Eugenic Rubicon

Poems from Patient Traces

In 2015 Cassidy Gardner, then a University of Michigan undergraduate and a research assistant on this project, began writing poetry as a way of engaging with the California sterilization records. Below are 11 of her poems. Where quotations are present, Gardner is pulling from either the hospital forms or other documents contained in a person's medical file, which may include consent or protest letters.

#1123
Patient #1123 Diagnosis needed.
Diagnosis “No direct mental disease”
Diagnosis “Violent”
Diagnosis “Epileptic psychosis”
Diagnosis “Peculiar”
Diagnosis “Very spiteful, exceptionally radical”
Patient #1123 Diagnoses given.
Conclusion “Recommended for sterilization”

#2234
“Although this girl’s
IQ, would place her in
the normal class, her poor
Practical judgment 
and 
Flighty unstable 
mentality,
Tends to place her,
For 
Practical purposes,
in the class,
of feebleminded.”
Patient #2234
“Easily led”
“Runaway”
“Sexual delinquent”
“Recommended for sterilization”

#3345
i am
“spreading good will”
“scattering flowers”
communicating with God
healing the sick
a mother
separated from my husband
a survivor of a miscarriage
patient #3345
“destructive”
a recipient of an abortion
a menace to society
Recommended for sterilization.
#4456
Thirteen
13
Thir
Thirteen
13!
Thhh
urr
thur
t-t-t-t
teeee
thurrrtee
thurteeeen
?
THIRTEEN!
13?
Every question equal to thirteen
Therefore
Recommended for sterilization.

#5567 & #5568
#5567
and 
#5568
Sister one
Sister two
Mexican
New Mexican
Middle Age
Young
Separated
Single
Sexual 
delinquents
Incestuous
Prostitute
Recommended for sterilization.


#6678
Rosary broken
Eaten and
Crucifix swallowed.
Older woman.
Mother, wife and sister.
Miscarriage followed by conversion to
Evangelicalism.
Neurosis as a possible
Diagnosis, it is 
Early for a 
Decision to be made. Patient

Feels that Christ
Only communicates with her, 
Readily becomes destructive when corrected.

Seven living children, unable to 
Take care of them
Even with husbands assistance.
Rebukes children harshly
If they refuse to partake in the fantasy or
Laugh at her confusion.
Insinuates that Christ’s words come with a 
ZAP
And cause her pain that she cannot
Tolerate.
Institutionalization is the  
Only option. Contact
Next of kin for consent for request for sterilization.

#7789
Who is #7789 to the state of California?
 Moody
      recommended for sterilization
Catatonic


#8890
   My right             hand             My right hand wants           My right hand wants to go’nd 
wants     to           go’nd             to go’nd           break          break your damn jaw but my
break    your        damn             your                 damn                          left hand
  jaw        but          my              jaw                   but                              says I
  left         hand     says             my                     left                             should
     I           should   not             hand says I should not                         not.


#9901
Feeblemindedness
Fee eeb blemish mind indeed dead duchess nest
Our life’s fees eeb away.
The blemishes were only in our mind.
Indeed, we are dealing with the dead
While the duchess of Vergangenheitsverdrängung sits comfortably
in her nest of rules, regulations, and forgotten files.


#1235
Homosexual
Accused. Mongoloid woman
Has been sterilized.

#2346
“Did then and there 
place his hands in and upon
the private parts of certain small boys, 
and did then and there 
pause said boys 
to place their hand in and upon 
his private parts, 
and then and there 
attempted to take his own life,
by then and there
slashing his wrist
with a razor blade.”
Diagnosis: Constitutional Psychopathic Inferiority without Psychosis
Recommended for sterilization… cured?

 

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