The behavior of Charles Nash, Mrs. Martin, and others involved in the rumor seemed to reflect the Cold War paranoia then sweeping the nation, and the ways in which the horrors of the world were bearing down on everyday people. It was a rumor, a lie with no basis in fact, allegedly perpetrated not by a patient but by a nurse. The lines between reality and imagination, and who was sane and who was insane, were thin. As silly as they seem, those rumors had the potential to cause real harm and to distract from the very real crises that patients at Crownsville had been rioting and crying out for
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