Providentia

Sacrificing Edith

On May 1, 1879, Charles F. Freeman plunged a knife into his five-year-old daughter, Edith,  apparently believing that it was God's will.  As his wife would later testify, he then walked the room with her dead body as he prayed and wept   Afterward, he  took the body to bed with him and kept it with him all night.   On the following morning, Freeman then gathered his fellow worshippers together and proclaimed that God would raise her up on the third day.  

He didn't.

Charles Freeman was a farmer who lived with his wife and two children in the tiny village of Pocasset, Massachusetts (now part of the township of Bourne).   Having converted to  Second Adventistism a year before, Freeman had become a leader among the local believers and was well-known for his fiery sermons.  The Second Adventism movement was a radical offshoot of the Adventist church founded by Willliam Miller in 1844.   After the Great Disappointment, when Miller's apocalyptic predictions failed to materialize, the sect which Charles Freeman joined continued to preach the imminent coming of Christ.   Along with their message of salvation, the Second Adventists also fanatically proclaimed that God would send signs to announce Christ's Second Coming.

As for Charles Freeman, he became convinced that God had a special purpose for him, both as a missionary to the unbelieving and to rally those believers whose faith was lagging.   Believing that he needed to make a great sacrifice to prove God's power, Freeman became inspired by the story of Abraham being called on to sacrifice his son Isaac.   He would later report that, two weeks before Edith's murder, he had heard God commanding him to sacrifice a member of his family.   After discussing this command with his wife (whom he ordered not to "stand in the Lord's way"), the only question remaining was who was to be sacrificed.   As Freeman would later report, though he prayed that he would be the one chosen, he was told in a dream that his daughter, Edith, was the one who had to be killed.   Edith was the youngest in the family and the favourite child which presumably made her the ultimate test of her father's faith.

While his wife Harriet objected to Edith's death,  she gave in eventually when Freeman insisted that God would either reconsider at the last moment (as in the story of Abraham and Isaac), or else Edith would be resurrected on the third day.   After the older daughter, Bessie, was taken out of the room by her mother,  Freeman then carried out his murder plan.

On the following day, Charles Freeman called together all of his fellow sect members and told them what he had done.   While he had described his plan for a great sacrifice, nobody had any idea that he would kill his daughter.   Amazingly enough, the fellow-worshippers declared that Freeman had been right to carry out such an act of faith and praised him for it.   They also agreed that God would raise Edith up on the third day as a sign for the unbelievers. 

What followed was a bizarre "wake" (in every sense of the word) as Freeman and his followers waited for Edith to be resurrected.    In an interview with a local newspaper, Edith's grandmother asked the reporter not to say anything to the surviving child about her sister's death.   The rationale appeared to be that Edith would be resurrected soon enough with no harm done.    When nothing happened on the third day (or afterward), the sect members were genuinely astonished.  Some even went so far as to accuse God of breaking His promise with Freeman by not raising Edith.  Not surprisingly, Charles Freeman had already been arrested for his daughter's murder.

The funeral for Edith Freeman was widely attended.   According to the newspaper description,  the Methodist church where the funeral was held was packed to capacity with hundreds more standing outside the building.   The Adventists were all in attendance, most keeping an eye on Edith's coffin hoping for a last-minute miracle, and the tension between the Adventists and the rest of the community was understandably high.   After the pastor lectured the Adventists on their false beliefs, the new Adventist leader (replacing Freeman who was in jail), Alden P. Davis, was prevented from making a speech under threat of arrest. 

Not deterred, Davis managed to make his speech in the churchyard after the service.   The speech, which contained a stirring endorsement of Charles Freeman and his sacrifice, stirred up the crowd even further, including threats of forming a lynch mob.   While no violence broke out, it was likely a near thing.    Even other evangelists expressed their horror at the murder.  An editorial in the New York Evangelist published shortly afterward stated that,

"We hope that this murderer would be treated as all murderers should be, and that it will not be admitted that religious fanaticism is to justify human sacrifices. The law expressly holds that crime committed while a man is intoxicated as if the man was sober; and so Mormons, Adventists, and Spiritualists should be held responsible for offences against law, notwithstanding their pretended revelations of a higher law. There is no safety in society if any other principle prevails.

Though Harriet Freeman was regarded as a willing participant in Edith's  death, she was later released and Charles Freeman was indicted for murder.  

At a special session of the Supreme Court on January 1880, a sanity hearing was held and several medical experts argued that Freeman was fit to stand trial.  John Davis Long, who was governor of Massachusetts at the time, then ordered Freeman sent to the nearby Danvers Lunatic Hospital where he would be held for the next three years.   In a new sanity hearing held in 1883, Freeman insisted that he fully recognized killing his daughter in a  fit of madness.  Stating that his stay in Danvers taught him enough about mental illness to recognize it in himself, he pointed out in his testimony:

"When I got to Danvers, I found a condition of things with which I was wholly unfamiliar.  I found people there who saw God and had communication with Christ, who believe that they were with Christ, who believed they had special revelations, who interpreted signs.  The question arose in my mind, knowing as I did, that these men were insane, unreliable men, many of them filthy and others treacherous, knowing them to be insane, the question arose in my mind whether I was also not insane."  

During his testimony, Freeman wept openly on the witness stand as he described what had led him to kill his daughter.  "I was sent to the insane hospital. and, as I have just stated, I saw my error," he said. "I regret it as the most dreadful act that was ever perpetrated.  I feel that I have been victimized.  I do not blame any person or persons, but I consider it an unfortunate affair from the beginning and for which perhaps no one person has been responsible." 

The prosecutor questioning him was very careful to point out the legal implication of Freeman giving in to his religious visions.  To that,  Freeman replied that "I thought we ought to obey God rather than man."   As for the question of remorse, Charles Freeman's answer was likely less than what the courts deemed acceptable: "I can not conceive of an honest man feeling remorse if he acts up to the very highest concept of his duty at the time."   He did feel that he had enough of religion and vowed never to return to Pocasset or the Second Adventists   All that his release plan involved was to find a job and to support his wife and remaining daughter. 

Harriet Freeman described her husband as being kind to his children and being a good provider for this family.  After his religious conversion in 1879, everything changed.  Not only did he neglect his business and devote himself to Second Adventistism, he also began experiencing visions telling him to send a message  to the world.. His newfound religious enthusiasm certainly caused problems with the rest of his family (his brother-in-law threatened to shoot him at one point due to his proselytizing).  

The presiding judge declared that he had no doubt over Charles Freeman's fitness to stand trial.   That trial was then held in December of  the same year and the outcome was never in doubt.  Not only did the court hear evidence from several medical experts that Freeman had been insane at the time of the murder but even his defense attorney wholeheartedly agreed that he was insane.   

In her own testimony,  Harriet Freeman provided more details about the vision in which he had been told to sacrifice Edith came after several days of going without food and sleep.  Though she admitted to agreeing with her husband that he needed to sacrifice their young daughter, she defended herself by saying that she could not believe that he would ever hurt Edith.   She regarded it as a test of faith, much like Abraham and Isaac, and that God would stop him from going too far.  Describing how her husband had acted on previous occasions, she said that his faith had been tested in the past and that he would not be allowed to do anything to endanger their children. 

On the night that Edith died however, she was told by her husband that God had asked him to make a great sacrifice.  She then saw him "leave the room, and when he came back he had the child in his arms; it was dead; he walked the room with it and prayed and wept; he took it to bed with him and kept it with him all night; the whole scene is like a terrible dream, which one remembers, but can't distinctly connect, and which, when I try to think of it, seems like an awful recollection." 

Weighing all the evidence, Judge Morton declared that he had never seen such a case in which there was no conflict in the testimony.   Since Charles Freeman faced the death penalty for Edith's murder, the judge fully recommended that the jury find him not guilty by reason of insanity.    The jury agreed and returned that verdict after only ten minutes of deliberation.   Charles Freeman was  sentenced to the Danvers Lunatic Hospital for the rest of his life. 

What little information there is on the Freeman case seems to end with his sentencing.  During his trial, he indicated that he functioned well in the Danvers hospital and seemed resigned to work there in one of the jobs assigned to inmates.  I have been unable to find out what became of him and how long he lived after his sentencing.   As well, the fate of Harriet Freeman and her surviving daughter isn't given either.  

While religious fundamentalism is still widespread, the case of Charles Freeman continues to resonates today.   The religious hysteria that apparently drove him to kill his young daughter has its parallels in similar cases, often involving exorcism to "drive out" evil influences.  Still, the death of Edith Freeman provides important lessons in avoiding other tragedies    Not only in terms of watching for the kind of hallucinations and delusions that can lead to murder, but also the bizarre enabling behaviour shown by Harriet Freeman and her husband's fellow believers.  Would Charles Freeman have committed murder without the support provided by Harriet and the others?  And where to draw the line between religious mania and mental illness?

Questions that need to be asked, time and again.

The Own-Race Bias and the Brain

The Own-Race Bias (ORB) is the ability to better recognize and categorize a face when the depicted person belongs to the observer’s ethnicity group. The relationship between the ORB and hemispheric asymmetries has been poorly explored, and a study recently published in Social Neuroscience was aimed at investigating this relationship, as well as that between the ORB and the bias to better recognize own gender faces. Female and male Caucasian participants categorized the ethnicity of Caucasian and Asian female and male facial stimuli in a divided visual field paradigm. In a control experiment the same stimuli were presented centrally, confirming the ORB. Importantly, the lateralized presentation reversed the bias with higher accuracy and shorter response times in the categorization of Asian than Caucasian faces. This reversed bias was significant for female and male faces, and it was observed when stimuli were presented in the left but not in the right visual field, revealing the crucial role of the right hemisphere in face processing. These results shed new light on the hemispheric abilities in the categorization of facial features, and they are compared to previous evidence of cerebral asymmetries for facial age, gender and identity, both in healthy participants and in neurological patients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract

Netherlands Court Explores Murky Questions about Dementia and Euthanasia

Should someone suffering from dementia be allowed to  reconsider euthanasia?   

A Netherlands court is currently embroiled in controversy while trying to decide that very question in a landmark case.    After passing one of the first assisted dying laws in 2002, the Netherlands has remained at the forefront of the euthanasia debate.   While people with dementia are deemed qualified for euthanasia, the current legislation only allows this if an advance directive has been made.    In the case currently before the court, an unnamed female doctor is accused of having broken the law by facilitating the death of a 74-year-old woman three years previously.   While the unnamed patient had previously given her consent to being euthanized, prosecutors maintain that she gave "mixed signals" about proceeding.   Though the doctor was deemed to be acting "with the best of intentions", she had reportedly acted without the patient's knowledge by slipping a sedative in her coffee.    A lethal drug was then administered and family members needed to hold the patient down as she struggled against the injection.

While this is the first case of its nature since the passing of the euthanasia bill seventeen years ago, it still addresses growing questions about whether dementia patients can be euthanized based on an advance directive alone without considering whether they can be allowed to change their minds.   Though euthanasia of people with severe dementia remains rare, the debate over how medical doctors should proceed when dealing with patients no longer capable of providing informed consent remains controversial.   Under the current legislation, doctors are required to keep patients informed about all aspects of the euthanasia process and to seek an independent opinion about whether the patient is capable of giving permission.  

The debate over dementia and euthanasia has escalated since 2018 with the resignation of medical ethicist Berna van Baarsen from a regional euthanasia board over that very question.  In one media interview, van Baarsen stressed that she was no longer capable of defending the right of dementia patients to give advance directives.  “It is fundamentally impossible to establish that the patient is suffering unbearably, because he can no longer explain it,'" she said.   Something that prosecutors in the ongoing euthanasia case also stress, citing the ambiguity of the current law.

According to  data published on the website of the Dutch national broadcaster NOS, only two people with severe dementia were helped to die in 2018 as opposed to 144 patients with early dementia and 4,000 cancer patients.   As prosecutors are preparing to move forward with four other criminal investigations into euthanasia, more doctors than ever are expressing are becoming apprehensive over the possibility of facing charges under current law.   With the rising number of dementia cases expected over the next two decades, as well as the increasing number of jurisdictions approving assisted dying, the verdict in this latest case, which is expected over the next week, will likely influence similar cases worldwide in years to come.  

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The Case of Richard Dadd

Of all the prominent English artists who came to international attention during the reign of Queen Victoria, Richard Dadd was definitely is in a class by himself.  Still, it was the brutal murder he committed and his subsequent career as a psychiatric inmate that really made him memorable.

Born in 1817, as the fourth of seven children, Dadd showed early promise as an artist and began sketching at an early age. After his family moved to London, he entered the Royal Academy of Arts at the age of twenty. Along with other artists with whom he studied, Dadd formed an important group that became known as the Clique although he remained the foremost artist among them. Their meetings throughout the 1830s and into the 1840s inspired a new style of painting that rejected academic high art and favoured more personal artthey felt should be judged by the public rather than academics.

Given Dadd's developing prominence in the art world, it was only natural that he was chosen to go with his patron, Sir Thomas Phillips, as a draftsman on a planned expedition through Greece, Turkey and Egypt. The expedition that began in 1842 was seen as an excellent opportunity for Dadd to expand his artistic horizons. Absolutely nobody could have foreseen the profound change that would come on him over the course of the journey. There were gruelling hardships along the way but the alteration in Dadd's personality as they traveled up the Nile by boat caught everyone by surprise. He became increasingly violent towards the other expedition members and developed delusions that he was under the influence of the Egyptian god, Osiris.

Dadd soon abandoned his patron and returned to England in 1843 but he did not show any notable improvement. His writings during this time suggested that he was hearing voices calling on him to do battle with the Devil in various forms. A prominent alienist (psychiatrist) assessed him at the request of his family and declared Dadd to be "non compos mentis" but he was not hospitalized. It remains unclear why Dadd began to fixate on his father as being the Devil in disguise but, on August 28 of that year, while they were both traveling to Cobham, Kent, he murdered and dismembered his father with a knife and razor and then fled the country (. At his brother's suggestion, police searched Dadd's rooms in London where they found sketches of other friends and acquaintances, each with a slashed throat.

After unsuccessfully attempting to kill another tourist with a razor, Dadd was arrested by French police and confessed to killing his father. When he was searched, police found a list of names of people who "must die" (his father was one of them). After being returned to England, Dadd was tried and found not guilty by reason of insanity.  He was then committed to Bethlem Royal Hospital (more commonly known as Bedlam). The actual diagnosis is open to question with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder being the most likely candidates (some of his other siblings also later developed psychiatric problems). 

Richard Dadd would spend the rest of his life as a psychiatric patient but, ironically, it was during his time in hospital that he produced his most famous artwork. Although the idea of art therapy was still unknown, he was given access to paints and canvases and produced a series of paintings that were individual and unique. He became known as a artist of "fairy lore", although he chose numerous themes for his paintings (all from memory, he had no models).

His most famous painting, The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke(seen left), was commissioned by the head steward at Bethlem and took nine years to complete. It still hangs in the Tate Gallery and needs to be displayed with special lighting to show the full three-dimensional quality of the painting.

In 1864, Dadd was moved to Broadmoor Psychiatric Hospital where he spent the rest of his life. Until his death from lung disease in 1886, he painted regularly with only infrequent visitors to interrupt him. News of the "mad painter" and his paintings generated considerable interest and there were numerous showings of his artwork during his lifetime.

Even after his death in 1886,  Richard Dadd continued to attract a cult following  and his work has been the subject of countless showings and retrospectives. His works are also on display at galleries around the world.   Visitors to Bethlem Royal Hospital, where Dadd spent most of his life, can still see many of his works there.

The Bethlem Gallery continues to maintain one of the most extensive collections of art on the theme of mental illness and includes works by Dadd and numerous other historical and contemporary artists. Check out their online gallery and plan a visit if your're ever in that part of Great Britain   It's an ongoing monument to human creativity and a fitting memorial for a truly great artist.

The Case of the Florida Werewolf

Even for hardened police officers, it must have been a grisly sight.

Responding to a 911 call on August 15, 2016, sheriff's deputies arrived at the Jupiter, Florida home shared by 59-year-old John Stevens III and 53-year-old Michelle Mishcon.   There, deputies found 19-year-old Austin Harrouff on top of John Stevens' body as he was gnawing at the dead man's face and making growling noises.   Despite being tased, kicked in the head, and attacked with a police dog, police finally managed to force Harrouff away from the body and restrain him.   Authorities then found Michelle Mishcon's body where she lay, bloody and unresponsive.  She died a short time later. 

On being taken to St. Mary's Medical Center, the teen suspect told police that he had "eaten something bad."   On asked what he had eaten, he simply replied:  "Humans."    After being admitted to hospital, Harrouff was placed under sedation and doctors attempted to save his life as his organs were failing.   While the consensus was that Harrouff had ingested something after the killings, it still isn't clear what he had taken.  After his condition was stabilized and he was released from hospital, Harrouff was charged with two counts of first degree murder and attempted murder on a third man who had later called 911.

In establishing a timeline for the killings,  family members told police that Harrouff became increasingly bizarre in the days leading up to the attack.  This included him saying that he was invincible, that he had superpowers, that he believed he was getting more powerful and that he was feeling like Jesus."    On the day of the attack, Harrouff reportedly attended dinner with his family though he was acting strangely and drinking cooking oil.  Following a verbal argument with his father, Harouff left the restaurant where they had been eating .  While his father had attempted to give him Xanax to calm him down, he refused the medication and preferred to  wander the streets instead.    Even though Harrouff's mother phoned police and warned them about her son's erratic behaviour,  

Though initially assumed that the killings were drug-induced, toxicologists would later rule this out.    Harrouff has since claimed that he saw "a dark figure with a white face” after leaving the restaurant and ran to a nearby “lighted garage to ask for help in getting him.”   It was in this garage near the restaurant that he first encountered his victims.   The resulting attack was apparently random as there is no evidence of any prior acquaintance or provocation.   A neighbour, Jeff Fisher, attempted to intervene and was also attacked.   Bleeding from his injuries, Fisher managed to call 911.   Fisher would later report that Harrouff had first tried to warn him away by saying, "You don't want to, you don't want this, you don't want a part of this."  A bloody knife and a pair of scissors were found near the crime scene.

During the three years that have passed since the murders, Austin Harrouff's case has gained international attention based on the nature of his attack and his initial diagnosis of clinical lycanthropy delusions (werewolfism).   In a 38-page report by prominent forensic psychologist, Dr. Philip Resnick, Harrouff reportedly stated that he "had the delusion that he could run ‘super fast’ because he was ‘half-man, half dog.’ He believed that other dogs’ hair was attaching to his face.”  As a result, he genuinely believed that he wasn't human when he killed his two victims.  Dr. Resnick concluded in his report that the suspect suffered from "severe mental disease", possibly linked to a family history of schizophrenia.  Given the nature of Harrouff's psychosis, he also ruled out any possibility of his crime being substance-related.   

Harrouff's case has also been featured on an episode of Dr. Phil which included interviews with Harrouff and his family members.  Relatives of the victims have since filed a wrongful death suit against Harrouff and insist that his television interview was part of an attempt by his defense attorneys to have him declared insane.  

The trial date is tentatively set for November 4 though it remains unclear whether Harrouff's defense counsel will be able to present their case before year's end.  Though they had previously tried to have Florida's insanity defense law declared unconstitutional, this has been rejected and they face the challenge of proving their client insane by a "clear and convincing standard."   

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Can Familiar Odors Help Dementia Patients?

There is a burgeoning interest in the effects of odor exposure on autobiographical memory in Alzheimer’s disease (AD).  A new study in the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology examines the effect of odor exposure on the retrieval of recent and remote memories in AD. Method: Twenty-six patients with mild AD and 28 controls were tested in two conditions: with and without odor exposure. In each condition, participants were invited to retrieve two childhood memories, two adulthood memories, and two recent memories. Results: Analysis showed that AD patients produced a higher number of and more specific childhood memories, adulthood memories, and recent memories after odor exposure than without odor. Discussion: These findings demonstrate how odor exposure may alleviate anterograde and retrograde amnesia, at least when considering the ability of patients with mild AD to retrieve few recent or remote memories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract

Living With Mass Shootings

A new survey  on stress and mass shootings shows that most Americans are experiencing stress due to the rising number of mass shootings across the country.   Published by the American Psychological Association, the new survey was conducted online by The Harris Poll between Aug. 8 and 12 and sampled 2,017 adults ages 18 and older who reside in the U.S.    Demographic statistics for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were carefully weighted to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population.   According to the study findings, over 79 percent of all American adults experience some degree of stress due to the possibility of being involved in a mass shooting.    Nearly a third of  participating adults (32 percent) report changing their behaviour, including the kind of events they attend, due to being a potential victim.  

When asked about specific places where they might feel the most stressed about the possibility of a mass shooting occurring, adults most commonly say a public event (53%), mall (50%), school or university (42%) or movie theater (38%).   Only  one in five (21%) report that they never experience stress due to a possible mass shooting.   For Hispanic and African American adults in particular, the fear of mass shootings is even higher than for the general population.  Overall,  43 percent of Hispanic adults and 43 percent of African American adults reporting constant stress relating to being in a mass shooting (vs.30 percent for white adults).

In looking at gender differences, women reported feeling stressed more often than men about the possibility of a shooting (85% vs. 71%) while parents of children under the age of 18 are nearly twice as likely as adults without children under 18 to report stress due to the possibility of a mass shooting (28% vs.16%).   Also,  62% of parents say they live in fear that their children will be victims of a mass shooting. 

“It’s clear that mass shootings are taking a toll on our mental health, and we should be particularly concerned that they are affecting the way many of us are living our daily lives,” said Arthur C. Evans Jr., PhD, APA’s chief executive officer. “The more these events happen in places where people can see themselves frequenting, the greater the mental health impact will be. We don’t have to experience these events directly for them to affect us. Simply hearing about them can have an emotional impact, and this can have negative repercussions for our mental and physical health.”

This survey was released ahead of the annual Stress in America survey scheduled to be released this fall.   

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To Photograph a Ghost

Is it really possible to photograph a ghost?     

Through much of the 19th century, the new art of photography inspired a generation of photographers on both sides of the Atlantic to experiment on different ways to improve the long exposure time and the quality of the images they produced.    Which is presumably what first inspired William Mumler, later known as the dean of spirit photographers, to produce the first of the many spirit photographs he took during his career.

Born in 1832, Mumler actually got his start as an ornamental engraver  in Boston though his true passion was for photography which was still (if you'll pardon the expression) developing at the time.   As he would later relate, his first spirit photograph occurred by accident when he was trying out some new chemicals to develop a photographic plate at a photography studio owned by one of his friends.   After taking a photograph of himself (you didn't really think selfies were a modern invention, did you?), he was stunned to see the image of a seated woman in the picture with him.    According to the November 21, 1862 newspaper story describing Mumler's odd hobby, he reportedly recalled feeling a "peculiar sensation and tremulous motion in his right arm"  while standing for the photograph he took and and afterward feeling " very exhausted".     When he first saw the image of the woman in the picture, he not only concluded that she was a spirit, he also recognized her as his deceased cousin.    

After sharing his discovery with some Boston spiritualists, they immediately asked Mumler to take photographs of them as well.   Out of the twenty or more photographs that Mumler took, a few of them did show additional images which more than a few of the Spiritualists identified as deceased acquaintances or family members.   The images were typically much fainter than what Mumler got with his live models and, even for those volunteers who sat for more than one picture, the ghostly images being shown were rarely the same.   

For many of the people taking part, Mumler's photographs were a revelation.   Learning that close family members they had believed  gone forever were actually hovering around in ghostly form reaffirmed everything they believed about Spiritualism.   They also scoffed at the suggestion that any trickery was involved.    As one of Mumler's supporters, Dr. Ammi Brown, told reporters, he had examined Mumler's apparatus and found no sign of faking.   He also added that, "if these pictures, claimed to be the pictures of spirits, be a swindle or a sleight-of-hand deception, the operation beats the ingenuity of all the necromancers and prestidigitateurs(sic) of the present and the past.   

Answering accusations that the ghostly images were actually double-exposures on old photographic plates, Mumler invited skeptics to supply their own plates to be used in his experiments and, sure enough, ghostly images still appeared in the developed plates.    While other photographers showed that they could reproduce the ghostly effect using two negatives and printing them onto the same photograph, nobody could explain how Mumler was able to do the same with a single plate.   

Certainly, the pictures themselves were extremely memorable.  One of Mumler's photographs was of a man named Luther Parks but there was also the fainter image of a beautiful female spirit, apparently about to place a wreath of flowers on his head.    In another photograph,  a woman, identified only as "Mrs. Snow", could be seen along with the ghostly image of her dead brother who was holding a musical instrument in his hand (he had been an instrument-maker during his life).     One of the other photographs was of a man,  "Mr. Taylor", whose child had died recently.   He apparently wanted to see this child sitting on his hand (which he held out while the photograph was taken).   Sure, enough, the photograph that Mumler developed had a ghostly image of the child just as the father had requested.

But, it wasn't just family members who appeared in these photographs.   In one picture of a "well-known citizen of Boston", the unmistakable image of recently-deceased statesman Daniel Webster could be seen alongside him.   Other ghostly images weren't as easily to identify, however, though most of the people photographed were convinced that the images in their pictures were of deceased family members.  

All of which still raised the question of how Mumler was taking these amazing photographs.   Certainly no other photographers in Boston were getting similar results though they used essentially the same equipment.   One reporter writing about Mumler even supplied his own photographic plate and carefully watched Mumler as he took the picture and developed it afterward.    Sure enough, the result was another spirit photograph.   As the reporter concluded in his story, "the modus operandi of producing these spirit pictures is a mystery...how it is made, neither deception investigation or philosophy can answer."

And Mumler wasn't the only member of his family who dabbled in the supernatural .  His wife, Hannah, was a spiritual medium who provided her own services, including spiritual healing for willing customers.   Through her channeling the famous physician Benjamin Rush, Hannah dispensed various patent remedies including, "Mesmerine of the blood" which was a cure for "displacing the many different diseases that flesh is heir to."   That the spectral image of Rush often appeared in photographs of Hannah (all taken by her husband) helped bolster her own psychic claims.

By early 1863, the word about Mumler's photographs had spread among photographers on both sides of the Atlantic.  One story about Mumler which came out in the Photographic News, (a London-based popular journal for photographers).   Describing the"considerable interest" they had over the photographs, the edictors still remained cautious about the possibility of fraud.  Though Mumler certainly had numerous prominent defenders, the American Photographic Society soon declared that the "spirit likenesses are a fraud and gross deception" and their British counterparts wholeheartedly agreed.   And then there were prominent skeptics such as P.T. Barnum who also insisted that Mumler's claims were "pure hokum".  Barnum even devoted an entire chapter to Mumler in his 1866 book, Humbugs of the World.

But Mumler's photography business continued to thrive and he soon moved to New York city where even more prominent photography experts soon concluded that they could find no fraud.   It likely helped that the United States was embroiled in a horrific civil war at the time with thousands of casualties and grieving relatives desperate for some proof of an afterlife.   Given the enormous market for spirit photographs spawned by the war, it is any wonder that people were willing to suspend disbelief?  Or that other photographers, recognizing that Mumler was onto a good thing, began to produce their own spirit photographs?   Not that this cut into Mumler's business, or stopped him from charging fees for photographs that were far higher than any of his non-spiritual competitors.

It was too good to last, however.   Acting on stories about Mumler's photographs, New York major A. Oakley Hall ordered an investigation.   His chief marshal, Joseph Tooker, visited Mumler under a fake name and had his photograph taken.   What appeared was Tooker and what Mumler insisted was his deceased father-in-law.    After examining the picture closely, Tooker concluded that the picture "failed to represent anyone he had ever seen or known" and promptly arrested Mumler for fraud and "cheating the public."  

On April 12, 1869, Mumler appeared in court  before Judge Joseph Dowling on two counts of fraud and one of mischievous larceny.   According to the prosecutor, Mumler had defrauded his customers "through trick and device and by false pretence, in furnishing certain … cards said to have been produced by spiritual and supernatural agency, but which were in fact the result of ordinary scientific and chemical means, in common use by persons engaged in the photographic art.”    The sticking point for the prosecutor's case was whether Mumler had knowingly committed fraud (though he was certainly guilty of price inflation).    It soon became apparent that Spiritualism itself was on trial with believers and skeptics both giving testimony.  

But it was Mumler's photographs that would get the most attention.   As the first criminal trial in which "spirit photographs" were introduced as evidence,  photography experts  weighed in on how Mumler had produced them and whether he could have genuinely believed that he was photographing ghosts.   More than twenty-two photographs would be examined over the course of the three-week trial.  

It's hard to point out specific high points of the trial but calling P.T. Barnum as an expert for the prosecution was certainly one of them.   An accomplished showman, Barnum knew how to play to the audience (even in a courtroom) when he insisted that Mumler's photographs were "pure hokum".  He also drily pointed out that none of Mumler's customers seemed at all curious at how ghosts could be dressed in the clothes they had worn on earth.   And, interestingly enough, these clothes seemed to match the latest fashions quite well.     He also talked about his own previous experiences with Mumler and how easily such photographs  could be faked.

Given how entertaining Barnum's testimony was and the impact it was having on the jury (and the newspapers), Mumler's defense counsel tried to rattle the witness by asking him how long he had been in the humbug business.   When Barnum fielded that question ably, he was then questioned about his own various hoaxes, including the Fiji Mermaid and Joyce Heth.  None of this worked and Barnum stepped down from the witness stand in triumph.

After all the evidence was heard,  the prosecutor and defense counsel both gave extensive closing arguments that covered all of the complex issues that had arisen over the trial.   Whether or not Mumler was guilty of fraud seemed almost secondary to questions about Spiritualism, freedom of religion, the comfort that Mumler's photographs brought to his bereaved customers, and the distinction between belief and truth.    Finally, after weighing all of the deliberations, Judge Dowling concluded that “However I may be morally convinced that there may have been trick and deception practiced by the prisoner, yet as I sit as a Magistrate to determine from the evidence given by the witnesses, according to law, I am compelled to decide that I would not be justified in sending this complaint to the Grand Jury. "    And so, Mumler was a free man (but hardly exonerated).

Though he resumed his photography career, Mumler was still being called a "swindler" by most newspapers.  He had already relocated his business to Boston and it would be there that he would live the rest of his life.  Deeply in debt, Mumler had little hope of paying off his creditors considering that the demand for his spirit photographs was almost non-existent.  Though spirit photography would be a booming business in decades to come, the stigma over Mumler's name meant that he couldn't be part of it.    Even his existing photographs, which had once sold at exorbitant prices, could now be had for twenty-five cents each.    Almost all of his income came from ordinary photography as well as being an amateur inventor who came up with a new process for creating photo-electrotype plates (still known
as the Mumler process).

But he still did some spirit photographs.   One of his customers during his twilight years was Mary Todd Lincoln, widow of the martyred president (though she gave her name as "Mrs. Lindall").   Since the ghostly image bears little resemblance to her late husband, "Mrs. Lindall" needed some prompting by Hannah Mumler before saying that it was him in the picture.    Still, the publicity over the alleged ghostly picture of Abraham Lincoln helped revive his career to some extent and other people came to him as well.   

Finally, it all came to an end for William H. Mumler when he died in May, 1884.   Though his official obituary makes little mention of his spirit photographs and simply referred to him as a photographer and inventor, his spirit photographs continued to be widely distributed by Spiritualists even though most modern photography experts have long-since debunked them as fakes.  

So, was Mumler a fraud or did he genuinely believe that he was photographing ghosts?  You be the judge.

 

 

 

 

Can Sleep Deprivation Cause Psychotic Behaviour?

It should have been a routine New York-Las Vegas flight last March 27.

The passengers of the Jet Blue flight (most of whom were traveling to the 2012 International Security Conference, ironically enough) were startled to see pilot Clayton Osbon running through the aisle screaming "say your prayers" as well as various threats relating to 9/11, al Qaeda, Iraq and Afghanistan.  After having been locked out of the cabin cockpit due to his attempting to interfere with the plane's controls,  the pilot was eventually wrestled to the ground and forcibly restrained by several of the passengers.   The plane then made an emergency landing in Amarillo,   Texas.  Although one flight attendant's ribs were bruised, no one on board the plane was seriously injured.

Following the incident, Jet Blue Airlines representatives were at a loss to explain the 49-year old pilot's behaviour.  Captain Osbon, a veteran pilot with no history of psychiatric problems was later charged with interference with a flight crew.    During the course of his competency hearing, the court heard from testimony provided by fellow crew members who said that the pilot showed up at the airport unusually late for the flight.  They also added that his bizarre behaviour did not begin until the plane was in midflight.   The first officer became alarmed when Captain Osbon began rambling about sins in Las Vegas and that the plane would not reach its destination.   The situation escalated after he was locked out of the cockpit and "aggressively" confronted crew members who attempted to restrain him.  The court also heard testimony from a psychologist, Robert E.H. Johnson who determined that the defendant's actions on board the Jet Blue flight was due to a "brief psychotic disorder" resulting from sleep deprivation.    Dr. Johnson added in his report that the defendant's psychotic behaviour lasted about a week following the March 27 incident.   The  U.S. Attorney's office did not dispute the psychological assessment report although a Jet Blue spokesperson argued that the pilot had sufficient off-time and that their scheduling did not cause the incident.  

Despite the not guilty verdict, Jet Blue underwent a format review  by the Federal Aviation Authority to determine whether current guidelines concerning the amount of rest that a pilot should have between flights is enough to prevent problems.  While new guidelines soon went into effect requiring a minimum 10-hour rest period for pilots (up from theprevious eight to nine hours required at present),  questions about what happened aboard that flight still remain.

But can sleep deprivation cause a psychotic breakdown?   Along with documented cases of extreme manic behaviour and delirious psychosis resulting from sleep loss,  research studies have shown a consistent link between sleep deprivation and impaired cognitive and emotional functioning.    A 2007 study by a team of Princeton researchers has indicated that lack of sleep can impact the limbic system of the brain and interfere with the body's ability to form new memories.    The researchers also found that sleep-deprived animals had higher levels of stress-related hormones and significantly fewer new brain cells in the hypothalamus.   Research has also found that the effects of sleep deprivation are typically cumulative, i.e., one night of lost sleep is harmless but two or more nights of lost sleep can have a dramatic impact on cognitive functioning and response inhibition.   While the effects of sleep deprivation are usually temporary, long-term sleep deprivation has been linked to chronic mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, mood disorders, and manic episodes.   Considering the devastating impact that lack of sleep can have, it's probably not surprising that sleep deprivation is an effective interrogation method (with numerous court trials held to determine whether it can be considered a form of torture). 

As for Captain Clayton Osbon, he was eventually found not guilty by reasoning of insanity in a Texas court on July 3, 2012.  After being remanded to a psychiatric hospital, he was eventually released into the care of his family on the condition that he continue treatment.  "This is a bad situation for you and your family, but you are very fortunate to have the type of immediate support you have," said Judge Mary Lou Robinson.   He remains on probation and will likely remain so for the immediate future.   In 2015, shortly after the deadly Germanwings Flight 9525 crash in which a co-pilot deliberately crashed the plane killing all the people aboard,  passengers filed a class-action lawsuit against JetBlue.   Though a settlement was reached, no details have been released to the public.   

As for the  question of how similar aviation incidents can be prevented in future,  that is still very much up in the air.

 

 

How Does Personality Affect Well-Being in Seniors?

Very little work has been carried out to identify the determinants of subjective well-being among the oldest old. A study recently published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences examined whether individual characteristics (i.e. functional capacity, physical and perceived health, cognition and personality) and social resources (i.e. perceived social support) predict subjective well-being (SWB) among this age group. Participants were 102 community-dwelling healthy older adults aged between 85 and 104 (M = 92.53; SD = 5.91). The sample group consisted of only those not in a state of ADL (Activities of Daily Living) dependence who were not suffering from either mood disorders or cognitive impairment associated with neurodegenerative disease. Personality traits (conscientiousness, extraversion and openness) emerged as the strongest predictors of positive affect. Neuroticism and perceived mental health were found to predict negative affect, whereas neuroticism and extraversion emerged as the strongest predictors of life satisfaction. Subjective well-being among the oldest old was mainly predicted by personality traits. Functional capacity, physical health, cognition and social support were not found to be influential factors of subjective well-being. These findings suggest that researchers and clinicians should consider the relationship between personality and subjective well-being among the oldest old. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract