Was Marshall Ashford Conned Into His General Hospital Diagnosis?

On General Hospital, Marshall Ashford finally revealed his big secret, the reason why he abandoned his family decades before: He was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and didn’t want to risk hurting his children.

General Hospital: A Difficult Past

Marshall (Robert Gossett) swears that he’s been taking his meds and hasn’t had a psychotic episode since. Which is pretty suspicious. Unless…something far more sinister transpired. A fan on social media recently brought forth a theory and it would be fascinating if this is indeed what GH has up their sleeve.

We’re From the Government and We’re Here To Help

Marshall said that his diagnosis was made after he was arrested for participating in numerous civil rights protests in the 1960s. What if Marshall was arrested because he was affiliated with groups the government considered terrorists?

Fun fact: The very first gun control laws were enacted in California to keep Black activists from owning guns — and putting him in a mental institution was a way to keep him docile and medicated. What if Marshall never had a mental illness? He was just told he did to stop his political activism. This would explain why he’s been fine ever since.

General Hospital: History of Violence

Don’t think the government would do that? After all, this is the era of the Great Society! The government vowed they’d protect their citizens, not deliberately harm them! There wouldn’t be anymore little glitches like the Tuskegee Experiment, which kept available medication from African-American men infected with syphilis to see how the disease would progress in them. That kind of thing belongs in the past. (Psst…Tuskegee only ended in 1972.)

GH: Either Way

So whether Marshall was flat out lied to, or whether he was part of an unethical experiment, it’s still possible that he walked away from his son Curtis Ashford (Donnell Turner) and the rest of the family all those years ago but was never sick at all. And he lost out on all those years with his family for nothing. Then again, he did pick up a collection of lovely hats along the way. So all was not lost. Think this could be the story? Let us know in the comments section below.

General Hospital (GH) airs weekdays on ABC. Check your local listings for airtimes. For more about what’s coming up in Port Charles, check out all the latest that’s been posted on GH spoilers, and for an in-depth look at the show’s history, click here.