Every Monday on Global Comment, we share the slow, thoughtful, considerate words that our brains – and souls – need but that it’s easy to miss in our busy world. We distil the best of the web and recommend just three links every week that you absolutely must see.
No fluff, no fuss, just three exceptional reads.
Here are this week’s recommendations:
My father was always told his mother was dead, but a birthday card revealed she was living in a mental institution (Dr Alison Watts / The Conversation)
I researched the history of “puerperal insanity” and its association with dangerous mothers and infanticide. A dark and taboo subject, it conjures the “madwoman” trope in our cultural imagination and is rooted in popular discourses of the murderous mother, the crazy wife in the attic, or the suicidal mother.
The horror of maternal insanity plays on our worst fears: as vulnerable young babies, we depend on our mothers to care for us.
It’s upsetting that an outdated 19th-century diagnosis was still being used to commit mothers like Ada in 1936. In the 100 years that had passed since “puerperal insanity” was coined, psychiatry had still not developed a better understanding of motherhood, or mental illness.
What makes Elon Musk tick? I spent months following the same people as him to find out who fuels his curious worldview (David Runciman / The Guardian)
At the same time as blowing virtual smoke up the arses of his fellow world leaders, a lot of the accounts he follows are there to blow plug-in smoke up his arse. His timeline is peppered with posts from assorted Tesla boosters, such as Tesla Owners Silicon Valley, Car Dealership Guy and a slew of other happy investors in his business, who spend their time telling the big boss how amazing he is and wetting themselves at each new rollout or share price spike. Musk does engage with these people. He feeds them goodies like a dog owner might treat his pets, with little hints about what’s coming next. Some of these accounts even revere his mother, Maye Musk (according to her Twitter bio, a “Bestselling International Author/Doctor of Dietetics/Supermodel”) – who was invited to give the keynote this summer at the annual gathering of the Silicon Valley Tesla crowd. Musk, as a family man, likes that.
Why Are Fish Better Than Babies? (QI)
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Image: Liam Pozz