“I believe that the Junan quadruplets were really created as a symbol of the innocence of the white race. It is because America is a ‘pure’ nation, eliminating ‘contaminants’ at all costs.” It’s this idea that Christianity is an “innocent” religion, that there is no slavery in the background, there is no racial violence in the background. Therefore, it seems to me that these girls, symbols of this myth, are even more appropriate than the story that they are poster girls of genetics. ”
Psychiatric Times® Editorial Board member Dr. Awais Aftab recently sat down with Dr. Audrey Clare Farley to discuss Farley’s book. Girls and Their Monsters: The Jenan Quadruplets and the Making of Madness in America. In the third part of a three-part interview, Aftab and Farley discuss the deeper, uncomfortable truths about American society that the Junan quadruplets case reveals, and the most important takeaways from the book for psychiatrists. Let’s discuss.
Farley also briefly describes her first book. The Unfit Heir: Anne Cooper Hewitt’s tragic life and scandalous sterilizationThe film explores the case of a wealthy woman who secretly sterilized her daughter in the 1930s to prevent her from inheriting the family estate, sparking debate about eugenics. Farley drew a connection between this case and the Junan quadruplets case, in terms of sexual and racial trauma.
The girl and her monster, part 1
The girl and her monster, part 2
Full interview: Revisiting the “poster child of psychiatric genetics”
Dr Aftab He is a psychiatrist in Cleveland, Ohio, and a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University. He has been actively involved in efforts to educate psychiatrists and residents about the intersection of philosophy and psychiatry.He will lead an interview series “Dialogue in severe psychiatry” Psychiatric Times And he writes for Substack’s newsletter, “Psychiatry on the Margins.” he is also a member of Psychiatric Times editorial committee.
Dr. Farley He is a writer, editor, and scholar of 20th century American culture, with a special interest in science and religion.she is the author of Her essays include “The Unfit Heiress: The Tragic Life and Scandalous Sterilization of Anne Cooper Hewitt, and Girls and Their Monsters: The Genin Quadruplets and the Making of Madness in America.” , atlantic, new republic, washington postand many other outlets.
