When women used to be depressed or were not “taking care of their men” properly their husbands could send them to the psych ward for attitude adjustments. This was part of conditioning them to always wear a smile. They believed that if a woman saw herself smiling that it would become natural practice and that she would be “cured”. This often went along with shock therapies.
I found this post on Facebook with comments made by people with loved ones who wore these for the reasons mentioned above. After finding this story, I did a Google search and found out about a school in Budapest that used these masks for treatment of depression after World War 2. So yes, these stories are true.
