ago ..was absolutely heartbreaking what they did to that girl 💔
The teaser on this video is intentionally misleading. Apparently some rumors had gone around that Frances Farmer was lobotomized, but she never actually was. It explains it in the video.
My young mother, who was on a date in Hollywood at the time, always said she was there when Francis Farmer had her ... freak-out I guess you would call it. Mom said she saw it, and witnessed the cops carrying her away to a paddy wagon . I think this was tragic. Mental health was in its infancy . She was never given a break.
Marjorie Margel, Agree to a certain extent. The treatment for mental health during that time was appalling. But what do you mean by she was never given a break? She was also an alcoholic, who was prone to be violent as well. She once broke a hair dresser's jaw for God sakes! What would you have her do? Be out and attack an entire city? Possibly kill someone before anyone does anything?
@@cindyaraya7317 If you were thrown into a dungeon-like mental hospital, got violently raped by psychiatrists, orderliness and others, lobotomized, betrayed by those who should have protected & cared for you, you might get testy, too.
William Wyler was not an actor, but a director. Also, many of the photos appear to be of Jessica Lange, who portrayed Frances in her biographical movie.
The background music on this is ill fitting and annoying. Also are the sneaked in photos of Jessica Lange in her portrayal of the star in “Frances”. This weakens the effect of the video here as we have all seen the 1982 docufilm on the horror show that became Farmers life. To mix them in with out separation is disrespectful to the artists plight. Of which was one of Hollyweird’s most upside down stories ever.
She was never lobotomized: "A widely discredited 1978 biography of her life, Shadowland, alleged that Farmer underwent a transorbital lobotomy during her institutionalization, but the author has since stated in court that he fabricated this incident and several other major aspects of the book."
Including the servicemen who took turns for a "quickie" during her confinement. In the movie, starring Jessica Lange, there was a short scene about that. I thought it was the electroshock therapy like the ex senator in the '70's, Thomas Eagleton who said that it was a treatment for his depression.
I have a question about that. She was invited on a televised talk show, just after her release, and she did appear to be emotionally stunted. There was a clip shown of the actual broadcast. Just saying. If not lobotomy, then what (?)
@@annemarie8483 I agree with you about the stunted appearance, and I guess I'd be like that after years of fighting for my sanity ,surrounded by people doing their utmost to control me and not seeing or hearing my true self. Electro-shocks, forced treatments, being locked away when you have a creative soul - all that would make a lesser person totally nuts. She took on the big ole boys club and like back in the witch-burning days, she was burned . In the show you refer to, she says clearly that she was never "sick" and I can't fathom how this clearly bright woman could survive all that and remain as sane as she is in that show-but yes, you can see the hurt on her face when they just blab on about her "illness' as if she was a child. Yuck,
@@olasylvia1 What a bunch of baloney. She was a paranoid schizophrenic who lived during a time when doctors probably didn't understand very much about the disease, nor did they have the equipment to treat it. Plain and simple.
@@cindyaraya7317 did you not watch the same video... where they even stated that amphetamines Hollywood put her on for weight loss were found to give schizophrenic qualities in the 1970s? So how could we clearly diagnose her as a schizophrenic when she was drugged constantly by her work
Odd narrative, sometimes repeating the same facts several times in succession. The narrator obviously doesn't care what he reads out. Sounds like the script was copy-pasted from different sources and not edited at all for duplicate information. There are several pictures of Jessica Lange from the biopic in there. Sloppy.
Teresa Maurer, What a bunch of baloney. She was a psycho whose parents tried to get her the help that she needed, that is all. Nothing more, nothing less. She drank heavily for most of her life. She behaved erratically and was institutionalized as a result. She once threw a freaking ink well at a judge for crying out loud. Don't glamorize this crazy psycho into someone she is not.
@@cindyaraya7317 At the risk of sounding like a psycho, there are some judges who deserve to get ink wells or worse thrown at them. I won't comment on Ms. Farmer because I didn't know her, but I'm sure you didn't either.
@@kennethwayne6857 Not really. Not when the judge had done nothing personally to her, she did it without provocation. Also, Ms.Farmer had also attacked a hairdresser and had broken her jaw. Ms.Farmer was an alcoholic psycho, plain and simple.
Marlene Dietrich, Katherine Hepburn, Bette Davis, and Rosalind Russell were actresses with independent streaks in Frances Farmer’s era who nonetheless managed to survive the cruelties of the Hollywood studio system.
Everyone’s strengths are different, not everyone can tolerate certain things as well as others... It’s the trauma that’s the problem, not the person who’s messed up because of it
One of my favorite people and local treasures is Seattle Artist Joe Reno. He lives in the family home of his childhood to this day. He tells stories about Francis Farmer seeking refuge from it all in an old friends home . The friend was Joes Mother. He remembers cuddling with her on the occasions that the unquestioning and undemanding love of a young boy provided necessary respite from the world that was often unkind to her. He claims her spirit remains in his house and I believe him
Psychiatry has to be one of the sickest institutions to have ever assisted! Especially for women who could be committed by their husbands for ANYTHING!!
@@SandfordSmythe the only reason needed back in the day, late1800, early to mid1900s, was because the husband wanted her there. Depression, postpartum or otherwise, not talking into the role of the of the patriarchy's idea of what a woman should be....ad nauseam. Kennedy's sister was given a lobotomy by her father because she didn't act the way he felt a woman should.
@@mikeoxmall3847 We are talking 2021. Psychiatrists think very carefully about justification for extending a limited hold, because the patient will be represented by counsel, and the proceedings will be documented. The court appointed counsel will look after the "best interests" of the patient. This may depend on the state.
@@mountainwarrior8387 If she had been ugly, they may not have been so dead set on destroying her. (I'm using the word "ugly" because you did, not beautiful does not mean ugly.)
I'd love to find out if her mother's behavior was really as bizarre as described? I can't access American newspaper archives but if they're as fast and simple to use as Australian archives, maybe someone could solve this small mystery for me lol? Long before Frances's celebrity , Lilian Farmer was supposedly one of Seattle's most entertaining but embarrassing mom"s. She was extremely intelligent but deeply eccentric - addicted to media attention. She once loaded a gun with blanks, went to Frances's fathers workplace and fired the gun at him. She was arrested but quickly released. That's only one of her bizarre antics.
She had severe mental health problems and well as alcoholism. Her behaviour was bizarre and there is no doubt about that but the remedy was not what was needed Today her mental illness would be treated with drugs.
@@suzyfarnham3165 I could be wrong but I think her primary problem was drugs and alcohol more than actual mental illness. One quote that was used against her as a sign of paranoia was when she said people were spiking her drinks at work - but in Hollywood in the 1940s, people probably were! Remember Judy Garland.
Hi Age of Vintage, how are you? This is a very sad & tragic story on Frances Farmer. She was subjected to so many despicable thing's as a young woman. I think her Mother treated her so badly, by having her institutionalised in an asylum. She was subjected to so many barbaric act's, it's amazing how she was still alive after what they did to her. In the early 20th Century, I don't think a lot of doctors knew what they were doing either. They did what I call these " Crazy Experiments " on patients, just to see what it would do to them & how long they could stand it. Being in one of these evil places, it was so easy for doctors as they just explained they died. No investigations, no autopsies, people just accepted it. Frances Farmer still had determination in her, but such a sad & terrible life for this Beautiful young woman. RIP Frances, we still remember you. Love Love from Australia 🇦🇺🇦🇺 ❤❤💙💙💛💛💚💚💖💖📽🎬😍😍💘⚘⚘ 1.03.2021
Abused by a deranged stage mother, passive father, controlling studio execs and rapacious, immoral doctors, who abused her in every way possible, this beautiful, intelligent, independent woman was the ultimate victim.
