Norma Jean Mortenson's The Surgeon Story

In Los Angeles, California in 1926, Norma Jean Mortenson was born to Gladys Baker. Norma grew up damaged by foster homes, neglect, and abuse as a result of her mother's mental instability. Despite her troubled childhood, she managed to become a successful model and screen actress later in her life. Norma would change her name to Marilyn Monroe, and become one of the most famous stars of the 20th century. Her rise was rapid, but so was her downfall. She became increasingly unstable. Marilyn was under the influence of so many pills that she became notoriously unreliable and difficult to work with. Production on her final feature, Something's Got to Give, was even cancelled because the studio had lost faith and hope in her. At that time, …show more content…
The story details the traumatic experience that she endured in 1955 under the watch of Lee Strasberg and Dr. Margaret Hohenburg, her acting coach and another of her psychiatrists respectively, and under the power of mind-control techniques and drugs. She went to the duo to help her overcome the obstacles she encountered in her acting career. Strasberg and Hohenburg insisted that Marilyn explore painful memories from her childhood, in order to improve her acting. This terrifying mental “operation” was used to take her apart and transform her behavior. She writes the details of the “surgery” on a piece of stationary. The story begins with her being cut open by her “surgeon,” Strasberg, and goes on to say that Dr. Hohenburg had prepared her by giving her anesthetic, diagnosing her condition, and deciding that what had to be done was an operation to rejuvenate and cure her. She concludes the disturbing tale by saying that Strasberg cuts into her, psychologically, but nothing is inside. Despite the common referral to the story as a dream or nightmare, it very much describes a dark time in Marilyn’s troubled life. Strasberg and Hohenburg tore apart her soul and personality, breaking her down and ultimately destroying her. When writing the “Surgeon Story,” Marilyn was under the influence of mind-altering drugs, which is shown through not only her written testament, but also through her …show more content…
Phenergan, a drug not tested for during her autopsy, was the drug that pushed Marilyn over the edge. It was prescribed to her the day before her death to help her sleep, but seeing as her body was not acclimated to it as it was to her other drugs, it caused a fatal reaction. Nembutal, the drug that is blamed as the one that caused her death, was not the definite reason for her demise, though it did contribute to her decline in respiratory stability and health in general. Her doctors prescribed too many drugs to her, causing the effects to be counteracted and resulting in harm to her body. Monroe documented her psychological abuse in the “Surgeon Story,” which details her terrifying psychological break down and reconstruction at the hands of Lee Strasberg and Dr. Margaret Hohenburg, with help from Dr. Anna Freud and Dr. Marianne Kris. They put Monroe under the influence of drugs to force her to turn over her life and personal funds to them. Those who were responsible for Marilyn’s rapid decline and death were never prosecuted, and continued to benefit financially from her legacy until the day they died. Unfortunately, justice will never be served for the beautiful starlet whose life and mind were taken from her, simply as because of her