Delaney Bahn
Ms. Motley & Ms. Gilmartin
American Studies
11 May 2018
Behind Bars
In early parts of America’s history, people who had mental illnesses were often placed in jail like institutions, or sent off to islands to die. Once people entered these hospitals, patients were not given the right to leave, and doctors and assistants were given procedural rules that allowed unspeakably cruel treatments among patients. In the beginning works of mental illness treatments, Phrenology became the basic building blocks for many of the techniques that are still seen in today's psychiatry. It was believed by Phrenologists that the shape of the brain was an “indicator of mental capacity, and that different portions of the brain controlled different parts of the body. Simply by feeling bumps on the skull, a phrenologist would conclude information about a person's character, intelligence, and whether or not they lacked a certain personality trait” (Burns). A large majority of the mentally ill were soldiers in the Civil War, where they suffered from head injuries, resulting in symptoms such as serious dementia to personality changes. For instance, in 1865, a 21-year-old corporal was shot in the head at the Battle of Farmville, and seemed to have “many symptoms of disturbance to the brain” (Burns). Another technique used during these times was inspired by Charles Darwin, a well known biologist, who took facial expressions of animals to try and compare them to mental patients, hoping to identify visual markers of mental conditions. Treatments like these as well as others, were exposed due to muckrakers exposing mental institutions. Because of this, Psychiatry has come along way, in terms of how doctors diagnosed and treated mental illnesses.
A well known journalist, named Nellie Bly, was known best for her works of journaling and exposing conditions of mental institutions and the treatment patients received. One of her best writings was a novel written in 1887, titled Ten Days in a Madhouse, about the brutal patient abuse that occured in the insane asylum on Blackwell’s island. In order to start her journey, she pretended to be crazy, and dressed in second-hand clothes. She stopped bathing and brushing her teeth, and practiced her crazy look, by practicing “faraway expressions”, and walked along the streets looking dazed. Eventually, police sent Bly off to Bellevue Hospital’s psychiatric ward, and then to Blackwell’s island.
Many other journalist wrote about the conditions at this asylum, such as Charles Dickens, who described its “listless, maddhouse air” as “very painful” (Demain). However, Bly was the first to go undercover, and found the conditions unlivable. “There were ‘oblivious doctors’ and ‘coarse, massive’ orderlies who ‘choked, beat and harassed’ patients, and ‘expectorated tobacco juice about on the floor in a manner more skillful than charming.’ Add to that rancid food, dirty linens, no warm clothing and ice-cold baths that were like a precursor to waterboarding” (Demain).
Shortly after she arrived, she dropped her insane act, which surprisingly set things off in the opposite direction. It was said that the more sane she acted and talked, the crazier she seemed to workers at the hospital. But after 10 days of her stay, the editor at The World, sent for her release. Days after being released, Bly's first story was titled, “Behind Asylum Bars”. Overnight, she practically became a star. However, those were not her intentions, as she wrote “I have one consolation for my work,” she wrote. “On the strength of my story, the committee of appropriation provides $1,000,000 more than was ever before given, for the benefit of the insane.” Her main purpose wasn’t for fame, but the hope to improve conditions of mental institutions. Just a month after her visit, she returned to Blackwells. In her book, it was said on the tour that their conditions had been corrected, ‘the food services and sanitary conditions were improved, the foreign patients had been transferred, and the tyrannical nurses had disappeared. Her mission was accomplished” (Demain).
Another reporter named Edward T. Payton, was a mental patient and advocate for the mentally ill. His legacy may have brought improvements to Wyoming's mental institute. Payton was born in Minnesota in 1856, and became interested with editorials in the paper and in state issues. Along the years, he suffered through stressful interactions with his work, and believes that these efforts and difficulties were the cause of his early episodes in his mental instability: "I was without funds, yet impatient, impulsive, determined. Circumstances made it impossible for me to keep up with my desires and I could not sleep” (Hein). His mental state became worse, and was sent to Lander, Wyoming, for a trial to evaluate his mental state. He was declared insane, and was escorted to the Wyoming Insane Asylum. Fairly quickly, he felt as though his sanity was under control. After getting out for “visiting his family for thanksgiving break”, Payton wrote a long letter describing the hospitals conditions, daily routines and administration. He also mentioned one of the attendants, Herbert L. Jackson, “had ‘beaten the blood from my nostrils with his brawny fists.’ This was the first time he reported being abused while in the custody of the state as a mental patient” (Hein). As he extended his stay, he continued to write about the conditions in the hospital. He specifically named 15 patients and four attendants along with 11 specific stories of abuse. In another story, he stated that “three attendants had seized one of the patients and thrown him across the edge of a bathtub. Then one of these attendants ‘placed both hands upon his throat and choked him until he was black in the face.’ Payton noted that the patient had not been violent or in any way threatening to the attendants” (Hein). It was also written that Payton was beaten by an attendant, while another walked on, ignoring the problem. Blood was splattered on both his shirt, the windows and the walls. With these writings, Payton published many articles with this general information, in hopes to educate the public about medical and physical treatment that occured in mental institutions.
In 1907, Payton was studying the causes and treatment of insanity. It was in 1907 that Payton began his efforts to improve the care system of the mentally ill. He suggested to the Board of Charities and Reform that non-dangerous patients could benefit from home care, and toured the state with a speech about insanity, “Psychological Truth.” As he continued these efforts, the Wyoming Legislature passed a law “prohibiting harsh, cruel or abusive treatment of insane persons” (Hein). “Payton's remarkable persistence and energy, despite his illnesses, shone through to expose what should never be tolerated or allowed to continue” (Hein).
Over the years, psychiatric services have shifted drastically. Mental health care services have been reinforced, and mental illness are now better understood with less stigmatization. In the early ages of mental institutions, mental illness were treated with no respect. Patients were locked away in tiny cells in order to keep shame from their families, and they suffered from varieties of “treatment” that are nowadays considered abuse. During these tragedies of mental institutions, Muckrakers brought light to the abuse that patients were undergoing. After these breakthroughs, the public understood the brutality of these hospitals (Mechanic). Many mental asylums closed down, and new and improved ones opened up. Treatments are now effective and not harmful, and living conditions are comfortable and not dreadful. Social workers and mental health counselors have been in involved in providing assistance in these communities (Foundations Recovery Network). It’s an obvious difference when comparing treatment options in today’s world that didn’t exist years ago. People now respect people with mental illness instead of silencing and restraining them. With continued research, a new form of mental health treatment could rise that everyone supports.