What I find very interesting is that it seems like she suffered from rather severe mental illness, but (IMHO) because of how society has responded to mental ill

What I find very interesting is that it seems like she suffered from rather severe mental illness, but (IMHO) because of how society has responded to mental illnesses over the past few hundred years, even the people she worked with and her family were very reluctant to talk about it. "Karen [her mother] declined to discuss Profet’s behavior or psychological state." It seems the shame of mental illness itself may have lead to some of her problems, and maybe have dissuaded her from getting help earlier. At the same time, she did seem to reach out for some help, but I guess it just wasn't enough. Even more so, it seems like her own family may feel this shame or be in denial if you look at the Nature link [0] provided by wglb. Her mother claims it was "physical" pain that drove her away, and caused her poverty, and that religion "sustained" her. Physical pain does not typically mean you stop talking to your family and friends for decades. And never mind the fact that she claims that her daughter didn't know people were looking for her. This quote from the original article I also found interesting about her disappearance and the family's response. "“I’ve found their reaction to her disappearance odd,” Eubanks says." It doesn't give any actual details, but just an odd comment for someone to make, and even odder to add it in the article. It's good that she's back with her family, and hopefully receiving the care she needs, but the family's response opens up more questions to me than answers. [edited to add: This seems a bit conspiratorially in retrospect, unintended. The only real point I was trying to make is how our view of mental illness plays a large role in how the mentally ill deal with their illnesses.] [0] provided by wlgb http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/05/missing-biologist-surfaces-reunites-with-family.html http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/05/missing-biologist-surfa...