Sunday, October 14, 2018

Insane Asylums of the Victorian Era

In today's society, hearing that someone has been admitted to a mental ward typically just means that they have suffered some sort of mental illness and are being treated. Mental wards provide patients with therapy, medications, and even game rooms or community rooms to unwind. In today's world, mental health facilities are known to be a great success in treating those who suffer from mental illnesses, but in the 19th century this wasn't necessarily the case.

If you were to visit a 19th century insane asylum, it would be much different than what we experience today. The eerily creepy design, the atrocious conditions, and horror stories that fill the halls is enough to make anyone's skin crawl; not to mention the treatments they offered to patients. According to the American Psychological Association, in the early days of insane asylums it was believed that mental illnesses were due to a defect in the nervous system. Doctors would treat patients with forms of electric stimulation and hydrotherapy in an attempt to treat their illnesses. In the last decade of the 19th century, though, a small handful of doctors began to think these illnesses were due to the conscious rather than the nervous system. They then began to use hypnosis as a way to treat patients, attempting to make patients subconscious aware of their hidden memories, and get rid of their symptoms.



Along with the odd and inhumane treatments, patients were treated in horrific, abusive ways. Ranker.com explains that some asylums would restrain patients to chairs that were hung from the ceiling then spun around for hours on end as a form of treatment. They also stated that nurses would abuse patients, including strangle them, rip their hair out, hold their heads underwater, as well as mocking and teasing the ill patients. These abusive actions alone are enough to make someone go crazy. It's no wonder than many patients would not see the outside world once admitted, considering the horrid ways they were treated and how they were made to feel while inside.

As if the horrible treatments of patients wasn't enough, the conditions of the asylums alone could cause nightmares. According to the Arizona Journals of Interdisciplinary Studies, these asylums were cold, damp, and very unsanitary, which caused the deaths of many patients. Often times these asylums would be infested with mice and many infectious diseases, and nobody bothered to take care of these issues. If the awful treatments and abusive staff weren't going to kill the patients, the disgusting living conditions would.

When we think of mental institutions in today's society, we think of hospitals made to treat patients and get them back on their feet as quickly and efficiently as possible. We picture places full of helpful staff and doctors who are equipped to handle any illness, but the mentally ill in the 19th century were not as lucky.









Works Cited
Clark, Emily. “Mad Literature: Insane Asylums in Nineteenth-Century America.” Arizona Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, vol. 4, 2015, pp. 44–46.

Holtzman, Dr. Ellen. “A Home Away from Home.” American Psychological Association, Mar. 2012, www.apa.org/monitor/2012/03/asylums.aspx.

Myers, Christopher. “Life in a 19th Century Mental Institution Was Basically Torture .” Ranker, www.ranker.com/list/life-in-19th-century-mental-institutions-and-insane-asylums/christopher-myers.



3 comments:

  1. While reading this blog, I was quite shocked and disgusted, to say the least, about the way in which the mentally ill were treated. A part of me understands that ignorance plays a huge role in these acts, however, another part of my just cannot fathom treating people who need help in this manner. I think it is completely inappropriate and truthfully, it probably did not help the situations. I think the real questions with a topic like this is: did anybody actually recover from their illness? It is so sad that people who needed help, ultimately either died from conditions in "treatment" or let their mental illness get so out of hand they never recovered back to a functioning contribution to society. Also, it may be interesting to think that maybe the nurses were a little bit insane? I feel like nobody in their right mind can be okay with treating fellow human beings like that but this may be my views molded by our modern society that says this. Overall, this was a great blog with a variety of interesting topics!

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  2. Wow, what a long way we came since then. Reading this definitely made my skin crawl. It's disgusting how people in the medical field would treat these innocent patients who really just wanted to get better. I know today some people are still abused but I hope not as bad as back then. Reading this somewhat also scared me especially knowing that I have friends and family in psychiatric units. I would love to know the statics on patients who entered these "hospitals" verses the number of patients who actually got to leave.

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  3. It astonishes me how incredibly cruel and inhumane insane asylums were in the 19th century. Before reading your blog, I had heard about the atrocities of insane asylums of the past, but I never knew to what extent. It makes me sick to think that patients were actually treated in this manner, especially by other human beings who perceived this treatment as acceptable and right. This makes me very thankful that over the centuries, we have completely changed our method of care and that we have advanced as a society in this aspect. Overall, this blog is very interesting and filled with a nice variety of topics regarding insane asylums of the 19th century!

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