Reprogram

X In The Land Of Kemet…

“The Black Nation of Egypt is the only country that has a science named after its culture: Egyptology.”

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Katherine Lapp had died in a car accident in 1972 when Susan was 15, and her father and other family members refused to discuss the subject. Mysteriously, Susan Lapp could hardly remember anything about her childhood and didn’t know why.

In 2018, a box of medical files revealed why she had blocked out those memories.

Katherine Lapp had gone to seek medical help in 1960 after feeling depressed, and instead of receiving care, she spent eight years in and out of Montreal’s Allan Memorial Institute, where she was subjected to psychiatric experimentation that included mind-altering drugs and hundreds of electroshock treatments that erased her memories and reduced her to a “toddler-like state,” according to her daughter.

“At the end, she just wasn’t there mentally … the (medical files) say she didn’t even know who she was anymore; she wasn’t even a person anymore and she didn’t want to live,” Lapp said in a recent phone interview.

Her mother did not get a single counselling session for the problem she entered for, she said.

[...]

The McGill University Health Centre acknowledged in a statement earlier this week that Cameron carried out research at the Allan Memorial Institute during the 1950s and 1960s that was “controversial,” and it had “unfortunate” consequences. But the hospital said “the courts have already established that the Royal Victoria Hospital was not considered, by law, the employer of Dr. Cameron; at the time, he exercised his profession in an autonomous and independent manner.”

[...]

Marilyn Rappaport says her sister Evelyn has experienced what she describes as a “living death” in the decades since she went to the hospital for treatment.

Rappaport, who is one of the lead plaintiffs in Stein’s lawsuit, says her beautiful, artistic sister became someone who no longer recognized her own family and had to relearn to talk and go to the bathroom after treatments that included being put to sleep for “months at a time” and subjected to audio messages on repeat.

Today, at age 80, her sister is institutionalized. She won’t let anyone touch her and doesn’t recognize family, Rappaport said.

[...]

For the family members, the lawsuit represents not only a chance at compensation but also a chance to shed light on a chapter of history that was often obscured by stigma and shame surrounding mental illness.

While Stein’s lawsuit is asking for about $1 million in compensation for each family, the victims say that what they want most is an apology and recognition of what the families endured.