Expert: Elisa Jordan - 10/11/2009

Question
Was Marylin Monroe diagnosed as a schizophrenic? was this what caused her death? or is it just a conspiracy theory?

Answer
Hi Danielle,

No, Marilyn was not diagnosed with schizophrenia. She was diagnosed with manic depression, which is now called bi-polar disorder, and was treated for this disorder.

Sadly, the source of that misinformation—that she had schizophrenia—appears to be her last psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenson. He said and did a great number of things to keep Marilyn dependent on him. Did he try to convince Marilyn that she was schizophrenic? Possibly. Marilyn’s mother, Gladys, WAS schizophrenic and Marilyn feared that she would end up like her. Greenson was the type of guy to exploit a fear like that.

If Marilyn had schizophrenia, there’s no doubt she would have discussed it with some of her friends, as she was prone to rely on her friends for advice and help. So, even Marilyn knew she didn’t have schizophrenia even though it was one of her great fears. The schizophrenia angle doesn’t appear to have been a big part of her relationship with Greenson. Keeping Marilyn under his thumb was his primary concern.

Greenson was known not only for his unorthodox (i.e. unethical) treatments, but for going into rages. There is at least one report of him losing his temper with another patient and screaming, “You’re schizophrenic!” It’s tough to say if that’s true, but Greenson was a shady guy, to say the very least.

The new Marilyn Monroe biography by J. Randy Taraborrelli has exploited this and claims that Marilyn was schizophrenic and began hearing voices in her teens. The evidence, however, simply does not support this. Not a single person in Marilyn’s life, from her husbands, friends, co-workers, boyfriends, roommates, half-sister, acting coaches, and so on, ever reported Marilyn hearing voices or suffering from schizophrenia. It’s just not true.

Incidentally, at the end of Marilyn’s life she was beginning to doubt Dr. Greenson’s treatments were helping her and starting to resent the control he had over her life, which included selecting friends and employees for her and even trying to influence the movies she made. Most people believe that she was about to fire Dr. Greenson.

All that being said, I don’t believe that this had anything to do with her death. I believe her death was accidental overdose. Some people believe that she accidentally overdosed herself; others believe that Greenson accidentally overdosed her during his house-call visit the day she died. Either way, she had access to too many prescription drugs. I don’t believe her death was intentional or murder.

If you have any other questions feel free to check back. In the meantime, thank you for the question and the opportunity to clear up the misinformation.

Cheers!
Elisa