Girls and Their Monsters Titelbild

Girls and Their Monsters

The Genain Quadruplets and the Making of Madness in America

 Reinhören
Dieses Angebot sichern 0,00 € - kostenlos hören
Das Angebot endet am 29. Januar 2026 23:59 Uhr. Es gelten die Audible Nutzungsbedingungen.
Prime Logo Bist du Amazon Prime-Mitglied?
Audible 60 Tage kostenlos testen
Für die ersten drei Monate erhältst du die Audible-Mitgliedschaft für nur 0,99 € pro Monat.
Pro Monat bekommst du ein Guthaben für einen beliebigen Titel aus unserem gesamten Premium-Angebot. Dieser bleibt für immer in deiner Bibliothek.
Höre tausende enthaltene Hörbücher, Audible-Originale, Podcasts und vieles mehr.
Pausiere oder kündige dein Abo monatlich.
Aktiviere das kostenlose Probeabo mit der Option, monatlich flexibel zu pausieren oder zu kündigen.
Nach dem Probemonat bekommst du eine vielfältige Auswahl an Hörbüchern, Kinderhörspielen und Original Podcasts für 9,95 € pro Monat.
Wähle monatlich einen Titel aus dem Gesamtkatalog und behalte ihn.

Girls and Their Monsters

Von: Audrey Clare Farley
Gesprochen von: Kate Udall
Dieses Angebot sichern 0,00 € - kostenlos hören

9,95 €/Monat nach 3 Monaten. Das Angebot endet am 29. Januar 2026 23:59 Uhr. Monatlich kündbar.

9,95 € pro Monat nach 30 Tagen. Monatlich kündbar.

Für 21,95 € kaufen

Für 21,95 € kaufen

Nur 0,99 € pro Monat für die ersten 3 Monate

Danach 9.95 € pro Monat. Bedingungen gelten.

Über diesen Titel

 For readers of Hidden Valley Road and Patient H.M., an “intimate and compassionate portrait” (Grace M. Cho) of the Genain quadruplets, the harrowing violence they experienced, and its psychological and political consequences.​

In 1954, researchers at the newly formed National Institute of Mental Health set out to study the genetics of schizophrenia. When they got word that four 24-year-old identical quadruplets in Lansing, Michigan, had all been diagnosed with the mental illness, they could hardly believe their ears. Here was incontrovertible proof of hereditary transmission and, thus, a chance to bring international fame to their fledgling institution.

The case of the pseudonymous Genain quadruplets, they soon found, was hardly so straightforward. Contrary to fawning media portrayals of a picture-perfect Christian family, the sisters had endured the stuff of nightmares. Behind closed doors, their parents had taken shocking measures to preserve their innocence while sowing fears of sex and the outside world. In public, the quadruplets were treated as communal property, as townsfolk and members of the press had long ago projected their own paranoid fantasies about the rapidly diversifying American landscape onto the fair-skinned, ribbon-wearing quartet who danced and sang about Christopher Columbus. Even as the sisters’ erratic behaviors became impossible to ignore and the NIMH whisked the women off for study, their sterling image did not falter.

Girls and Their Monsters chronicles the extraordinary lives of the quadruplets and the lead psychologist who studied them, asking questions that speak directly to our times: How do delusions come to take root, both in individuals and in nations? Why does society profess to be “saving the children” when it readily exploits them? What are the authoritarian ends of innocence myths? And how do people, particularly those with serious mental illness, go on after enduring the unspeakable? Can the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood help the deeply wounded heal? Akademiker & Spezialisten Frauen Medizin Seelische & Geistige Gesundheit

Kritikerstimmen

“In Girls and Their Monsters, Audrey Clare Farley embraces the complexity of mental health and human relationships. In her hands, the story of the Genain quadruplets is at once disturbing and heartening. It’s a tale of despair and resilience, about the ways we hurt each other and lift each other up.”—Josh Levin, award-winning author of The Queen
"Girls and Their Monsters is both an intimate and compassionate portrait of girls growing up under the constant gaze of media, doctors and government agencies, and a well-researched analysis of a nation in the grip of social illness. Farley shows us the interplay between American eugenics, white supremacy, and the hidden and widespread abuse of children within their own homes and communities, and how these monstrosities created the conditions for a madness that was deemed a biological disease of the individual. This book is brilliant and riveting."—Grace M. Cho, author of National Book Award Finalist, Tastes Like War
“Farley’s narrative is based in deep research and makes for her nuanced analysis of the country’s shifting attitudes toward childhood and mental health. Readers will be riveted.”—Publishers Weekly
PRAISE FOR THE UNFIT HEIRESS

"A disturbing yet thought-provoking tale of family strife and ethically unsound medical practice."—Kirkus Reviews
“This book is as timely as ever. A gripping tale about the atrocity of systematic reproductive control.”—Booklist, starred review
"In Audrey Clare Farley's book, the fascinating and unsettling case—and the worldwide media sensation it caused—is carefully revisited to expose what it meant to be considered an unfit parent and how easily family can become foes."—Town and Country
“Expertly blending biography and history, and using the life of Ann Cooper Hewitt as a backdrop, Farley has created an absorbing biography effectively explaining how the legacy of eugenics still persists today. Hewitt’s story will engage anyone interested in women’s history.”—Library Journal
“The Unfit Heiress is a sensational story told with nuance and humanity with clear reverberations to the present. Historian Audrey Clare Farley's writing jumps off the page, as Ann Cooper Hewitt, once a one-dimensional tabloid fixation, is brought into full relief as a complicated victim of her time, standing in the crosshairs of the growing eugenics movement and the emergence of a "over-sexed" and "dangerous" New Woman. But most importantly, this book is a necessary call to remember the high stakes and terrible history of the longstanding fight for control over women's bodies.”—Susannah Cahalan, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Brain on Fire
Noch keine Rezensionen vorhanden