A Home Away from Home story
A patient at a mental institution does a role reversal by imprisoning the doctors. Directed by: Herschel Daugherty. Story by: Robert Bloch.
12 total · 1 choice · 6 major · 5 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| what it is like in a psychiatric institution | choice | The story was set in a sanatorium that was under lock and key. The viewer is shown what such an institution could be imagined to be like. The two doctors, one of whom was in fact a patient, variously expressed their thoughts on how insane people ought to be treated. |
| medical occupation | major | The insane psychiatrist Dr. Fenwick took over the sanatorium where he was being held and ran the place himself. |
| mental illness | major | The viewer is shown a menagerie of lunatics in Dr. Norton's sanatorium. |
| murder | major | The insane Dr. Fenwick strangled Dr. Norton and hid the body in a dumbbell elevator. The body's discovery by Natalie proved a key turning point in the story. |
| psychology | major | Dr. Fenwick was a fanatical proponent of "permissive therapy": the idea being that insane people could be made sane by treating them as one would normal people. He reiterated this theory on multiple occasions. To this end he let the inmates roam free once he gained control of the sanatorium. |
| uncle and niece | major | Natalie and Dr. Norton, although it was revealed to her later that Dr. Norton was being impersonated by Dr. Fenwick. |
| what if I fell into the clutches of a person with malicious intent | major | Natalie realized she was locked up in a sanatorium that under the control of one of its former inmates, and that this man intended to do away with her. |
| corruption in society | minor | Dr. Fenwick accused Dr. Norton of keeping people locked up needlessly just because he didn't want to loose the $1,000 per month revenue stream from each patient. |
| delusion of being someone one is not | minor | The old (mostly bedridden) woman suffered from various peculiar delusions. She thought she was a famous person, had cavorted with famous people, and later that she was pregnant and had been so for five years. |
| husband and wife | minor | Howard and Ruth Fenwick. Ruth visited her husband, Howard, at the sanatorium. |