A Woman's Proper Place

For those of you who read my blog, you'll notice I like pharmaceutical ads. They say a lot, more than we care to recognize, and are extremely effective in increasing sales. The power they hold over the patient/consumer population is astonishing. They are also controversial and induce resistance from many. In the manner that "any publicity is good publicity", these ads inspire some and anger others but the bottom line being, they speak to us all. Not only do they have the ability to depict the subtleties of mental illness, and they truly do, they have immense sociological directives as well. Whether or not these directives are with socio-political purpose or simply a means of hitting the biggest consumers of mental health care remains behind a smoke screen that can and will shift with any given temporal context.

I stumbled across this ad and it struck me.

The image on the left says "patients hospitalized for many years", while the image on the right says "are now at home".
This is an advertisement for Thorazine, a anti-psychotic commonly used in the 1950's. Prior to the de-institutionalization, psychotic patients were often hospitalized long-term for lack of proper treatment, and in some part because of the way the mentally ill were seen in society (outcasts, "mad", dangerous, low intelligence). The reference here is that once on thorazine, a patient was sufficiently treated to return to "normal" family life at home. Note the children's toys below the feet of the image on the right. This normal family life clearly involved raising children, while also remaining fashionable enough to wear patent heels and a dress. We all are familiar with the 50's housewife; loving wife, devoted mother and with a composed and "put-together" appearance. The ad promises thorazine can do this, and no doubt it may have, in some lucky cases.
In that time, thorazine was great. There weren't many options to treat any mental illness, let alone psychotic symptoms. Thorazine is sedating and neutralizing and could certainly bring a wife and mother back to reality. In an attempt to stay neutral in this analysis, I want to point out that this ad gives little hope for those where this life trajectory wasn't likely. Regardless, the scenario is not at all implausible and the role of the woman depicted was the "ideal" role for all women of child-bearing age however it's hard to land a man and have a child with a mental illness so this ad overbearingly assumes a more privileged situation than many had. To not fulfill this role was cause for concern and certainly could be a sign of mental illness, perhaps leading to faulty pathologization. By returning to the home, this woman escaped social persecution and took her expected place in society. Thorazine has some pretty gnarly side effects however, and is now not the first line of treatment psychiatrists use. These side effects, including weight gain and lack of emotional expression which certainly doesn't bode well for a wife or a mother, are not addressed in the ad but this was before the stricter FDA regulations on DTC (Direct to consumer) marketing of pharmaceuticals today.
I am glad I was able to share with you this depiction of our 1950's history of women in the mental health care industry. While this archetype persists today, life-styles that accommodate severe mental illnesses are becoming more acceptable for women and men.
I think the guy below may still be a problem though...