The Asylum Movement
What was the Asylum Movement?
The asylum movement was a national reform movement that began in the 1840s in an effort to change the way that people approached the mentally ill and improved the way that the mentally ill were treated. Its purpose was to emphasize treatment and rehabilitation. Prior to this movement, the mentally ill were viewed as a result of sin or of demonic possession; similar to how the Puritans explained illnesses that were unknown to them. In the 1840s, a small percentage of the mentally ill actually resided in mental houses, but most were jailed, along with criminals if they were found to be violent. As Enlightenment thinkers started to rationalize mental illnesses by using science to explain it, people slowly but surely changed their perception of these people.
In the USA, the asylum movement quickly gained traction via Quaker contacts. The Friends Asylum near Frankford, Pennsylvania, established in 1817, was influenced by the York Retreat, an asylum in England run by a group of Quakers. That same year, Hartford Retreat, located in Connecticut, was established. In 1818, in the city of Boston, the McLean Asylum for the Insane was established. These institutions set the standards for public institutions such as the Massachusetts State Lunatic Hospital, which was established in 1833. By the start of the Civil War, less mental ill were in jails with prisoners and violent criminals, instead they lived in the humane conditions of state-established mental institutions and were able to receive treatment.
In the USA, the asylum movement quickly gained traction via Quaker contacts. The Friends Asylum near Frankford, Pennsylvania, established in 1817, was influenced by the York Retreat, an asylum in England run by a group of Quakers. That same year, Hartford Retreat, located in Connecticut, was established. In 1818, in the city of Boston, the McLean Asylum for the Insane was established. These institutions set the standards for public institutions such as the Massachusetts State Lunatic Hospital, which was established in 1833. By the start of the Civil War, less mental ill were in jails with prisoners and violent criminals, instead they lived in the humane conditions of state-established mental institutions and were able to receive treatment.
Dorothea Dix and Jeremy Bentham
Dorothea Lynde Dix lead the asylum movement in Massachusetts and her efforts quickened the movement in other states. Dorothea Dix earned a teaching certificate at the age of fourteen. In 1841, she taught a Sunday class at East Cambridge Jail, which was a female prison; this experience served as a catalyst for her reform efforts. She was disgusted by the way inmates were treated, and was shocked to discover that this prison housed not only dangerous criminals, but also the mentally ill. For the two years following that experience, she visited and made observations in other mental houses and prisons to expose the horrible conditions that the mentally ill faced and to launch change to improve the situation. Her efforts can still be seen today in many European countries, Canada, and the USA.
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Jeremy Bentham was an English philosopher who was mainly associated with his principle of utilitarianism* and had a role in social reforms. He had a few things to say about law and criticized it on many occasions. He observed that prisons were very loose--- men and women were not separated, alcohol flowed freely, and all it took was a bribe to an officer for a prisoner to step out of jail. He wrote that isolation and self-disciplined incarceration, were the best ways to handle prisoners and the best way prisoners should behave.
He wrote many works criticizing the law. Dorothea was a huge bookworm when she was younger and all the information she had accumulated helped her later in life. Some of Bentham's works influenced Dorothea in her efforts. |
*Utilitarianism is the belief that a morally good action is one that helps the greatest number of people.
Conditions of the Mentally Ill
“I have come to present to you the strong claims of suffering humanity… I come as the advocate of the helpless, forgotten, insane men and women held in cages, closets, cellars, stalls, pens! Chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience.”
Those are the powerful words that Dorothea Dix delivered to the Massachusetts Legislature when she reported her findings.
According to her research, the mentally ill were locked away in dirty crowded cells and were beaten if they misbehaved. They were usually bound, and since the majority of the mentally ill were put in prisons, they were subject to abuse and neglect. One winter, when she visited the Cambridge House of Corrections, she found that the people who were confined there did not have any heat. When she inquired why, she was told that "the insane did not feel heat or cold."
According to her research, the mentally ill were locked away in dirty crowded cells and were beaten if they misbehaved. They were usually bound, and since the majority of the mentally ill were put in prisons, they were subject to abuse and neglect. One winter, when she visited the Cambridge House of Corrections, she found that the people who were confined there did not have any heat. When she inquired why, she was told that "the insane did not feel heat or cold."
Purpose of the Asylum Movement and Why it Matters
Before Dorothea Dix came along and sparked the asylum movement, people with mental illnesses were seen as criminals who deserved punishment, not patients who need treatment. More importantly, the mentally ill were seen as less in comparison to the rest of society. The way that they were treated, "lashed into obedience" like animals, make it clear that at one point, these people weren't considered "human." For "a nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are equal," this was far from the principles of equality that defined America. Thanks to the efforts of Dorothea Dix, and other reformers, this movement succeeded in changing the lives of the mentally ill, but it also brought to light the values of our nation, and our perceptions of the human individual.