In 1955, the annual intake of patients to American psychiatric facilities declined for the first time in a quarter of a century. The coming decades would witness the great deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill in America, as the wards at asylums like Creedmoor began to empty out. The success of Thorazine was hardly the only factor driving this seismic change, but it did seem to substantiate the theory to which Arthur subscribed—that mental illness was caused by brain chemistry, rather than immutable genetic tendency or a traumatic upbringing or flawed character. In fact, Thorazine created
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