Insane Asylums in the 19th Century

When discussing mental health it has always been a hushed subject, even in today's day and age.  This holds especially true within the Victorian Era.  Although we have come a long way in medical advances and treatment of patients, this discussion of mental health continues to be one that people often avoid.  In the 19th century new thinking lead to what later became the asylums that we all know of today (4).  However this new idea of housing the mentally ill fell short of all the utopian goals that were expected of these mental institutions.  This started simply with the administration process to be placed into one of these facilities.  During the 19th century any person that had a mental disorder or simply should signs that were abnormal during this time period were whisked away from their daily life and put into an asylum.  This means that people who could have been having an off day or just merely acting out could be put in these mad houses.


Formation

Layout plan of Trenton State Hospital 1848 (Gallery)

Before large scale institutions were put into place the mentally ill would put either taken care of in the confines of their own home or put into, what was known as, a private madhouse.  These homes were run by the parish of the county or state and had doctors which were referred to as mad doctor (5).  These doctors were rarely licensed or fit to be treating any patient.  With the little care that went into patients and their care, the Lunacy Act of 1890 was eventually put into place.  This act provided a wider role on patients and those who were admitted to these houses.  Reformers would claim that this was a new and safe haven for treating lunatics and teaching idiots (5).  This started the trend of what would become the new mental institutions of the day and turn into torture chambers for these patients.

The asylums themselves were set to look as though they were in a utopian society.  They would be set in rural areas, usually with farms or nothing in the distance.  Patients would work on these farms as a form of labor treatment.  The buildings stood tall and majestic in the middle of these country sides.  The idea of the construction of the buildings was that there would be a central hub area and then two long wings that jutted out from each side (4).  The two wings were sectioned off by sex and then by symptoms of illness.  The most well behaved were housed along the upper floors, while the more troublesome stayed in the bottom level.  The idea was that the the maximization of natural light and the fresh air would become curative for these patients.


Treatment

19th Century Spinning Chair Treatment (Jones)

In the 19th century the treatment of these patients was new and faced many moral dilemmas.  In today's day and age it's known that mental illness cannot always be cured but more so set up with a long term treatment.  In the 1800's all they were searching for was a way to cure these patients.  Diagnosing patients was often based upon whether they could care for themselves or not.  Once they would be diagnosed as mental unstable they would then become a ward of the state and live the rest of their days in the asylum.  Becoming a patient often meant that they would be a patient for the rest of their lives (4).  The way that patients were treated in the 19th century is now found as inhumane and torturous.  Treatments of the patients could include being put in the Spinning Chair, which suspended the patients in a chair and then spun around for hours on end.  If the patient threw up this was seen as them having toxins leave their body.  Other treatments included being restrained, isolated or beaten.  Hydrotherapy frequently occurred and patients were forcibly stripped into the bathtubs and restrained during the duration of the therapy (4).  The treatment itself would be more of a torture tactic to try and understand how patients would receive the treatment and what was actually wrong with them.

Women in Asylums
An important aspect of the 19th century asylums was that women were more often that not whisked away from their families and put into these treatment centers.  The cause of their admittance to an asylum could simply be that they were being too hysterical.  The would be committed for stress, overwork, post-natal depression and epilepsy.  Straight to the point is that they could have been committed for simply just being women.  Husbands had the power of their wives and could commit them at their own will.  The idea that women were more frantic or hysterical was seen as a mental illness that needed to be treated.  They would often times be subdued to the hydrotherapy as a treatment for hyper sexuality.   Female organs were also seen as having mental illness imbedded inside them.  Having menopause or a healthy sex life were grounds for women to be put in an insane asylum.  Nellie Bly wrote Ten Days in a Mad-House, where she faked insanity to get an inside look into what was happening in the asylums.  She found that many of the women there were forced to live there and that when she looked around she only saw normal women locked up in a prison (4).




Works Cited

1.) “Gallery One: UK Victorian Asylums.” Mad, Bad and Desperate - Crime and Insanity in Historical Britain, criminalunacy.blogspot.com/p/gallery-one-uk-asylums.html.

2.) Holtzman, Ellen. “A Home Away from Home.” Monitor on Psychology, American Psychological Association, 2012, www.apa.org/monitor/2012/03/asylums.aspx.

3.) Jones, Emma E. K. “The Chair of Moros.” Treatment of Mental Disorders : from the Stone Age till the Middle Ages., 1 Jan. 1970, the-chair-of-moros.blogspot.com/2011/06/treatment-of-mental-disorders-from.html.

4.) Myers, Christopher. “13 Unforgivable Facts About Life In 19th Century Insane Asylums.” Ranker, www.ranker.com/list/life-in-19th-century-mental-institutions-and-insane-asylums/christopher-myers.

5.) “The Growth of the Asylum - a Parallel World.” Historic England, historicengland.org.uk/research/inclusive-heritage/disability-history/1832-1914/the-growth-of-the-asylum/.