Tag Archives: bedlam

Early Portrait of Madness

Self-Portrait of William Hogarth, circa 1757

William Hogarth, a British artist born in 1697, became well known for both his satirical and morality engravings and paintings. During the 1730s and 1740s, Hogarth became interested in social and moral causes. He used his considerable talents to illustrate the sorrowful lives of those in poverty or who became impoverished due to poor choices. He took on crime, gambling, prostitution, drinking, and greed, making his moral points through intricate scenes that needed little explanation.

One of Hogarth’s best-known works is a series of paintings called “A Rake’s Progress,” which follows a young man who inherits a fortune from his miserly father. He becomes a fashionable gentleman, drinks to excess and lives riotously, and eventually squanders his wealth. After various trials and tribulations of his own making, the no-longer-young Tom Rakewell ends up in the madhouse at Bedlam. Hogarth captures the misery of the institution during its days of poor treatment for patients.

In the Madhouse

Beer Street and Gin Lane, Hogarth

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Coming Full Circle

Treatment for insanity remained surprisingly consistent in many ways over hundreds of years (see last post). One great stride in treating the insane came when authorities stopped lumping “lunatics” in with criminals and the poor, either in prisons or almshouses. (Just as often, lunatics were chained or confined even in early hospitals.)

Sketch of an Inmate in Bethlem (Bedlam) Hospital

A more compassionate understanding about the special needs of the insane emerged, and from that, elaborate asylums for their care sprang up. Though asylums eventually deteriorated into little more than holding tanks and warehouses for the insane, their original purpose was founded on kindness.

During the 1960s and 1970s, funding for mental health care was diverted from asylums (which weren’t working well) and funneled into community-based services. Like the asylums before them, community services such as clinics and halfway houses were good ideas which unfortunately never received sufficient funds to work well. As mentally ill patients were turned out of asylums, they often found no help. A 2006 report from the Bureau of Justice shows that in 2005, “more than half of all prison and jail inmates had a mental health problem.” These people included 705,600 in State prisons, 78,800 in Federal prisons, and 479,900 in local jails. Mental health problems were defined by a recent history or symptoms of a mental health problem that occurred within 12 months of the time the survey was taken.

It seems that once again, prisons constitute the primary housing for the nation’s mentally ill.

The Updated Bethlem (Bedlam) Hospital

An Engraving of Bethlem (Bedlam) Hospital

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Come and See Crazy People

Tourist Plate

Tourist Plate

In the 1800s and early 1900s, many insane asylums  (as well as prisons and orphanages) were treated as tourist attractions. This practice had started long ago, when visitors to Bedlam in London, paid a penny to see the lunatics there. They were allowed to bring in sticks to poke the inmates with, to stir them up.

The situation was not so bad in America by the 19th century, but many people were curious about insane asylums and wanted to see inside. Some visitors were  curious gawkers–the same kind of people who enjoyed freak shows at the circus–but many others were sincerely interested in seeing how patients were treated.

The pictures are of tourist items created for the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians.

Souvenir Spoon

Souvenir Spoon

Close-up of Spoon

Close-up of Spoon