Tag Archives: Allen Owl

Dr. Hummer’s Views on Curability

Alienists Sought Early Intervention for Insanity

One reason that people throughout time have hesitated to admit to mental illness is because the diagnosis was frequently a lifelong sentence (see last post). Unlike physical illnesses which were cured, people with mental illness were stigmatized long after symptoms subsided or a problematic episode cleared up. One reason alienists and asylums were embraced so eagerly was because they promised a new age of cures. Alienists were so confident that the right environment and treatment could cure insanity that a “cult of curability” developed which waned only when asylums became so crowded that effective treatment became impossible. When alienists could no longer deal only with acute, new cases of insanity, the prospect of a cure became bleaker.

At the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians, Dr. Harry Hummer almost embraced a cult of incurability. He rarely pronounced an individual well, and his letters are full of misgivings about letting patients return home even when their symptoms abated. He wrote to the commissioner of Indian Affairs about Agnes Caldwell: “I recommend that no steps be taken looking to her release, because it is almost certain that she would soon come to grief and have to be returned.” In 1919 he wrote about Allen Owl: “[He] is well-behaved and trusted with parole privileges of the grounds and an occasional pass to town to the picture shows, in addition to which he was permitted to work with neighboring farmers this season, earning about one hundred and fifty or sixty dollars. This, however, does not mean that he could or would do as well were he discharged . . . I believe that it would be but a comparatively short time before there would be a return of more active symptoms which would necessitate his re-incarceration in an institution for the insane.”

Acute Insanity as Cause of Death

Prominent Alienist, Luther Bell

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Difficult to Leave

Cato Sells, Commissioner of Indian Affairs (1913-1921)

Allen Owl, a patient at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians, demonstrates how difficult it was to convince Dr. Hummer that a patient could safely leave his care. Owl wrote to the commissioner of Indian Affairs on December 16, 1919, and ended his letter by saying: “Would be glad to get my discharge from this place. Also will obey the public & government laws from now on.”

Hummer wrote to the commissioner in reply: . . . “In other words he is about as well as he ever will be. He has a good home here, is well taken care of, is well-behaved and trusted with parole privileges of the grounds and an occasional pass to town to the picture shows. In addition to which he was permitted to work with neighboring farmers this season, earning about one hundred and fifty or sixty dollars.”

Unfortunately for Owl, Hummer added, “This, however, does not mean that he could or would do as well were he discharged and thrown upon his own resources. . . . Accordingly, I must recommend adversely to his request and hope that your Office will write him a nice letter to that effect.”

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