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Louis Theroux: By Reason Of Insanity
March 22, 2015 at 6:20 pm
(This post was last modified: March 22, 2015 at 6:20 pm by TubbyTubby.)
Just watched the first episode of this. I love Louis' style of interview and he manages to get responses from mentally ill patients where others would fail. This one is from a secure hospital in Ohio and is a great insight into a world that most of us will never see.
Revealingly, even though the documentary made no claims to a common issue, 3 of the 4 patients in this episode were religiously delusional. One young chap had clearly been involved in evangelical work, whether it was a cause or effect of his obvious mental state I couldn't really work out. He was in a bad way though, and his mother appeared to have her own set of issues as well.
Anyone watch it? I look forward to the next episode.
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RE: Louis Theroux: By Reason Of Insanity
March 22, 2015 at 6:55 pm
I like the documentary on the Phelps family that Theroux did. I wonder if this documentary is on Netflix or Hulu? I don't have cable.
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RE: Louis Theroux: By Reason Of Insanity
March 22, 2015 at 9:37 pm
(This post was last modified: March 22, 2015 at 9:41 pm by Napoléon.)
Louis Theroux is fucking awesome. IMO the best at what he does. So many of his documentaries are great, especially the ones that highlight the hypocrisies of certain groups, like the religious cults or the neo-nazis. He does it in such a way where he doesn't even directly criticise what these people are notoriously crazy for, he just points out the odd thing and the person he interviews usually trips over their own words and makes a fool of themselves. Also he's the ultimate troll. So many times I've seen him interviewing people and he's just blatantly taking the piss, but he does it all with a completely straight face. His humour is incredibly dry.
I wanted to watch this new one but missed it, guessing it's on iplayer?
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RE: Louis Theroux: By Reason Of Insanity
March 22, 2015 at 10:21 pm
(March 22, 2015 at 6:20 pm)TubbyTubby Wrote: Just watched the first episode of this. I love Louis' style of interview and he manages to get responses from mentally ill patients where others would fail. This one is from a secure hospital in Ohio and is a great insight into a world that most of us will never see.
Revealingly, even though the documentary made no claims to a common issue, 3 of the 4 patients in this episode were religiously delusional. One young chap had clearly been involved in evangelical work, whether it was a cause or effect of his obvious mental state I couldn't really work out. He was in a bad way though, and his mother appeared to have her own set of issues as well.
Anyone watch it? I look forward to the next episode.
The cause of the evangelical guys mental illness in my opinion stems from him taking a lot of LSD at a young age.
I can only remember 2 delusional people who had mentioned religion, the evangelical guy and the woman who said she was Jesus.
And I think there were 5 people I remember, the guy who slit his dads throat, the evangelical guy, the jesus woman, the guy who beat the cop with a pole to try and get president obama elected, the black guy who shot 2 strangers in a bar.
The episode reminded me of this woman I used to see when I used to catch the bus, I remember her talking to a man once randomly talking about how people can't follow other people or something odd and he just moved his daughter away from her. She also has this collection of about 100 key rings on her handbag, and she used to look at me so angrily and suspiciously sometimes I'd just be thinking please don't be hearing voices telling you to kill me.
The people in the episode were sort of like the stereotypical people you do not want to live near.
Are you ready for the fire? We are firemen. WE ARE FIREMEN! The heat doesn’t bother us. We live in the heat. We train in the heat. It tells us that we’re ready, we’re at home, we’re where we’re supposed to be. Flames don’t intimidate us. What do we do? We control the flame. We control them. We move the flames where we want to. And then we extinguish them.
Impersonation is treason.
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RE: Louis Theroux: By Reason Of Insanity
March 23, 2015 at 2:42 am
The black guy had a lot of god paraphernalia in his room, he didn't mention it directly though.
They were all quite unnerving, certainly not people you want to meet at the bus stop. I'm not sure you can blame LSD for the evangical guy just from what we saw in the documentary. There were a lot of things going on, his mum seemed just as fucked up as he was. To the doctor "show me a scan of his brain and how it is different to a normal one" hints at someone who is also tended toward denial/delusion. They were just a very strange pair, especially at the end where they were sat on the sofa watching his old videos of him preaching - him looking emotionless and her smiling. Very odd.
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RE: Louis Theroux: By Reason Of Insanity
March 23, 2015 at 9:48 am
(March 23, 2015 at 2:42 am)TubbyTubby Wrote: The black guy had a lot of god paraphernalia in his room, he didn't mention it directly though.
They were all quite unnerving, certainly not people you want to meet at the bus stop. I'm not sure you can blame LSD for the evangical guy just from what we saw in the documentary. There were a lot of things going on, his mum seemed just as fucked up as he was. To the doctor "show me a scan of his brain and how it is different to a normal one" hints at someone who is also tended toward denial/delusion. They were just a very strange pair, especially at the end where they were sat on the sofa watching his old videos of him preaching - him looking emotionless and her smiling. Very odd.
All I can do is guess about the guys background but this is my guess.
He took too much acid while he was too young, probably combined with some very slight mental illness which was already there turned him paranoid and delusional.
His parents feel some guilt over it, his mother's probably heartbroken and in denial about her son being abnormal, she might think he turned to drugs as a reaction to the divorce her and her husband went through.
He's then found a part of society where hearing voices in your head and delusional ranting is looked up to rather than frowned upon (evangelism) and his mother probably sees it as at least something to be proud of slightly.
Are you ready for the fire? We are firemen. WE ARE FIREMEN! The heat doesn’t bother us. We live in the heat. We train in the heat. It tells us that we’re ready, we’re at home, we’re where we’re supposed to be. Flames don’t intimidate us. What do we do? We control the flame. We control them. We move the flames where we want to. And then we extinguish them.
Impersonation is treason.
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RE: Louis Theroux: By Reason Of Insanity
March 23, 2015 at 9:54 am
(March 22, 2015 at 6:20 pm)TubbyTubby Wrote: he manages to get responses from mentally ill patients where others would fail. Maybe because he has more in common with them than we might think? 
Love Louis and his quirky style. I often find myself thinking that it's his eccentricities that free him to ask questions that others don't.
Sum ergo sum
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RE: Louis Theroux: By Reason Of Insanity
March 23, 2015 at 1:15 pm
Could be that Ben, or could be that he has massive balls. Seen quite a few times where he asks questions that most other interviewers would be too scared to ask. I think it's that he seems so harmless as a person, people are more inclined to get along with him. He never gets angry or loses his cool.
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RE: Louis Theroux: By Reason Of Insanity
March 24, 2015 at 5:57 am
(March 23, 2015 at 1:15 pm)Napoléon Wrote: Could be that Ben, or could be that he has massive balls. Seen quite a few times where he asks questions that most other interviewers would be too scared to ask. I think it's that he seems so harmless as a person, people are more inclined to get along with him. He never gets angry or loses his cool. 'Louis Theroux: His Massive Balls' might well be the title of his next series.
Sum ergo sum
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Louis Theroux: By Reason Of Insanity
March 24, 2015 at 6:17 am
The best moment of the first episode for me was when he returned with one of the staff to talk with the old lady (who he previously chatted with over a game of cards).
During this meeting, the old lady revealed that she was Jesus Christ the messiah. Louis' reaction was stone cold "you didn't mention that the other day" as though he were commenting on her saying she liked fish and chips.
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