In the early 20th century, doctors approved radium-based paint for watch dials.Young women were instructed to ingest it daily to improve precision.The company knew radium bonded permanently to bone.That research was filed. Production continued.As the women sickened, medical authorities denied the cause.Every symptom was reclassified. Every death was delayed in court.Some survivors remained radioactive for the rest of their lives.This is how medical denial outlasted the evidence.

In the 1950s, psychiatry declared a revolution.Chlorpromazine—later branded as Thorazine—emptied wards, reduced agitation, and made patients cooperative. The profession celebrated. Awards were given. Hospitals reorganized around the drug.But Thorazine was not designed to heal the mind.It was designed to suppress shock.This episode examines how an accidental anesthetic became the foundation of modern psychiatric care—and how irreversible neurological damage was accepted as progress when the only metric that mattered was quiet.

Doctors once treated mental illness by removing consciousness itself.Patients were sedated for days.Sometimes weeks.The silence was recorded as improvement.In 1979, a coroner ruled sleep therapy a direct cause of patient deaths.The practice faded quietly.No ban. No apology.This is how unconsciousness became care — and why no one could measure what was lost.