Mental Illnesses In The 1800s

You hear yelling, someone shouting for help. Looking around you see many people talking to themselves, many even hurting themselves who are rubbing against each other's sweaty unwashed bodies as they walk by. No room for privacy, no room for living. The attitude towards the mentally has changed drastically throughout the years. Before the asylum movement, many mentally ill were imprisoned with rapists, murders, and many other dangerous criminals. Though the mentally ill did commit horrendous crimes it was because many had a disorder that affects the mood, thinking, and behavior. Consequently, the asylum movement was a big turn in America because it created better opportunities for the mentally ill on getting the attention they sought for.

History is thought to be the past, but the past influences the present in many ways. Insane, lunatic, mentally deranged, madness, madman, crazy, mentally disturbed, troubled, these were just a few terms used to label those with mental illness and these labels are at times still used in society today. Although the shift of viewing insanity as a diagnosable condition did not reduce the use of such terms in 19th Century England, there was a historical event that changed the way those who suffered from mental illness were seen. This historical event came in 1845 with the enactment of the Lunatics Act and the County Asylums Act which were dependent on each other. Now, in order to comprehend what these Acts did it is important to first understand

Many families that had a mentally ill family member often thought they were under a demonic possession and a priest or religious figure would preform an exorcism to try and rid the body of the spirits. Most of the time this did not work as medically the patients were not possessed by a presence but rather a just mentally ill. So, the need to provide a care and treatment facility was the reason behind the creation of many asylums.

Throughout history, human societies have had conflicting views on insanity and how it is defined in life. Primitive cultures found peace within shamans and witch doctors because they believed the insane were possessed by evil spirits. From then on, in Roman and Greek cultures, there was a somewhat progressive ideology that mental illness came from biological and emotional ailments. They believed in treating those with mental disorders humanely and respectfully which is an attitude that has been forgotten through history and sadly, still is today. However, the Middle Ages became the end of these progressive ideas and introduced insane asylums who “helped” the mentally ill. Up until the 20th century, insane asylums were used to restrict

The world is full of strange and unknown wonders. Mankind has always been one to try and take an approach to find answers to such mysteries, except during a time when it became a special part of our own society. These individuals were neglected, mistreated, and forgotten because they were these such things. As a way to try and "solve" these problems the people of victorian England made asylums. Although these weren't the best at first they had many advocates that came along in whom helped and made new laws for their living conditions, and treatment to greatly increase satisfaction of these patients.

The invention of the asylum was the reformation that made changes in regards to how demented patients were handled. Before reforms were made, mentally ill patients were uncared for and abused.The insane were never hospitalized and only imprisoned. The mentally ill were locked up, flogged, chained, sexually and physically abused by imprisoners. These institutions were inspired by the conviction that those who passed through their doors could eventually be released to become productive, self-disciplined citizens. An asylum is not a symbol of freedom, but to reformers it was. freedom was all about not having the choice to sin so you could be free of sin, so the crusading reformers that built these places usually chose not to live in

Asylums were established around the world starting from the sixteenth century onward. Most asylums were staffed by untrained people who treated mentally ill patients like animals. “Asylums were merely reformed penal institutions where the mentally ill were abandoned by relatives or sentenced by the law and faced a life of human treatments, all for the sake of lifting the burden off the ashamed families and preventing any possible disturbance in the

In the nineteenth century Great Britain, numerous social acts were performed with the intention of reforming asylum and medical treatment standards. Before asylums existed, lunatics either roamed the streets for shelter or were confined to the basements and cellars of their shamed family. This was before there was any form of social order. In 1247, St. Mary of Bethlehem Hospital opened just outside of London, which was devoted to treating sickly paupers. In 1547, Henry VIII founded Bethlehem hospital was to be transformed into the first specialized mental health hospital. The institution received the label “Bedlam” because of their horrible reputation of drastic living conditions and inhumane treatment to their patients, such as putting their violent patients up for display and throwing their gentler patients on the street to become beggars. Up until the eighteenth century, the primary use of asylums were to lock away the mentally ill dispose of society’s nuisances. Even though it was royally declared a mental institution in 1547, it was not until the eighteenth century that hospital services for the insane began to be seriously provided and even then, the quality of care was

The way people with severe mental illness were treated in institutions starting in the mid-eighteenth with the belief of at least improved their situations. Institution settings became posable because of the growth of cities. The rationale was to provide early intervention and the acknowledgement of the outside effects of their psychosis. However, the system resulted in a class-based system, was the affluent was able high-quality care and was not forced to not mix with members of the lower class, who would receive basically custodial care. The expansion of asylums continued until its peak in 1955. At about this time the growth of institutions ruined the very thing that encouraged it: the ability to cure insanity.

The originality of the term ‘prisoner or patient’ can date back to the early 19th century, when specialist institutional provision was introduced to care for people with a mental deficiency. Many people, who required treatment for such deficiencies, were primarily cared for by their families and the parish authorities; known as ‘Care in the Community’ (Bartlett and Wright, 1999:183-185). Anyone displaying behaviour deemed abnormal were declared ‘insane’, and if violent behaviour was exhibited they were confined to ‘Madhouses’ or placed in ‘Workhouses’. The introduction of the Lunacy Act in 1845 and 1890 was regarded, as a ground-breaking outcome in the treatment of the mentally ill (Eldergill, 1998:61). The Act helped reform the status

Later on, in history, people began building asylums for their mentally ill citizens to protect the public from them. Millions of people were placed into asylums against their will and were subjects to inhuman treatments. The patients were housed together in poorly ventilated rooms where they lived in their own excrement. Treatment from staff from cruel and abusive; the patients were subjected to beatings, isolation, bloodletting, electro-shock therapy as well as sexual and emotional abuse. Tens of thousands of people were subject to the torturous treatments and barely any survived to tell the tale.

Treatments in the past have been unsuccessful in curing patients' mental illness. The terrible conditions in the hospitals led to the search for more humane approach to help patients get better. The justification for mental institutions were questioned. As both the American and British mental institutions utilized drugs to help patients get better, they still live behind bars. As described in the textbook, the United States' mental healthcare system is very dependent on government budget. When the government cut the funding, many hospitals struggle to keep the facilities running. The same is true with the British mental healthcare system, as discussed in the video. Many patients were misfits of society. They were neglected and the hospitals seem to be the only place to get care. But, they ended up being dirty and the patients were mistreated by staff of the hospitals. Most of the psychiatric care in both countries are similar. Mental health became the general hospitals' responsibility as the asylums were being closed and patients went back into society. The British asylums and the United States' mental hospitals did share many commonalities. The Americans had a moral movement that focused on legal rights and protection for the patients. In the 1950s, the British had a similar movement. Also, the British had the user movement, where patients can have more input about the treatments they receive, as is discussed in the video. In Britain, grassroots efforts sprang up for patients to have more say in the treatment options, the way it is in modern day

I would least like to suffer from a mental disorder in the 18th-century pre- reformation when the business of asylums was just that, a business. The notion of warehousing people away from public view behind closed doors seems worse than having a priest anointing and purporting to cast demons from me. I can imagine choosing trephination to the desolation of being lost in a place forsaken by society. I am torn as to which time period I would most like to be in. The period of reformation was filled with an openness to creative solutions and in a way a very holistic approach. The modern era for all it's professionalism, methodology, and pharmacology still leaves me wondering if we have moved forward at all in our view that mental illness and psychological

As I arrived to TALA, I was instantly impressed by the monumental architecture before me. The symmetry of the building was elegant and well complimented by its weathered look. It is difficult to imagined that this very building had once housed the mentally ill. I have never seen such a facility before and thus expected something less remarkable. As I stood admiring the building, I noticed the multitude of windows it contained. Upon further examination, I saw bars surrounding them and suddenly realized that the illusion of paradise was in reality a prison for those who dwelled here. I was surprised to learn how many people were actually housed in this building. I was equally shocked to discovered what passed as mentally insane during the 19th century. The criteria used to determine mental problems were nonexistent and arbitrary. I was extremely concerned when the tour guide mentioned kids being born and raised in TALA. It was also distressing to learn that people who didn’t quality as having mental problems were also placed into such a facility. I was further surprised to learn that the community had openly embraced TALA as part of their home to the extent that a high school prom was held inside the building. This helped me to recognize that TALA was more than just an insane asylum, it was truly home to those living inside and outside of the building. As I progressed through the tour, I discovered that I was unaware of the many practices of insane asylums, especially the

In the beginning of “The New Asylums”, Benny Anthony, who was tormented by paranoid schizophrenia, has spent years struggling with his mental issues. Even though in the prison, the faculty member allow him to live in his own cell, he was still feeling deeply tortured by his nightmare-like presentiment. In another case from the film, Simon Clark was sentenced by his crime of robbery, he represents a group of people who did receive relevant mental treatments in the prison and some other shore-term acute care