Although life during the 1800s and early 1900s weren’t all that great, to begin with, compare that to how asylums treated patients during this time, the normal population life should have seen life as a simple breeze in the wind. There is a reason that our first thoughts when thinking of asylums is horror and it’s because of all of the horror shows that actually happen at these areas. Then comes in a place that has a new idea of treating patients, a new of thinking that never had been seen before. A new revolution when it comes to the psychological medical field. Step in Danvers State Hospital. Before Danvers was even thought of on the smallest breath the way patients were treated in asylums. In the 1870s and below, treatment of patients …show more content…
Overpopulation was the start of a large downfall for Danvers, with Danvers now holding over the amount two thousand, more than quadruple the amount the estate could hold. This problem then began to slowly branch out into more problems, they did not hire any more staff during this time because of funding problems that began to happen at the same time of the mass expansion of new patients, so this being said means that Danvers patients usually outweighed the staff fifty to one, if not that then more. With limited staff came another problem, how to tend to all of the newly acquired patients that needed the same care as ones that had been there for years. A solution was not found, which brought, even more, deterioration to Danvers. “As a result, the quality of care began to deteriorate as the overwhelmed staff struggled to control the massive number of patients.”(History of Massachusetts) The struggle started by the history of Massachusetts isn’t one that simply effected one type of resident or another, patient nor staff, this is something that ruined both lives for the people working there and the patients. For the staff every day became a struggle of making sure that they could keep all of these people in line and to make sure they got the treatment they needed. This is where things go from slightly lifting off the rails to full blown off the rails, over their heads insanity. To keep control of the masses that were so large at Danvers at this time certain ways of treatment started to unfold at Danvers. Restraining soon became something widely used, it is thought that the most likely way they restrained was with straitjackets, on top of this new method of making sure that the staff could handle everyone electroconvulsive therapy became widely used at the estate or shock therapy. Shock therapy is when doctors use electricity to bring out a seizure in someone, this is supposed to
She realized that she needed to challenge the idea that people with mental disturbances could be cured or helped. Dix soon began to investigate the treatment of the mentally ill in Massachusetts, and in 1843 submitted her first “memorial” to the state legislature. The memorial shows how Dix worked within the conventions of herself in public life and draws attention to the horrendous treatment of the mentally ill in prisons, almshouses for the poor, and asylums. Dix’s efforts to help the mentally ill led to building of about 32 institutions in the United
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is much more unique than any other books I read before this. The books involves with the Henrietta Lacks who has cervical cancer that turns to be non operational. Henrietta eventually dies, until to be autopsy for research and finding a vaccine for polio. I wasn’t only surprised by what happened to Henrietta, but, only to find out what happened to her children, such as Elsie, Joe, and Deborah. I was shocked to read about how Elsie died and where she died.
Cold, stone, rigid walls. A gray blotch of “food” that no one can recognize. Persistent abuse from those who are supposed to aid the mentally disturbed. This is what Lennie Small’s life would have been like if George didn’t shoot him: constant suffering. That is exactly what George didn’t want for Lennie, so he shot him.
It was a gray day. The sun did not shine; it could not pierce the layers of powdery black skies along with the fog. The thick mist that was not really rain, or fog covered the southeastern corner of New Jersey. It was depressing, just like most days in the area surrounding the Overbrook Asylum. On the outside, Overbrook was a welcoming place where patients were treated with care along with respect; the inside was very different.
He went on to explain that the people in those institutions are very limited to the things they are able to do and the choices that they can make. Simple choices such as what to eat, what to wear, and what to do in your freetime are made for the mentally ill by the workers. The patients are forced to take medication against their will and are also limited to everyday things such as being outside. There is so much dehumanization that occurs that the mental hospital doesn't feel like a place where the patients are receiving help. Instead, the patients themselves refer to being at the mental hospital as “doing time” as they would in
Taking a Stand for the mentally ill Thesis Dorothea Dix took a stand by recognizing the importance of establishing mental institutions. Her philosophy saved mentally unstable people from the harsh treatments they once received in jails Background The conditions that the mentally ill lived under in the mid-19th century were unfitting. Unstable individuals were imprisoned and mistreated. People who suffered from insanity were treated worse than criminals.
The insane are known to have been cursed with unclean spirits ever since the beginning of America who takes its views from the Old World. It was only during the Second Great Awakening that people, Christian activists and often women, sought to reform the prisons and asylums. For Americans, asylums are now remnants of the past; the mentally ill are now bestowed the right to live normal lives and they are now even given the choice to decide if they wish to seek help and take medication. Even so, it is undeniable that people with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder are unwillingly trapped inside a mind often not their own. Some of them, if left alone and uncared for, face dangers in society.
There are many instances, even today, where people are put in a controlled environment, and when they are released they are unaware of how to function normally in society. For example, many prisoners who are released after an extended period of time will commit the same crimes again to be sentenced again, because they know and understand the prison environment now more than they do societies. One Flew Over the Cuckoo 's Nest shows just how difficult being thrown into a new environment can be not only on a person 's mental health, but also physical
Occupational Therapy began to emerge in the 1700s, during the “Age of Enlightment”. It was during this period that revolutionary ideas were evolving regarding the “infirmed” and mentally ill. At that time in history, the mentally ill were treated like prisoners; locked up and considered to be a danger to society. It wasn’t until two gentlemen; Phillipe Pinel and William Tuke started to challenge society’s belief about the mentally ill, that a new understanding, philosophy, and treatment would emerge. Phillipe Pinel began what was then called “Moral Treatment and Occupation”, as an approach to treating mental illness, in 1973.
Through the institutions, patients had less freedom, were forced to do activities, had no say in their treatments, and had to be helped with everyday tasks. The lifestyle in mental hospitals corresponded with American life in the 1950’s and early 1960’s because the mental hospitals encouraged conformity. Even though the Beat Generation’s ideals would have been seen as outrageous in the 1950’s and 1960’s, their beliefs rejected conformity and encouraged a new lifestyle for
Mental Illness in the 1800's: something needed to be done If you had a mental illness in the 1800's you'd be put into an asylum which usually had horrible conditions. Thanks to Dorothea Dix that is not how we treat mentally ill people today. Dorothea Dix reformed society by showing the gov. how people were treated in these asylums and wanted to make the conditions better by, for example putting in libraries.
It is obvious that medical treatment can be very helpful for the patient and would provide results. However simple companionship may also help as they could simply talk about their problem. Counselling might actually help more than medical treatment which may have more of a negative effect emotionally on the patient. Medical treatment aims to heal the patients so they can return and function properly in society however this is not the case in ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ written by Ken Kasey. In his novel the mental institution serves as a method to keep the patients away from society and doesn’t function to help the men but to keep them passive.
When stepping inside a hospital to receive help, one should expect care, treatment, and respect. However, shown in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and “Howl,” American society equates mental illness with inhumanity. In both texts, the characters are forced to live without basic human freedoms and a voice to change it. Society pressures the mentally ill into becoming submissive counterparts of the community by stripping away their physical freedoms, forcing inhumane treatment, and depriving them the freedom of expression. By pressuring confinement and treating the patients inhumanely, society strips away their freedom to express themselves.
That it is one that looks to supress women and their symptoms not cure them. She holds nothing back in explaining that she was given various relaxation and sleeping pills to keep her docile and compliant. If she did not conform they would up the treatment and even punish her. This is no way for a hospital to be supposedly helping people. Kaysen wants her readers to understand the stigmatization that occurs not only within these institutions but in the world.
Even of the patients are mentally disable and some cant express clearly, they still manage to form a strong social bond with the regular people. During the 1970’s President Kennedy passed a health reform act in which psychiatry was reevaluated, and insane asylums were shutting down. The given number 160,000 was lowest at the time as more asylums designed to isolate patients were converting to a therapeutic haling centers