Who Is the Craziest Person in This Room?
The answer might surprise you
If you’re a regular reader having just read this title, I’m sure you have an answer on the tip of your tongue—JJ.
And I know you’d have the same answer for who is the funniest, warmest, boldest, sincerest, succinctest, and humblest in this room, too.
But please stop, we’re not here to let you drone on about me.
Today, we’re trying to discover who is the craziest person in this room. And I don’t mean my dumpy old apartment near a beach in Taiwan that also happens to be a potential invasion point if China ever goes a bit more whacky.
No, I mean a room located in the city of Odense, way over in southern Denmark, a country which, due to my North American-centered geography classes, I keep forgetting is situated north of Germany.
Somewhere on the main campus of the University of Southern Denmark, down below the surface in a dark frigid basement is a very smart-looking room.
Why?
Because it’s essentially a European version of the Golden Corral for zombies — it’s full of brains!
9,479 to be exact.
In fact, it’s the largest collection of preserved brains in the entire world. And the reason why it exists is even creepier than zombies going to town on it.
Helpless Helping
Mental health has a sadly interesting history in the land of the Great Danes.
Here’s a few things to know:
During a large part of the 1900s, autopsies were performed on nearly every Danish person when they died
Nearly 11,000 mental patients were mandatorily sterilized by law between 1929 and 1967, as there was a fear of mentally ill people ruining society through breeding
Even up until 1989, patients had to get special approval to get married
And part of this environment of ignoring those who sometimes needed the most of help was, well, a kind of sickened way of wanting to help future potential patients.
From 1945 to 1982, psychiatric institutions collected nearly 10,000 brains from patients who died at these facilities. More than half had dementia, many with schizophrenia, and hundreds with bipolar and depression, among other illnesses.
To further drill down the point, CNN put it:
“Lise Søgaard…discovered her great aunt, Kirsten, was one of the many patients at Danish psychiatric hospitals who received treatment for her schizophrenia, including a lobotomy or ‘white cut’ as it’s commonly called in Denmark. Following her death in 1951 at just age 24, Kirsten’s brain was removed and sent to the brain collection, where it was transferred to bucket #738.”
I’m not sure what to be appalled more by here, the wondering and assumptions of what could’ve killed a young healthy 24-year-old, the possible cover-up or not even needing one in such an uncaring institution, or the startlingly blunt imagery of an ancestor’s body part being plopped into an unceremonious “bucket #738”.
In any case, imagine 10,000 similar incredibly sad cases.
But Why?
The mastermind behind this eerie collection was a Danish psychiatrist, Erik Stromgren. Back in 1945, he embarked on a quest to unravel the mysteries of mental illness.
These brains, preserved like pickles in formalin-filled jars, were his pièce de résistance, his hope of discovering the origins of disorders like dementia, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder.
Fast forward to today, and this sad creepy brain zombie buffet remains an invaluable resource for researchers who are still trying to crack the code of the mind.
These preserved specimens are kind of like time capsules, showcasing the mental landscape before modern treatments began to shape and alter brain structures. As scientists probe these ancient relics, they hope to unveil the secrets of mental health locked within.
So, who is the smartest person in this room?
It's hard to say, but one thing is for sure: in many cases, like Lise Søgaard’s aunt, she died far too soon from a societal disdain of mental patients for the world to ever really find out.
Written by the 2nd craziest person in this room, JJ Pryor, or at least that’s what my mirror tells me.
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Mental illness is always misjudged and stigmatized everywhere.
Fantastic piece, as always.