Insane Asylum History

Institutional care was condemned, as in many cases patients’ mental conditions deteriorated, and institutions were not able to treat the individual in a holistic manner. In many state institutions, patients numerously outnumbered the poorly trained staff. Many patients were boarded in these facilities for extensive periods of time without receiving any services. By 1963, the average stay for an individual with a diagnosis of schizophrenia was eleven years. As the media and newspapers publicized the inhumane conditions that existed in many psychiatric hospitals, awareness grew and there was much public pressure to create improved treatment options (Young Minds Advocacy, 2016). .

Monsters on the Inside: The Cause and Effects on the Insane Asylum According to the famous English designer, Robert Welch, “The whole country is one vast insane asylum and they’re letting the worst patients run the place.” Insane asylums in the 1920’s were ran by monsters but defined the patients as the monsters. Anyone who had a mental or physical disability was thrown into an insane asylum. In the 1920’s insane asylums were crucial, the hospitals had extreme rules, ghastly treatments, and horrific restraints.

In the video, “The New Asylums”, it demonstrated how deinstitutionalization has left thousands of mentally ill patients in the hands of the prison system. As the mental health hospitals closed down, the police department and prison system has become responsible for the mentally ill people that are on the streets. There was a firm point made about the release of mentally ill patients- “When hundreds of thousands of mentally ill are released, they do not magically become healthy. They went to the streets, became homeless, and turned to a system that cannot say no.” The video also stated that today, there are nearly 500,000 mentally ill people being held in jails and prisons throughout the country. Furthermore, there was no safety net for those

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

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.

brain, or sending patients to institutions, doctor prescribed pills to try and treat mental conditions. In addition mental health patients were no longer being institutionalized due to the poor conditions in mental institutions (History of Mental Illness”)

Before mental asylums came about, the treatment for the mentally ill varied. Many mental patients were restrained at home and were mostly locked in rooms away from society. Some patients were locked in cages sitting in their own filth. Patients even had continual visitors that ridiculed them. Other patients lost the use of their limbs and minds, hardly being able to even function

The mentally ill were cared for at home by their families until the state recognized that it was a problem that was not going to go away. In response, the state built asylums. These asylums were horrendous; people were chained in basements and treated with cruelty. Though it was the asylums that were to blame for the inhumane treatment of the patients, it was perceived that the mentally ill were untamed crazy beasts that needed to be isolated and dealt with accordingly. In the opinion of the average citizen, the mentally ill only had themselves to blame (Surgeon General’s Report on Mental Health, 1999). Unfortunately, that view has haunted society and left a lasting impression on the minds of Americans. In the era of "moral treatment", that view was repetitively attempted to be altered. Asylums became "mental hospitals" in hope of driving away the stigma yet nothing really changed. They still were built for the untreatable chronic patients and due to the extensive stay and seemingly failed treatments of many of the patients, the rest of the society believed that once you went away, you were gone for good. Then the era of "mental hygiene" began late in the nineteenth century. This combined new concepts of public health, scientific medicine, and social awareness. Yet despite these advancements, another change had to be made. The era was called "community mental health" and

In America, one in five adults has a mental health condition, a staggering statistic. Appreciatively, recovery is the goal in the mental health centers of 2017. Nevertheless, in the 1950s, patients were provided with inhumane treatments such as lobotomies. Ken Kesey’s novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, provides an accurate portrayal of a psychiatric ward in the 1950s. The antagonist, Nurse Ratched, hopes her patients will not recover and manipulates them to gain authority. In contrast with the past, Nurses of the present day treat individuals with respect. Conduct towards mentally ill patients has changed since the 1950s in ways such as public attitude, medication, and

Many of the patients in the ward commit themselves because they are not strong enough to stand on their own against society. Individualism, and gender expectation are the main factors for their commitment to the asylum, yet many would agree that their official diagnoses are not severe enough to be called insane. According to Dr. Dombeck (2002):

Through the course of time, mental illnesses have always been in existence due to varying factors and causes. However, as time has passed, the perceptions and available treatments for mental illnesses have also changed as new technology was developed. By looking at the treatments and perceptions of mental illnesses in the early 20th century, we can learn how to properly treat and diagnose not only mental disorders but also other conditions as well as show us the importance of review boards and controlled clinical trials.

The mentally ill were treated very inhumanly in the early insane asylums. Some of the

Mentally ill people were cared for prior to institutionalization by family members. Community institutions were created in order to handle the needs of such individuals together. The Quakers in Philadelphia were the first in America to organize effort to care for mentally ill people. Funds was provided to build small hospital in Williamsburg to help with those that were causing problems in the community. Several hospitals were open in different places like Pennsylvania, and provided rooms in basement with shackles attached to walls to monitor a certain amount of mentally ill patients.

Back in the Middle Ages, insane asylums were created to take the mentally ill people off of the streets. But actually these asylums were in reality prisons and not treatment centers. They were filthy and dark and the inmates were chained. These mentally ill people were treated more like animals than human beings.

Years ago, the psychiatric practice was not the same as it is today, but instead, it was torturous. The Catholic Church was the one involved with the psychiatric practice. In the mid 1800’s, Russia started to set up asylums for the most troubled people. The Church made the people believe that they should attend mass on a regular basis in order to cure their mental stability. Since the sixteenth century and forward, asylums were being established all around the world. The Valencia mental hospital in Spain was the first mental institution to open in 1406 C.E. Cruel treatment was given to the people that were admitted to this asylum. Instead of helping the ill recover, the asylums were