Washington City Paper: Contents for Jan. 16

Brain Storm
Psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey took schizophrenia off the couch and into the lab. Now he spends his days at St. Elizabeths probing a single question: What makes people crazy?

Cover Story

Psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey collects brains the way other people collect stamps or beer cans. He used to bring some home once in a while, but eventually his wife got sick of brain tissue hogging all the fridge space. Since then, the Frigidaire has been supplanted by 38 commercial-size freezers at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) neuroscience center, where Torrey oversees a privately funded research program on schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

The neuroscience center is tucked away in Anacostia in a century-old red brick building on the campus of St. Elizabeths Hospital. The building is a beauty, a classic edifice that could grace the cover of an Ivy League recruiting brochure, and Torrey looks very much the part of bearded college professor. Then again, he could also be mistaken for a patient, given his constant presence at the mental hospital for the better part of 20 years.

As he walks the yellowed halls of the William A. White Building, Torrey, 60, looks jaunty and athletic despite a degenerative hip that puts a hitch in his stride. Upstairs from his office, he comes to a door marked "biohazard," which he opens to reveal buckets of brains lining row after row of metal shelves. The brains are Torrey's obsession; he has collected the noodles of more than 200 unfortunate folks who suffered from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia since 1994.

Torrey gets excited when he talks about his batch of brains. "There has never been an attempt like this to do a single collection of brains," he says, almost giddily. "This is revolutionary in that sense. The big question is why no one did this before. The disease is in the brain. We need brains!"... Continued

Issue of Jan. 16 - 22, 1998

News and Features

Brain Storm
Psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey took schizophrenia off the couch and into the lab. Now he spends his days at St. Elizabeths probing a single question: What makes people crazy?
Cover Story By Stephanie Mencimer
Convenience Dumping
Everything's disposable at CVS—except the trash.
The City By Jason Cherkis
Room With a Feud
Landlord-tenant law goes out the window for weekly room renters.
The City By Tom Stabile
Gentrificational Wisdom
The Mail By Steve Donkin
Sneer Clear
The Mail By Christopher Herman
No Account
The Mail By Fania Fleissig
Pshaw
The Mail By Richard Rogers
Attention Center
The Mail By Francesca Dixon
Disgustibus Non Disputandum Est
The Mail By Rick Hogan
He's All Right Jack
The Mail By George M. Neighbors Jr.
Down on the Pharm
The Mail By Sue and Roy Goldstone
Never Break the Chain
The Mail By Joe Flood
La Via Bohème
The Mail By Robert G. Ortwine
Saint George
The Mail By A George Michael Fan

Columns

A Diamond in the Rough
Cheap Seats By Dave McKenna
Raging Bull
City Desk By Chaka Freeman, Michael Schaffer and Elissa Silverman
Control Board's School Fiasco
Loose Lips By Ken Cummins

Eats

Movies

Love and Marriage
Film Review By Joel E. Siegel
The Lost World
Film Review By Mark Jenkins
So Much for the Afterglow
Talking Pictures By Mark Jenkins
Snow Miser/Heat Miser
Film Review By Arion Berger

Music

Sticky Fingers
Doughnuts and shoplifting with math-rock spazzes Crom-Tech
Acts Locally By Elisa Nader
Talk About the Passions
Music Review By Rickey Wright
The Echo of a Song
Music Review By Joel E. Siegel
Unplugged
Music Review By Sean Daly
Harlem World
Music Review By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Shaken and Stirred
Music Review By Arion Berger

Theater

Zoot Allures
Theater Review By Bob Mondello
The Augustan Era
Theater Review By Bob Mondello
Backstage Pass
Theater Review By Trey Graham

Arts and Events

Going Public
Books By William Jelani Cobb
Talk Springs Eternal
Books By Meri Nana-Ama Danquah
Aim to Belize
Artifacts By Louis Jacobson
Train Keeps A-Rollin'
Artifacts By Christopher Porter

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