[pachyderm]

Here's an article about some presentations that rely on the idea that the mentally ill are scary. I think some of these plans were dropped or modified, but... read for yourself:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/26/op...l-right-region

A new virtual-reality attraction planned for Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, Calif., was announced last month in advance of the peak haunted-house season. The name, “Fear VR 5150,” was significant. The number 5150 is the California psychiatric involuntary commitment code, used for a mentally ill person who is deemed a danger to himself or others.

Upon arrival in an ersatz “psychiatric hospital exam room,” VR 5150 visitors would be strapped into a wheelchair and fitted with headphones. “The VR headset puts you in the middle of the action inside the hospital,” an article in The Orange County Register explained. “One patient seems agitated and attempts to get up from a bed. Security officers try to subdue him. A nurse gives you a shot (which you will feel), knocking you out. When you wake up in the next scene, all hell has broken loose. Look left, right and down, bloody bodies lie on the floor. You hear people whimpering in pain.” Knott’s Berry Farm is operated by Ohio-based Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, and Fear VR 5150 was to be featured at two other Cedar Fair parks as well.

Almost simultaneously, two similar attractions were started at Six Flags. A news release for one explained: “Our new haunted house brings you face-to-face with the world’s worst psychiatric patients. Traverse the haunted hallways of Dark Oaks Asylum and try not to bump into any of the grunting inmates around every turn. Maniacal inmates yell out from their bloodstained rooms and deranged guards wander the corridors in search of those who have escaped.”

The Orange County branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) sprang into action...

My added comment: if it weren't for the fear of people that they too might succumb to mental illness, these kinds of things would have no attractiveness.

Anyone up for filing a class-action lawsuit? I have Gloria Allred on speed-dial...

It turns out that Lefty the Salesman's brother happens to be a very clever lawyer by the name of Righty the Attorney. I've emailed Righty about the feasibility of filing a class action lawsuit against Knott's Berry Farm for stigmatizing mental illness, just for hoots. If it's worth pursuing, he will know. I will convey his response to the forum. Prepare for disappointment. Excellent catch, pachyderm. Well done.

[seesaw]

This is really sad that they would think this is funny. I'm not going to lie. One of my favorite movies is a horror film set in an abandoned psych hospital, and the ghosts are abused or killed psych patients. But the horror there isn't from people with mental illness, but with people who had mental illness who were abused who are ghosts. I feel like it's a totally different thing. I think if the amusement park had done it as a psych ward full of ghosts, that would have been a different story. To make the ghouls out as live people suffering from MI, that's just terrible. MI is not different than a physical injury or disease. You wouldn't make the ER into an amusement ride, would you?

I'm not going to sugar coat it, the psych ward can certainly be a scary place. But the scariest thing about it is the people in charge, not the patients. The scary part is not having any control and being totally at the will of power-hungry nurses and unsympathetic doctors. I think there could have been a way to do this that would not have been so offensive and wouldn't have stigmatize mental illness further.

On the other hand, I've been in psych wards that were very nice, quiet and restful. I think OVERALL that making the psych ward out to be a scary place, just makes people who might need help afraid to seek it.

My attorney has replied:

I don't think that you can sue Knott's Berry Farm.

Don't say I didn't warn you.