Reflections on Norristown, Trevose, and Feelings

photo of Norristown State Hospital courtesy of Montgomery County Emergency Service

And so it was that I returned again to Montgomery County Emergency Service, Bldg 50, for a lecture on Cutting and Self-injurious Behavior, masterfully presented by their chief psychologist, Tim Freitas, PsyD. This mysterious coping mechanism, harming or mutilating your body, is done when a person's psychic pain has reached intolerable levels.

The cutter makes of the cut a ritual, from the decision whether or not to cut, to the doing of the deed, the cleaning of the wound afterword (one person uses aloe vera) and then displaying it to themselves and others.

Notable in the personality of the two cutters in the film he showed us was the bland emotion of the woman. No affect, except for heightened affect when talking about their ritual.

One woman who had caused lots of damage to her body said she refused to talk about 'the accident.' Her cutting was an elaborate device not to talk about the causes of her suffering.

BTW, Scott and I recently watched Carson McCullers' Reflections in a Golden Eye with Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando and Julie Harris. A poorly realized movie, the viewer watched it anyway, mesmerized by the characters, each one more dysfunctional than the next. Brando played a repressed homosexual, Taylor the sex-starved wife of Brando, who had sex with everyone but her horse, and Harris, who played a woman who engaged in repulsive off-screen self-injury.

During the seminar, I gazed around at the beautiful high-ceilinged conference room. It was very elegant. When Norristown State Hospital was built in 1879, it was designed by a top Philadelphia architectural firm - Wilson Brothers and Co - who also designed the bldgs at the 1876 Centennial, as well as many railroad stations and bridges. (Thanks Wiki)



The hospital was orig'ly called the State Lunatic Hospital at Norristown. It hired the first female physician in the nation. Alice Bennett oversaw the women's units. This was done to mitigate frequent charges at these hospitals that male attendants abused the female patients.

Alice Bennett was excellent with the patients, encouraging their independence and to keep them working on the grounds of the hospital in various situations such as on the adjoining farmlands and greenhouses of the vast acreage.

Unfortunately, Alice had the idea that a woman's ovaries were the source of her mental illness, so she ordered half a dozen women to have their ovaries removed. When it was discovered, this foolish practice was terminated. But wasn't it once thought that "a wandering uterus" was the source of a woman's insanity, hence the name 'hysterical.'

We've come a long way, baby.

At the height of its popularity in 1954 Norristown housed 4,700 patients. Now it's down to about 300.

Mandy, who attended the lecture w/me, and I walked around the grounds. I brought my camera but when I attempted to shoot, the darn thing said Sorry, lady, your batteries ran out.

I was so mad.

Later that day I pondered. Was I really mad? What, in fact, was the emotion I felt when my camera didn't work.

See, Freitas got me thinking. Extreme disappointment would more like it.

I told him, at halftime, that I was 302'd (involuntarily hospitalized) right here during my first manic-psychotic episode. I was in then-Bldg 16 which has been razed. But you can't erase the memory.

Hello there, Frank Lloyd Wright! I thought he was the intake worker. Darn! I was so disappointed after they shot me up w/ Haldol and I realized it was simply a...man.

My sister Ellen and I drove to Trevose Family Shoes. I told Robin I'd take two pair, just to put them in a bag and keep the boxes (why should I bring em home only to trash em).

Since I'm accomplishing my Bucket List before I bucket, I need new shoes to get on with my journey.

This is the contagious effect that Chris Gillebeau's talk last nite had on me today. I did things I never would have. I planned some trips before my kidneys give out.

Remind me to do my own special Bucket List post. You do yours, too! It's no fun if I don't take YOU along for the ride.

Coming home from the shoe store Ellen said, "There's Bruster's Real Ice Cream. Wanna stop?"



I pulled in and introduced ourselves to the owner, D J Lee.

Ellie got a chocolate milkshake which she sipped thru a red straw, while I ate a complete dinner - an apple dumpling made in Lancaster, with a large scoop of delicious vanilla ice cream. At one point I said to D J, "Oh, this bite is really delicious. It's got the cinnamon sauce."



Best of all, we stood and talked to D J. I'm in my element, eating STANDING UP and talking to a very interesting person.

D J came over from Taiwan to attend Temple Univ's Tyler Art School. He took up photography and worked for the Inquirer, as well as teaching photography. About six years ago, he and his wife began doing research for a business. It took them three years and lots of research to decide to open Bucks County's first Bruster's franchise.

They make fresh ice cream every single day. The advantage is that there are none of those horrid little ice crystals that spoil one's ice-cream experience.

Scott just stopped by to invite me over to a night of movie watching. "Give me an hour to finish my blog," I said.

"I'll be waiting," he said. "Hurry over."