Dorothea Dix : The Right Time

During the 1700’s the jails were not only used to confine criminals, but they confined people with mental illness as well. People with mental illness were subjected to inhumane treatment, even when the individual was admitted

Out of all her achievements, Harriet Tubman nursing in the Massachusetts 54th regiment was the most impressive out of all her achievements such were saving slaves from slavery, spying during the civil war, care giving, and nursing. Without those achievements Harriet is now known as one of the best women to ever live. Without her the world would be a different

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

"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

This was another change, not at all like ladies' suffrage and denial, which both had roots that were as critical as those of the country's, and was brilliant as a result of the shockingly undemocratic reactions that society and its family responded with. Dorothea Dix was an unmistakable figure in the refuge and correctional facility headway. She kept up for state-upheld identity and assisted with the foundation of five recovering workplaces in America. In 1841, Dr. John Galt changed into the director of the Eastern Lunatic Asylum in Williamsburg, Virginia. As executive of the first straightforwardly bolstered refuge in America, he understood element considerations, including talk treatment, which all rotated around review over those with enthusiastic issue as opposed to warehousing them. He trusted in out placing the patients instead of having them live in the safe houses and accepted that those with maladjustments still had

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.

Dorothea Dix was a woman who stood for the treatment and housing conditions of prisoners and the mentally ill.She observed and documented what she had seen and experienced. Her documentation changed her audiences minds and started the reform.

The Fourth Annual Report stated that prisons should separate the young from the old, as well as educate the prisoners with religious instruction (Document A). These reforms stem from rehabilitation as opposed to punishments. By teaching the prisoners how to live good lives, they would be able to succeed in society after serving their time. Rejoining society increases democratic ideals by keeping them out of prison in the future, thus increasing voters and bettering future society members. Another part of the prison reforms included the destruction of debtors prisons. Lower class members who could not pay off debts were put into prison, losing the ability to vote for the time being. This produced unequal elections. By removing debtor prisons, a more equal expansion of voting was able to take place. Stemming from prison reforms, progress was also made with the mentally ill. Previously, the mentally ill, which included a range from mentally disabled to depressed, were seen as embarrassments. Led by Dorothea Dix, improvements were made in the treatment of the mentally ill in asylums. Reformers informed the public of the horrible conditions of the asylums, in their fight for better treatment. They wanted the mentally ill to gain a more equal role in

Dorothea Dix founded numerous hospitals and treatment centers for the mentally ill. In my research I found on an online resource that, “In all she played a major role in the founding of 32 mental hospitals, 15 schools for the feeble minded, a school for the blind, and numerous nurse training facilities.” This quote shows her effort to make the lives of the mentally ill better by giving them a safe place to live. This, however, is not all she did for the mentally ill.

The 19th century was a time when the first big steps toward abolition and women’s rights were taken in the United States. These particular steps began with the Second Great Awakening. Since the Second Great Awakening was a religious movement, its main goal was to encourage ethical behavior. These encouragements lead to the increase of the belief of equality among people. Although many people opposed the idea of equality, those who did support the idea continued to strive toward achieving their goal: the establishment of equality in society and law. An individual who put forth an immense amount of effort to achieve these goals was Harriet Tubman. Harriet Tubman was a significant individual in US history due to her contribution in the Civil Rights

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.”

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

Before starting this project, I knew very little about photography, photographers, or exactly how much impact photographical images have had on our society. I have never taken a photography class, or researched too in depth about specific pictures or photographers. This project has allowed me to delve deeper into the world of photography in order to understand just how much influence pictures can have over society’s beliefs, emotions, and understandings’. I have have chosen two highly influential photographers, Diane Arbus and Dorothea Lange, who I have found to both resonate with me and perfectly capture human emotions in way that moves others.

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

Born in 1802, Dorothea Dix played an important role in changing the ways people thought about patients who were mentally-ill and handicapped. These patients had always been cast-off as “being punished by God”. She believed that that people of such standing would do better by being treated with love and caring rather than being put aside. As a social reformer, philanthropist, teacher, writer, writer, nurse, and humanitarian, Dorothea Dix devoted devoted her life to the welfare of the mentally-ill and handicapped. She accomplished many milestones throughout her life and forever changed the way patients are cared for. She was a pioneer in her time, taking on challenges that no other women would dare dream of tackling.