Crimes Against Mentality

A story about redemption, persecution, and then more redemption. 

James St. James was enjoying a quiet life as a university professor in Illinois until a reporter from Texas decided to look into the life of a family annihilator who had been released from a state mental institution decades prior. The reporter had been looking for a grisly murderer named James Gordon Wolcott, but what she found instead was a well-adjusted member of society who had dedicated his life to improving the lives of his students.

Learn about a rare circumstance - especially in 1970's Texas - where a young teenager was given a second chance at life after recovering from a severe bout of a schizophrenic episode.  Although the tragic events of his past can't be erased, and his family paid the ultimate price, James St. James was able to turn his life around and become a thriving member of society.

This week Amanda and Tommy discuss the practice of lobotomy. Why did they happen, how did the practice come about, and how did they fall out of favor? Learn all that and more as the hosts discuss Walter Freeman's lasting impact on psychosurgery and his revolutionary take on treating the mentally ill.

Welcome to Crimes Against Mentality, a mental health podcast discussing the myriad ways mental health has been mistreated, mishandled, and misunderstood. This week we discuss James Kraig Kahler, a convicted criminal who pled insanity in a state lacking a proper insanity defense.