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.