S12 E18 - F-Bomb - Michigan's Frankenstein Complex - The Asylums That Tried to Rebuild the Human Mind

On this episode of F-Bomb Friday, we step into Michigan’s unsettling psychiatric history through the lens of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. From the massive institutional city of Eloise Psychiatric Hospital, to the carefully designed Kirkbride architecture of Traverse City State Hospital, to the long-term confinement and haunted folklore surrounding Northville Psychiatric Hospital, this episode explores the question at the heart of the Michigan “Frankenstein” Complex: what happens when a system decides a human being can be repaired, corrected, redesigned, or rebuilt? This is not a story about one monster. It is a story about institutions, intention, overcrowding, medical experimentation, containment, and the human cost of believing suffering can be processed at scale. Blending Michigan history, asylum folklore, haunted locations, and the eerie legacy of psychiatric care, F-Bomb Friday asks whether the scariest creation was ever a creature at all — or the systems built with certainty that they were doing the right thing. #FBombFriday #MichiganHistory #Frankenstein #HauntedMichigan #MaliceInTheMitten Hosted and Produced by Tracy Preston, featuring Todd Preston Story researched and writtten by Todd Preston Original music created exclusively for F-Bomb by Tracy Preston Original artwork by Todd Preston Sources: “Eloise Psychiatric Hospital.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eloise_(psychiatric_hospital). Accessed 23 June 2026. “Michigan’s Most Haunted: Eloise Psychiatric Hospital.” ClickOnDetroit, 24 Oct. 2016, https://www.clickondetroit.com/features/2016/10/24/michigans-most-haunted-eloise-psychiatric-hospital/. Accessed 23 June 2026. Eloise Historical Society. https://www.eloisemuseum.org. Accessed 23 June 2026. The Eloise Asylum. https://eloiseasylum.com. Accessed 23 June 2026. “Traverse City State Hospital.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traverse_City_State_Hospital. Accessed 23 June 2026. “Traverse City State Hospital.” Kirkbride Buildings, https://www.kirkbridebuildings.com/buildings/traversecity/. Accessed 23 June 2026. “Traverse City Regional Psychiatric Hospital.” Northern Michigan History, https://northernmichiganhistory.com/traverse-city-regional-psychiatric-hospital/. Accessed 23 June 2026. “History.” The Village at Grand Traverse Commons, https://www.thevillagetc.com/about. Accessed 23 June 2026. “Historical & Haunted Traverse City State Hospital.” Awesome Mitten, https://www.awesomemitten.com/traverse-city-state-hospital/. Accessed 23 June 2026. “Northville Regional Psychiatric Hospital.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northville_Regional_Psychiatric_Hospital. Accessed 23 June 2026. “State to Build New Psychiatric Hospital.” Michigan Department of Health & Human Services, 17 Apr. 2023, https://www.michigan.gov/mdhhs/inside-mdhhs/newsroom/2023/04/17/new-psychiatric-hospital. Accessed 23 June 2026. Detroit Free Press. https://www.freep.com. Accessed 23 June 2026. Northville Historical Society. https://www.millracenorthville.org. Accessed 23 June 2026. Kirkbride Buildings. https://www.kirkbridebuildings.com. Accessed 23 June 2026. “Thomas Story Kirkbride.” Expedition Magazine, Penn Museum, https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/thomas-story-kirkbride/. Accessed 23 June 2026. “Kirkbride Plan.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirkbride_Plan. Accessed 23 June 2026. “Lobotomy.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/science/lobotomy. Accessed 23 June 2026. “Insulin Shock Therapy.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/science/insulin-shock-therapy. Accessed 23 June 2026. “Electroconvulsive Therapy.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/science/electroconvulsive-therapy. Accessed 23 June 2026. “Hydrotherapy.” U.S. National Library of Medicine, https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/historicalanatomies/hydrotherapy.html. Accessed 23 June 2026.