Crimes Against Mentality

Martin Bryant was a young Australian man who became the infamous mass murderer behind the Port Arthur massacre. Listen along as we discuss Martin's life path leading up to the massacre and what could lead someone to commit such a horrific act of violence against an innocent community.

As either the butt of a joke or a misnomer for fear or discomfort, phobias are chronically misunderstood. Phobias, a type of anxiety disorder, can often be severe and debilitating for the sufferer. Listen along as we discuss the different types of phobias and how wearing a walrus suit for your friend could be both a blessing and a curse.

Born and raised in a traumatic household, Billy Milligan struggled through early adulthood. His arrest for a violent crime as a teenager was only a taste of what was to come. When Billy was arrested and charged again at age 22, his lawyers noticed some concerning odd behavior, which led to Billy becoming the first person to use Multiple Personality Disorder as part of an insanity defense in the court of law.

We're taking a break from telling other people's stories and instead taking a personal look at how ADHD has impacted our lives. Joining us is a childhood friend to tell his story as well.

Content Warning: Child Harm. Naomi was a young, single mother of four children struggling to keep her mental illness at bay. Even after multiple stints in treatment facilities, her post-partum psychosis wasn't being handled properly. Tragically, Naomi's mental illness caused her delusions to spiral out of control on an otherwise beautiful 4th of July day.

Brain injuries can impact a person in unpredictable ways. Learn about studies done on people with post-traumatic brain injuries (TBI), cases where murderers were later revealed to have suffered severe brain injuries, and how a TBI could impact you or your loved ones.

Anneliese Michel started experiencing troubling symptoms in her high school years. After years of trying to treat her symptoms with medication and therapy without success, she was at her wit's end, and was looking for answers anywhere she could find them. This led her to seek out an exorcist, but was she really possessed, or was she a victim of being born too early for adequate mental health treatment?

A humorous and absurdly profane exchange between defendant and judge came to fame when it became a cartoon and played on late-night TV station Adult Swim. But once you look in between the phallic idiolect, a disturbing story comes to light. Was Denver Fenton Allen egregiously disrespecting the decorum expected in a court of law, or was he utilizing whatever tools were at his disposal to eke out what little justice was afforded the poor and mentally ill?

Attention seeking, a cry for help, or a little of both - people have many reasons to fake a disorder. Listen along as we explore the tumultuous world of faking disorders on social media.

A man was seeking treatment in a nearby mental health facility when a young woman was murdered in her college dorm bathroom. With no good suspects and a flimsy lead, police had to find someone to take the fall. James Blackmon, suffering from intense delusions, was coerced into a confession and was wrongfully convicted for decades until he was finally set free after multiple appeals.

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.