Essay about Dorothea Dix

She was born on October 17, 1956 in Decatur, Alabama. Her parents names were Charlie and Dorothy jemison. Charlie was a roofer, carpenter, and maintenance supervisor. Dorothy was an elementary school teacher. Mae was the youngest of three children. Her oldest sibling Charles was a real estate agent and Ada, the middle sibling, was a child psychiatrist. All in all they were a very successful family.

Wright, D. (1997). Getting out of the asylum: understanding the confinement of the insane in the nineteenth century. Social History of Medicine, 10, 13

Dix’s life changed in 1841, when she began teaching Sunday school at the East Cambridge Jail, a women’s prison. She discovered the alarming treatment of the prisoners, specifically those with mental illnesses, whose place of residence had no heat. She immediately went to court and ensured an order to provide heat for the prisoners, along with other advancements. She began traveling around the state to research the conditions in prisons, and ultimately arranged a document that was presented to the Massachusetts Legislature, which enlarged the budget to expand the Mental Hospital at Worcester. Dix was not content with reforms in Massachusetts. She toured the country documenting the conditions and treatment of patients, campaigning to authorize

To begin with by examining Diox firmness, mentality , and heroic personality it was clear that Dorothea Dix was able to stop injustice going on in the East Cambridge prison. It all began that same year Diox and some friends travel to england, returning home different not the same girl she was when she left home. She had different interests, new approaches to the treatment of insane. Diox took a job teaching inmates in an East Cambridge prison, where the conditions were so abysmal and the treatment for prisoners so inhumane, that she began agitating at once their improvement. Prisoners at that time were unregulated and unhygienic, with violent criminals housed side by side with mental illness. Diox later on she began to visit every public and

Dorothea Lynde Dix was salient to the development of both the Reform and Civil War Eras that she lived during, and to the overall United States. Moreover, Dorothea Dix had minor, but crucial, contributions to the education of children during her early years, which would help her effort in creating different perspective and establishing institutions for the mentally ill. Her onerous efforts even required her to plead to the State Legislative body, which was essential in achieving her goals for the mentally ill. In addition, Dix contributed to the Civil War when she was appointed superintendent of nurses for the Union army. Dix’s action would leave a permanent mark to the character of the United States when she helped form institutions for the mentally ill and wrote the “Bill of the Benefit of the Indigent Insane.”

"There are few cases in history where a social movement of such proportions can be attributed to the work of a single individual" (Kovach) At the age of thirty-nine, a woman by the name of Dorothea Dix devoted the rest of her life as an advocate to the humane attitude toward the mentally ill. She traveled the world from state to state visiting each and every prison, almhouse, asylum, orphanage, and hidden hovel documenting everything and anything she saw. After her intricate study of what she had been a witness of she wrote a letter or "memorial" and presented it to a legislator she knew who would present it to each legislature in each state she had studied. Dorothea Dix was the pioneering force in the movement to reform the

She grew up in the city of Hampden, Maine and later moved to Massachusetts. Her mother was Mary Bigelow, and her father was Joseph Dix. Dorothea began teaching schools, all girls schools at only the age of 14. Her intelligence, motivated her to make such a big impact on social society. As Dorothea began to teach at age 14, she noticed the mentally

Through out the Great Depression there were many photographers, but one of the best was Dorothea Lange. Lange was born on the 25th of May in 1895 in Hoboken, New Jersey as the first child of Joan and Henry Nutzhorn. She decided to become a photographer at the age of 18. She studied photography at Columbia University in New York. At the age of 20 she began to travel the world. Later in life she settled down in San Francisco, California, where she met her first husband, artist Maynard Dixon. She had had to children Daniel (1925) and John (1928). She died on the 11th of October in 1916. Even Though some people believe Dorothea Lange was not a great photographer, Dorothea was because she caused great inspiration of those going through the hard

The treatment of the insane inmates inspired her to start a reform movement, calling for the improved treatment of the mentally insane along with establishment of mental hospitals. Two years passed between the time she visited the East Cambridge Jail and her first appeal on behalf of the indignant insane. During these two years Dorothea did something that many women at the time would not have done, she went inside a multitude of jails to gather the proper resources for her argument. After carefully documenting her findings she report on the inhuman treatment regarding the insane in The Memorial to the Massachusetts Legislator. Dorothea’s documentation of the insane is similar to that of an academic research paper with an argument, support,

Although Dix did not see the results she wanted, at least for the time being, she had accomplished a great deal of reform. After a 10,000 mile expedition, Dorothea Dix had visited 18 state penitentiaries, 300 county jails, and 500 poorhouses, all by the end of 1845 (Wood). Along with rallying in state legislatures for reform, Dix helped improve and build 30 psychiatric facilities (Parry). Dix’s endeavors brought attention to the very urgent social issue of the mentally ill. She raised awareness and inspired many to crusade for the same cause. Her work started the movement to improve treatment of the mentally ill and her influence encouraged the continuation.

The first colonists blamed mental illness on witchcraft and demonic possession. The mentally ill were often imprisoned or sent to poorhouses. If they didn’t go to one of those they were left untreated at their home. Conditions in the prisons were awful. In 1841, a lady named Dorothea Dix volunteered to teach a Sunday-school class for the female inmates. She was outraged with the conditions of the prisons that she witnessed. Dix then went on to be a renowned advocate for the mentally ill. She urged more humane treatment-based care than what was given to the mentally ill in the prisons. In 1847, she urged that the Illinois legislature to provide an appropriate

She then traveled to Europe to recuperate, under the advice of friends and family (Thinkquest, 7). After returning to Boston, months later, she found herself with a very large inheritance that would allow her to love comfortably for the rest of her life (Reader’s Companion to American History, 1).

During the 1800s, treating individuals with psychological issues was a problematic and disturbing issue. Society didn’t understand mental illness very well, so the mentally ill individuals were sent to asylums primarily to get them off the streets. Patients in asylums were usually subjected to conditions that today we would consider horrific and inhumane due to the lack of knowledge on mental illnesses.

Unfortunately, asylum founders could only guess at the causes of insanity. Patient after patient was admitted into the state hospitals, but the cause of their disturbance was often a mystery. Many were inflicted with various organic diseases, like dementia, Huntington’s disease, brain tumors, and many were in the third stage of syphilis. With no treatments available, providing humane care was all that could be done. In the years following the civil war American cities boomed and the asylum began struggling to keep up. Soldiers, freed slaves, and immigrants were stranded in a strange land. The asylum became organized more like a factory or small town. There were upper and lower classman, bosses and workers, patients with nothing, and patients with privileges. Sarah Burrows, a schizophrenic and daughter of a wealthy doctor had a ten bedroom house that was built for her on the hospital grounds. Burrows home was just a stone’s throw away from the hospital’s west wing, where over sixty black women slept side by side. (Asylum: A History of the Mental Institution in America). The hospital began to rely on the free labor the patients provided. However, isolating the hospital from the community meant there was no way of knowing what was happening inside the asylum. The asylum became a world apart. In the 1870’s, Elizabeth Packard, a former patient of St. Elizabeth’s, wrote about her mistreatment and abuse

In the 1840s, Dorothea Dix introduced the concept of humane treatment for individuals with mental illness. She advocated for better treatment and