Mental Illness & Insane Asylums

The Unspoken Conversation

Mental illness is one of the least talked about and most important topics of the decade and has been prominent in history since the Victorian Era. The National Alliance on Mental Illness estimates that 1 in 5 adults experience a mental illness in a given year, this is a whopping 18.5%.  Although conversations about mental illness can be uncomfortable, it must be recognized that mental illnesses can be as common as physical illnesses and should be treated and cured as they are. Curing a mental illness can be difficult for people to do without guidance from an experienced doctor or team of doctors which is often the reason for individuals being sent to stay in mental asylums.

Insanity 

The formation of public mental asylums as we know them today was one of the most fascinating elements of the Nineteenth century. This is in part because before these public institutions existed there were private smaller scale places specifically created to treat the mentally ill whom at the time were referred to as 'lunatics,' these places often practiced torture as a treatment. However, the rapid growth of what is called 'lunacy', in the nineteenth century could have been caused by, "an increasing life expectancy, and the environmental and social problems associated with the industrial revolution." It seemed the more the state involved itself with the regulation of mental illness, the higher the numbers of people who were identified as officially insane grew. Many of these institutions quickly popped up all over Europe with the intention to house and treat the mentally ill together. The Parliament funded these asylums mainly due to the immense outbreak of individuals who were mentally ill affecting their legal ability to tax.

"In 1845 the number stood at 25,000, a figure which rose to 77,000 in 1883 and nearly 124,000 in 1907 (Stebbings 33)"

London's Bethlem Royal Hospital

The First Asylum in Europe, nicknamed "Bedlam" (The HuffPost)

Mental illness has a long dark history in terms of treatment and identification, The Huffington Post states that the first asylum dedicated specifically to the purpose of treating these affected individuals was established in 1247. This institution was the first in Europe and was known as, "London's Bethlem Royal Hospital" but is better known by its notorious nickname, "Bedlam." The institution by 1330 was referred to as a hospital and the power over the hospital was switched from the Chruch to the State by the 1600's. Treatment of individuals who suffered from mental illness was much different back then than it is now as the amount of knowledge surrounding the subject has increased greatly. The HuffPost shares that up until the 1800's patients were frequently tortured as a form of treatment, this included patients being suspended from the ceiling while sitting in a chair and then spun excessively until they became sick and threw up. Doctors would often order their patients to be beaten, starved, or dunked into ice-cold baths. Other treatments included utilizing leeches to suck the blood out of patients or inducing blisters upon them was also common. There was even a point in time when the asylum would allow wealthier public visitors to come in and observe the mentally ill as if they were like animals in captivity.

Reformation

Women in an asylum getting their daily exercise (Historical England)

It was not until about the 1800's that the goals of these facilities changed drastically into more positive, healing, and supportive locations for the mentally unsound. The Parliament funded these institutions to be built and sustained, and now instead of focusing on torture, the doctors focused on introducing/exercising control and stability into their patient's lives as a form of treatment. The United Kindom's website Historic England goes in depth about the lives the patients lived within the Liverpool Lunatic Society at Mercyside asylum. Their days were highly controlled and organized and followed a strict schedule from the time they woke up to the time they went to bed. In order to form some kind of income and have some kind of purpose while in the facility they were designated jobs. The men would often be in charge of gardening and husbandry while the women would partake sometimes in light hoeing and more often sorting potatoes. When they were not working they were able to get fresh air and exercise, fraternize with other patients, attend mass, the whole nine yards. As the patient population size grew, so did the community and more and more things to do became available. Life inside the asylums was no longer bad, and sometimes the patients would be eating better than a typical England household with a diet consisting of fresh fish or meat, vegetables, and homemade bread. The community within these walls was tightly strung and being a part of something with structure and purpose gave life meaning to some of the patients thus curing or betting their mental illness.

Insanity in Women

"As women discussed the complex nature of their condition- the physical and spiritual causes, the evolution and social representation- they authored themselves as rightful, if unsettling, citizens of the new era (Rivera-Garza 658)."

Insanity in women was observed much differently than in men, not long ago women were even questioned and diagnosed differently. A female diagnosed with suffering from insanity was detected by a failure of her conforming to the model domesticity. Prostitutes were often subjected to this and then used as an example as they would discuss their sexual innuendos freely when asked.  Usually, male doctors would ask sexual questions in an attempt to reveal some source of "mental derangement or deviance (672)." When asking prostitutes about their history they would describe sexual experiences proudly with more than one man or even woman and this to the doctors, felt like sufficient evidence that there was a link between insanity and women having sexual desires. Rivera-Garza notes that; "Sexual practices deemed as deviant constituted by far the trademark of women suffering moral insanity (677)." These women are only being observed by male doctors at the time, which if one could imagine the frustration felt when one feels slightly crazy, imagine trying to convince a man who thinks you're crazy that you are not actually crazy. It is also interesting to understand that the liberating acts these women are partaking in are actually the start of the Era of the New Woman and the second wave of feminism and the men are viewing this as only explainable by reason of insanity.* 

*Although this extra snippet does not pertain to insane asylums in Great Britain this is a very interesting article that I felt tied in with Lucy's character if you'd like to read more about an all-female insane asylum in Mexico here is the link... She Neither Respected Nor Obeyed Anyone.

Works Cited

Cristina Rivera Garza. “She Neither Respected nor Obeyed Anyone”: Inmates and Psychiatrists Debate Gender and Class at the General Insane Asylum La Castaneda Mexico, 1910-1930. no. 3, 2001, p. 653. EBSCOhost, proxy-bloomu.klnpa.org/loginurl=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx direct=true&db=edspmu&AN=edspmu.S1527190001306536&site=eds-live&scope=site.

“Daily Life in the Asylum.” Historic England, Historic England, 2018, historicengland.org.uk/research/inclusive-heritage/disability-history/1832-1914/daily-life-in-the-asylum/.

Lineup, The. “Bedlam: The Horrors of London's Most Notorious Insane Asylum.” The Huffington Post, Oath Inc, 18 Mar. 2016, 1:29PM, www.huffingtonpost.com/the-lineup/bedlam-the-horrors-of-lon_b_9499118.html.

“Mental Health Conditions.” NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness, 2018 NAMI, www.nami.org/Learn-More/Mental-Health-Conditions.

Stebbings, Chantal. “An Effective Model of Institutional Taxation: Lunatic Asylums in Nineteenth-Century England.” The Journal of Legal History, vol. 32, no. 1, 2011, pp. 31–59., doi:10.1080/01440365.2011.559119.