Sherman Yellen: Crazy in L.A.: Britney, Sally, G. David Schine, Dr. Phil, Bedlam and Me

The sad disintegration of Britney Spears in recent weeks reminds me of my own family's experience with a mentally ill young woman in Los Angeles, almost 40 years ago. It touches on Dr. Phil and the Hollywood cure. Of course the origins of how we treat those we deem crazy goes back to 18th century Bedlam, where the London madhouse keepers charged a few shillings to those who wanted to gape at the local lunatics rending their garments and screaming obscenities in their madness. But this isn't a history lesson; it's a personal story. We had been living in Santa Monica for six months while I worked on the television projects that paid for my family's living expenses and my insatiably unprofitable theatre habit. Our household consisted of my wife Joan, my three-year-old son Nick, and a 17-year-old baby sitter, Karen, whom we had taken with us from New York during her summer vacation to help us survive the demands of a very boisterous boy child, a great kid who hated to nap during the day, and ... (link)