All: All Time Greatest Mental Breakdowns?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Cindy Beale from EastEnders, especially during the time she stole the kids from Ian and had him shot and fled to Italy. Strangely, I always had sympathy for her and I always thought that, in her mind at least, she always felt she was doing the right thing.

Too bad most of her good stuff isn't on YouTube.

[Pine Charles]

Well, Janet Green was always kinda crazy. But you can't have a thread with the word "mental" in it without a JFAP inclusion..........

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[Cheap21]

when it comes to Kimberlin Brown, Shiela would be the obvious choice, but I thought she did a great job as Rachel on PC as well

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[Dr Neil Curtis]

Alexandra Brooks-Carver(DiMera), Days!

[DaytimeFan]

Kristin Blake, DAYS

Lexie Carver, DAYS

Gwyn, LOVING

Ashley, Y&R

Katherine, Y&R

Tricia, Y&R

Sheila, B&B

Morgan, B&B

[teplin]

I liked Laura Horton's slow descent into madness on DOOL. I loved that nobody realized what was happening to Laura even as she continued her psychiatry practice. She was treating Julie in the aftermath of Julie getting burned and scarred, and instead of making Julie feel better about herself, Laura made Julie feel more isolated and alone and unworthy of Doug's love. I remember Laura also put a very young Jennifer on a bus, alone and afraid. I think that's when her illness was identified, ushering her off the show. I never really warmed to Rosemary Forsyth, who had taken over for the fantastic Susan Flannery, but Forsyth was quite effective as Laura unraveled.

[Dr Neil Curtis]

I wish I could have seen that. I hear so much about the laura horton of yesteryears but I only got to see jamie lynn bauer in the role.

[saynotoursoap]

I concur, teplin. Laura's descent into madness was one of the last great stories of what I consider the golden age of Days. I actually liked Rosemary Forsyth in the role. Rosemary did not replace Susan Flannery; Susan Oliver did. Although Susan Flannery is and always will be the definitive Laura for me, I preferred Rosemary Forsyth over Susan Oliver.

The story began under Ann Marcus' writing and was to have been quite different, I understand. Laura's mother Carrie had been institutionalized forever. In March 1979, Laura received word that an experimental drug (methylphenadate) might bring Carrie out of her psychosis. Laura began to have premonitions that something was amiss. At that point, Betty Corday replaced Ann Marcus with Elizabeth Harrower as headwriter, and Harrower had Carrie suddenly commit suicide in the asylum. Carrie's suicide sent Laura over the edge. I remember many creepy scenes in which Carrie appeared to Laura, taunting her that Carrie's death was her fault and warning Laura that she awaited a similar fate.

Laura quickly slipped into a morbid depression that was noticed by Marlena and Jordan Barr, but no one in the Horton family wanted to believe them. I remember the scenes in which Laura gave a burned, hospitalized Julie drugs, then told her that Doug was lying when he vowed Julie was still beautiful to him. Julie freaked out and ran away from the hospital with Laura's encouragement. After the incident with Jennifer and the bus, Laura locked herself in her room, downed a bottle of pills, and attempted to hang herself. This was around July 1979 and was pretty heavy stuff for that era.

[saynotoursoap]

The descent into madness of Jennifer on Search for Tomorrow definitely qualifies as one of the all time greatest mental breakdowns. I know some people dismiss Morgan Fairchild as just another pretty face, but her portrayal of a beautiful coed used and abused by men, was spot on and memorable. The amount of mental trauma Jennifer experienced in the three short years the character appeared was mind-boggling.

Jennifer was manipulated into pulling the plug on Doug Martin's respirator. She went to prison, where she was harassed by inmates. She discovered she was pregnant with alcoholic attorney Scott Phillips' child. Scott married her, but he was still in love with his ex-wife Kathy. Scott ignored and tormented Jennifer, and during a drunken argument, caused Jennifer to fall through a plate glass patio door. The fall killed their unborn child and resulted in a long hideous scar across Jennifer's beautiful face. When Eunice Wyatt told her husband John that making love with him was not physically satisfying, John turned to the lonely Jennifer, who became obsessed with his desire and attention. Jennifer considered John her savior, and she was determined to keep him at all costs.

But, John's marriage to Eunice had once been solid, and he slowly drifted back to her. A desperate Jennifer trashed her apartment and told John that she was receiving obscene phone calls from a mad rapist. Jennifer even convinced her friend Stephanie Wilkins to phone the apartment and breath heavily into the phone to convince John of the threat. The ploy worked, and John stayed until the scam fell through, exposing Jennifer's lies. To get John back, Jennifer phoned a doctor and pretended to be a writer researching suicide. Jennifer learned how many sleeping pills she could take and still survive if she was discovered within a specific period time. Jennifer took the pills and made a date with David Sutton, specifying the exact time he needed to pick her up. David was delayed, however, and Jennifer nearly died from the overdose. The doctors suspected brain damage might have occurred, but when Jennifer awoke, she appeared perfectly normal.

Her appearance belied what was going on in her mind. Jennifer fell into psychotic fantasies in which she thought she was talking to John. John told her that he loved her, but the only way they could be together was if Jennifer killed Eunice. Jennifer stole a gun and began stalking Eunice on the streets of Henderson as she went through her daily routine of shopping and lunching. Jennifer's attempts to kill Eunice were always thwarted at the last minute. In her fantasies, John instructed her to break into his and Eunice's home, stage a burglary, and kill Eunice in the process. Jennifer followed John's instructions. I remember at the time that everyone who watched Search thought that John would return to the apartment and save Eunice, but it did not happen. Jennifer coldly shot Eunice in the back with John's voice echoing in her head "Do it!".

After Euince's death, Jennifer lost all touch with reality. The police caught up with her, and she confessed that she and John had conspired to murder Eunice so that they could be together. John was gobsmacked, but an insane Jennifer truly believed the psychotic fantasies, and when the police checked her story, everything she said was verified. Jennifer's insanity signed her and John's death warrant. The story was gripping and so well played by everyone involved.

[DRW50]

Everything you've said about the Jennifer story seems gripping. The few clips that are available seem very stark, especially for that era.

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[Bright Eyes]

What ended up happening to John then?

[dsvd79]

Annie Dutton GL- I can still remember her taking an axe to Reva and Josh carving on the mantel of the fireplace at the Lewis Cabin.

Sheila Carter B&B- She had many. lol

Ashley Abbott B&B- I think her best one was after her abortion of Victor's child

Tricia Dennison Y&R- When she shot Ryan, and when she had Matt Clark as her figment of her Imagination.

[teplin]

Thank you for providing more details on the Laura story, saynotoyoursoap -- I only saw the show during the summer, so there are lots of gaps in my knowledge! I agree, Rosemary Forsyth was way better than Susan Oliver. It's just that Flannery was such a force of nature, it's tough for any actress (or series of actresses) to follow her -- I never particularly bought Jamie Lyn Bauer's portrayal either. (It's the same problem I had with AW's Carmen Duncan -- she's a good and likable actress and she had chemistry with her co-stars, but she couldn't hold a candle to the sheer perfection of Beverlee McKinsey. I ended up just thinking of Duncan's Iris as a completely different character.) I thought Flannery was also a lot sexier than Forsyth, who came off a bit school-marmish.

Thanks too for the SFT Jennifer background -- I wish I had seen that story!

[Gray Bunny]

Was GL's Tory a mental case? Wish I had seen it, if only to have seen the last frontburner storyline for Blake & Ross...

[ghfan89]

Heather Webber and the LSD? When she was then sent to a menstal institution?