Trend of the 1950's

There has been a lot of talk about how crazy Esther is. I would have to agree in some aspects, she is a bit unorthodox. However, I decided to do a little bit of research and see just how common a mental illness was in the 1950's. Was Esther really that unordinary? Was she the only college age girl losing her mind?

The answer is no. More so, DEFINITELY NOT! I visited this online journal: http://www.enotes.com/1950-medicine-health-american-decades/mental-illness, and the findings were a bit different than what many of us might expect. There were a ton of cases of mental illness. In fact, it was reported that one in three would have a family member admitted to a mental institution. This fact causes me to believe it was some kind of popular trend, much like the rehab stints of today's well known stars. If you weren't spending some time in a mental institution, you were rare. It was a time of all types of neurosis's and mental disorders, that today would be thought of as no more than ADD, OCD, or just being a little odd. Maybe treated with some Prozac or Zoloft instead of these electroshock therapy of Esther's time.

After finding this, it is hard to place the label "crazy" on Esther. In her generation, being crazy was in fact not the crazy thing to do at all. Being normal was. On top of all of that, sans the suicide attempts, I think Esther was just a relatively normal college girl with all the worries, fears, and dislikes that are still common today, maybe just a bit exaggerated though.