Artist and photographer Carrie M. Becker re-imagined Barbie (the doll) as a pathological hoarder, and arranged Barbie’s dream house as such. She explains some of the thought behind the project in her artist’s statement. Somebody call a maid! No, a sanitation crew! You can see many different rooms in her Flickr set.  Link -via Laughing Squid

(Image credit: Flickr user Carrie M. Becker)

(Image credit: Flickr user Jean-Etienne Minh-Duy Poirrier)

by Alice Shirrell Kaswell, Improbable Research staff

The year 1931 stands out in the history of research about insane people’s favorite colors. That summer, Siegfried E. Katz of the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Hospital published a study called “Color Preference in the Insane.” The full citation is:

“Color Preference in the Insane,” Siegfried E. Katz, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, vol. 26, no. 2, July 1931, pp. 203–11.

Assisted by a Dr. Cheney, Dr. Katz tested 134 hospitalized mental patients. For simplicity’s sake, he limited the testing to six colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet. No black. No white. No shades of gray.

“These colors,” he wrote, “rectangular in shape, one and one-half inches square, cut from Bradley colored papers were pasted in two rows on a gray cardboard. They were three inches apart. The colors were numbered haphazardly and the number of each color placed above it. The cardboard was presented to the patient and he was asked to place his finger on the number of the color he liked best. After he had made the choice he was asked in a similar manner for the next best color, and so on.”

Some of the patients “cooperated well”, and made six choices. Others, Dr. Katz reported, “quickly lost interest and made only one, two or three.”

Blue was the most popular color. Men, in the aggregate, then favored green, but the female patients were divided on green, red or violet as a second choice.

Patients who had resided in the hospital for three or more years were slightly less emphatic about blue. Dr. Katz says that these long-term guests were “those with most marked mental deterioration.” Their preference, as a group, shifted somewhat toward green and yellow. Those of longest tenure, though few in number, had a slightly elevated liking for orange.

The report is packed with tidbits that beg, even now, for further analysis:

==> “38 per cent of dementia praecox and manic-depressives, each, gave first preference to blue, and 42 per cent of all other patients.”

==> “Green received the first choice from 16 per cent of dementia praecox, 9 per cent of manic-depressives, and 13 per cent of other diseases.”

==> “For red as first choice, the percentage of votes were: Manic-depressives, 16; other diseases, 15; dementia praecox, 12. As second choice, they were: Manic-depressives, 22; dementia praecox, 18; other diseases, 13.”

==> “Orange and yellow were also best liked by manic-depressives; green by dementia praecox; and violet by all others.”

Dr. Katz foresaw practical applications for his research. He suggested that “in the furnishings of living quarters the selection of colors pleasing to special groups of patients might be worth consideration.”

Consciously or not, hospital staff seem to have followed Dr. Katz’s insights in fashioning their personal at-work appearance. The evocatively-named Bragard Medical Uniforms, a New York firm founded in 1933, now publishes a list of the most popular uniform colors. The list currently is topped by, in order: royal blue; dark grey (which, alas, Dr Katz excluded from his 1931 survey); dark green; and red.

Color Preference in the Insane Reconsidered

Dr. Katz’s findings were put to the test, partially, decades later in the study:

“The Relationship Between Color Preference and Psychiatric Disorders,” Cooper B. Holmes, H. Edward Fouty, Philip J. Wurtz and Bruce M. Burdick, Journal of Clinical Psychology, vol. 41, no. 6, November 1985, pp. 746–9.

The authors, at Emporia State University and at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, explain, at the end of their study:

We realize that the reader may question whether the present study merely has added to the confusion about color preferences and personality and color preferences and psychiatric illness. We think not. Enough studies have been reported to present a consistently inconsistent picture of the relationship. That is, it is apparent that a clear-cut relationship between color and psychiatric illness has not been established, and our study continues to show that pattern. This brings into question the use of color in psychiatric diagnosis.

_____________________

This article is republished with permission from the July-August 2008 issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. You can download or purchase back issues of the magazine, or subscribe to receive future issues. Or get a subscription for someone as a gift!

Visit their website for more research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK.

It’s a fan-made trailer is composed of edits from Christian Bale movies that altogether makes Bruce Wayne look like even more of a paranoid schizophrenic than he is normally portrayed as. -via I Heart Chaos

There has been a common “twist” ending employed in numerous films over the years that has been rearing its ugly head ever more increasingly. From B horror movies to big budget Oscar contenders, this ending is maddeningly used over and over again. It’s enough to make any cinema lover have a total snap with reality and lose their mind! It’s become the go-to ending for lazy screenplay writers the world over. Now we have all come to expect the M. Night Shyamalan twist ending- Bruce Willis is a ghost, blah, blah, blah. I’m not talking about those clichéd endings. This is a very specific sub genre of movies that feature a twist ending. I am of course referring to films in which one or more of the main characters is imaginary and all in the head of the other character- ala Tyler Durden in Fight Club.

Ever since Fight Club made a big cinematic splash in 1999, movie makers have gone psycho with this previously interesting twist. There are a lot of films out there that you may think are All in Your Head Movies (AIYH movies as the kids say). However, for our purposes, we shall define these films as those in which the main character is mentally insane and imagining someone else doing things that he or she is in fact themselves responsible for. They can’t be dead (living in the afterlife or as a ghost) and it can’t have all been a dream. So with that in mind sit back, relax, grab yourself some popcorn and enjoy this list of All in Your Head Movies… unless.. wait a minute? ..No! It can’t be! Maybe you already read it.. because you wrote it.. you are ME. Woaaaah.

Fight Club

This is the classic upon which all other recent AIYH movies must live up to. This film came out before this twist ending was all the rage and thus gets a pass on using the cliché. Most movie goers didn’t see this ending coming and when it was revealed that Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) is all in the head of Edward Norton’s character it was truly amazing. The best part was the dizzying flashback showing us how Norton’s character was really Durden; even fighting himself in the parking lot!  Project Mayhem! Unfortunately after Fight Club it’s all downhill.

Secret Window

“You stole my story..” and two hours of my life. This is the line that the imaginary AIYH character John Shooter mumbles over and over again to Johnny Depp’s character, a writer who has locked himself away in a wooded cabin to finish his novel. Only Depp can’t get any writing done because the crazed yokel farmer keeps showing up claiming to have been plagiarized by the author. In retaliation the farmer supposedly kills Depp’s dog and burns down his soon to be ex wife’s house amongst other atrocities. The film isn’t half bad and some audiences might even be gripped with the suspense of this Stephen King inspired thriller only to suffer the let down of a textbook AIYH movie ending. We are treated to the full shabang complete with a spinning room and flash backs showing us what really happened sans the weird farmer guy.

High Tension

This brutal French horror film tells the story of a young woman, Marie, who goes to stay with her female friend’s family in the country side. While there the happy house is soon visited by a depraved serial killer and Marie witnesses the large man murdering the parents. What follows is a bunch of great, gritty slice and dice kill scenes. Up until the ending this is an awesome slasher flick that would be on any gore hounds short list. Therefore it’s sad for me to report that no other film defines how stupid the logic of an AIYH movie can be. It is revealed that Marie is actually the serial killer and is indeed the one that took out her friend’s family and committed the numerous other kills and acts of violence throughout the film. However there is no way Marie could have possibly done all of the things depicted in the film- especially the car chase in which her killer alter ego tries to push her off the road. AIYH fail!

A Tale of Two Sisters / The Uninvited

This is a tale of two all in your head movies. A Tale of Two Sisters was a great piece of South Korean horror- enough so that it had the honor of being turned into a miserable, watered down American remake: The Uninvited. While the original Korean film treats its “AIYH-ness” much more artfully and subtly, its American sister goes for the jugular bludgeoning its audience with an insane plot that would make Tyler Durden blush. The Uninvited follows the story of a young girl who comes home after spending time in mental institution for suicide following the death of her mother in a house boat fire. Once home, she and her sister are scared that their new step mom is to blame for their mother’s death, and indeed may be a danger to them and their father. No one will listen to their warnings, mainly due to the fact that the sister DIED in the fire and is all in the crazy girl’s head. This one gets props for concluding with the traditional series of flashbacks showing the main character that she is alone, doing everything by herself and without her sister.

Hide and Seek

This is like watching one of your favorite actors star in a skin flick. DeNiro! Oh come on, please God no. Why? Alas, Robert De Niro starred in an AIYH movie alongside a young Dakota Fanning. DeNiro’s character is a doctor who, after the death of his wife, moves to the country side with his young daughter. (A lot of AIYH movies involve living in remote areas where people can’t call you out for your imaginary friends.) While in their new home Fanning starts playing with a malevolent “Charlie” who De Niro thinks is all in HER head. After “Charlie” kills his lady friend we discover that the joke’s on him because “Charlie” is really De Niro. He created this split personality in order to kill his cheating wife and deal with his guilt. I wonder if “Charlie” was also responsible for biting this finger?

Shutter Island

I should have known better; I called this one as an All in Your Head movie just from watching the trailer. Alas. I couldn’t pass up a dreamy Leonardo DiCaprio movie. First of all, it takes place at a creepy mental hospital: the first thing that occurred to me is that Leo is the one who is crazy; this whole business of being a US Marshal in search of a missing patient is a sham. The one thing that is different about this movie is that the crazy character is aided in his delusions by others. The psychiatrists have put together an elaborate ruse to try and break him of his psychosis stemmed from murdering his wife who had killed their children. “Rachel Solando,” the patient Leo’s character was sent to find and briefly meets was, in fact, all in his head. His US Marshal partner “Chuck” is not really a US Marshal but a psychiatrist trying to help him. A Martin Scorsese film, this is the AIYH directorial equivalent of DeNiro slumming it in Hide and Seek.

The Machinist

Christian Bale lost over 60 pounds to star as a machinist who is suffering from insomnia. The scrawny, haggard man is tormented by “Ivan” whom no one else seems to be aware of. “Ivan” causes an accident at the factory causing a man to lose an arm in addition to kidnapping a boy. In the end “Ivan” is nothing more than an AIYH character sent to help Bale’s character cope with committing a hit and run accident where a boy was killed. The Machinist is a disturbing, well shot film but the inclusion of the AIYH plot twist earns it, its place on this dreaded list.

The Other

The poster says “please don’t reveal the secret of The Other.” I guess if you’re reading this it’s too late. My bad! This 1972 horror movie follows the story of twins Niles and Holland, one good and one a “mischief maker.” As you can imagine the mischief intensifies, with Holland causing their cousin to die on a pitch fork, an old woman to have a heart attack and their mother to fall down the stairs and become paralyzed. Now, a good twin and a bad twin is a sure sign of a AIYH movie and it is soon revealed that Holland is all in the head of sweet natured Niles. In fact (much like The Uninvited) Niles’ twin Holland has been dead since March.

Black Swan

No movie so shockingly exemplifies how terribly the All in Your Head ending can ruin an otherwise great film as this Oscar nominated picture does. Halfway through Black Swan I started to get that sinking feeling. “Don’t do it.. don’t do it!” I pleaded in vain to the screen. Finally we are all treated to what we knew was coming: Natalie Portman’s character has been completely imagining all the terrible (and HOT) things that Mila Kunis’ character has been doing. Now some in the AIYH movie fan community might argue that this doesn’t count since Kunis’ character actually exists outside of the other ballerina’s warped brain. However during the times when Portman is fighting with herself and.. ahem.. doing other things with herself, there is no one there- that character is all in her head. If Black Swan takes Best Picture this year it will truly be an All in Your Head movie milestone.

My one question is, if this is constantly happening in film, how many times does this actually happen in real life? Are there scores of people out there living with their imaginary friends and don’t know it? Are my friends all just stuffed animals lined up on the wall of my mental institution cell? Better yet, what are some of your favorite All In Your Head movies? ..That is if you actually exist.

In May, 2006, an outbreak of the “Morangos com Açúcar Virus” was reported in Portuguese schools. 300 or more students at 14 schools reported similar symptoms to those experienced by the characters in a recent episode. These included rashes, difficulty breathing, and dizziness, forcing some schools to close. The Portuguese National Institute for Medical Emergency dismissed the illness as mass hysteria. This story concerned some parents because of the major influence this series has on the kids and teens that watch, it was in newspaper and magazines articles and elsewhere.

Link -via the Presurfer

He was a little paranoid. He was determined that the Blacks, Jews, Catholics and the entire nation of Austria were working to destroy the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants of America. He wrote several books on the subject in which he talked about how the immigrants and lesser races were oppressing all the white people, how the Jews and Catholics were working together to kill Protestants, and how all of these groups met on a regular basis in the basement of an orphanage in Ireland. Oh, and Austria’s in there too somewhere.

Link -via Unique Daily

Before his trial (of which he was convicted and sentenced to death), he had pulled out an eyeball (but didn’t eat it). The judge had declared him mentally fit for trial:

A death-row officer at the Polunsky Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice found Thomas in his cell with blood on his face and took him to the infirmary.

"Thomas said he pulled out his eye and subsequently ingested it," agency spokesman Jason Clark said Friday.

Thomas was treated at East Texas Medical Center in Tyler after the Dec. 9 incident. Then he was transferred and remains at the Jester Unit, a prison psychiatric facility near Richmond southwest of Houston.

"He will finally be able to receive the mental health care that we had wanted and begged for from day 1," Bobbie Peterson-Cate, Thomas’ trial attorney, told the Sherman Herald Democrat. "He is insane and mentally ill. It is exactly the same reason he pulled out the last one."

Link

In Hayden Idaho, a man in his mid 20′s whose name was withheld, who believed he bore the “mark of the beast” amputated one of his hands with a circular saw, then cooked it in the microwave then called 911.

According to sheriff’s Capt. Ben Wolfinger the man, was calm when he arrived at his northern Idaho town. “It had been somewhat cooked by the time the deputy arrived,” Wolfinger said. “He put a tourniquet on his arm before, so he didn’t bleed to death. That kind of mental illness is just sad.”

Via: msnbc