General Chat

LIST OF REASONS FOR ADMISSION TO AN INSANE ASYLUM FROM THE LATE 1800S


http://dangerousminds.net/comments/list_of_reasons_for_admission_to_an_insane_asylum

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Blimey :-0

Next door neighbours !

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Wouldn't be many posting on GR would there ?.... :-0 :-0 :-S

Watch it Mers :-0

Were there any "Sane" women left in the world of the 1880s? :-0 :-0 :-0 :-0 :-D :-D :-D :-D

I am just saying :-D

My GG granny was married to a coal miner (ganger).
He was killed at work.
She had six young children.
Stuck between grief and the needs of her children poor Sarah lost it.
The kids all went to live with rellies near and far- it took me ages to work out who has been with who.
Sarah spent the next thirty years in Sneinton Aslylum being released for her old age when she was reunited with her kids.
Even today I have to go to Nottingham to read the records as they remain "closed" except to close rellies. I am not allowed to take photos but can write down notes.

A horrible vile system and what we have now is only marginally better.

....this WAS in West Virginia.

I also wonder if it was a 'private' insane asylum - ie husbands could pay to have their wives incarcerated :-S
If so - a sign of things to come? :-0

I would qualify for sooooo many reasons :-|

and before Bro says anything NO!!!!!

Would I ?....... ;-)

When I worked at St James' Psychiatric Hospital in the early '70's, there were women there, who mainly spent their time putting over the counter pills into boxes, who had been there since the 1920's.
Their 'crime', or 'insanity'?
They'd had a child out of wedlock, and refused to name the father - or didn't know the father's name.

So, at the turn of the 20th century, we took babies from young women, and locked the women away.
Most of these women were from middle/upper class families.
Why couldn't they name the father?
Quite often they'd been raped, and truly didn't know who by.
It could have been a relation - and if daddy or her brother was a successful businessman, and if she was brave enough to name him as the father - obviously his daughter/sister was lying - and she was incarcerated.

There was a move to release these women, but they'd become so institutionalised, they couldn't have coped.

It's not as distant as we'd like to think.......

Was anyone safe from the influential do-gooders?

Not even the relatives they wanted rid of, it seems.

On a historical note, in the UK, 'private' or licensed asylums were set up. These were (obviously) for profit, and, unlike prisons, the home parish of the inmate had to provide funding - thereby saving the Government money.

My g g uncle James (the one who tried to derail a train) was sent to Peckam House Lunatic Asylum (also known as Camberwell House) - an asylum with a terrible reputation. http://ezitis.myzen.co.uk/camberwellhouse.html

He arrived on March 17th 1852, 'at the weekly charge of 11/- maintenance'

In May of the same year:
"Along with two other patients under the care of the gardener, he was employed in out door work in a field near Rye Lane, when the gardener called them together to return home to dinner, telling them to wait an instant till he fetched his coat from behind a cottage near which they were working.
He had not been gone above half a minute when he found that P had run off, and although diligent search was made for him in every direction, he was no where to be seen."
His character was described thus:
"With regard to the state of the patient’s mind, he was quite rational in ordinary conversations, but exhibited several delusions, in addition to being irritable, sullen & obstinate.
On the whole, however, during his stay here, he has been quiet and manageable & has given little trouble and I do not apprehend his doing any harm to himself or others."
He was 18, a 'normal' teenager then!
He was caught within a couple of days.

The following year, in May 1853, again in the garden, he "requested leave to answer a call of nature", and went over the fence!!
This time, however, come September, he still hadn't been found.
It was rumoured that he had joined the Army, but which battalion, it wasn't known.

The officials then stated:
" Reports that as this man was sane when he escaped, this sentence had expired, a formal order for his discharge has been given"
(his 'sentence' was originally 2 years in jail)

Handy that, isn't it?
Just shows how easy it was to declare someone 'insane', then, miraculously 'sane'.

James did indeed join the Army - and served in Crimea and India, leaving the Army after 21 years. He also married, and had 3 children.

When one of ours was at Uni, she had a weekend job at a catholic owned private home for 'elderly' Down syndrome people.

There were a few non-Downs residents, one of whom had been transferred from a home since closed. The lady, probably in her late 70s had been institutionalised for over 50 years having given birth out of wedlock. Although the Church had tried to find relatives to take on her care, they had all died.

At least they took their responsibilities seriously and continued to care for her.