Tag Archives: Glore Psychiatric Museum

Abuse Was Convenient

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Locks Were Common at Insane Asylums

From accounts by former patients, it seems probable that many cases of cruelty and abuse were deliberate. Attendants were often uneducated, uncaring, or of a type who found it impossible to get a job anywhere but in an asylum. Those who enjoyed dominating weak or helpless patients often had  little oversight to prevent their doing what they liked; patients reported beatings and punishments which were clearly typical and sustained rather than lapses in judgment or reactions during a crisis. However, attendants often used restraints and other methods of control because they were convenient. Attendants in a short-staffed ward might reasonably believe that it was better to restrain a violent patient or lock him up, rather than let him hurt himself or other patients. Attendants might force feed a patient that they feared would starve because she wouldn’t eat of her own accord. Many attendants undoubtedly did these kinds of things with a perfectly clear conscience.

At the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians, both types of abuse occurred. A few patients complained of witnessing cruel teasing that would make the targets upset, or of seeing patients treated with unnecessary force or bullied. Attendants more frequently treated their patients badly out of convenience. The asylum was usually short of attendants, particularly under Dr. Harry Hummer. One attendant might have to take care of an entire ward, or at night, an entire building. It was vastly easier to lock patients in their rooms or put them in a restraint, than forgo a meal or get behind on chores for which they would be disciplined if they didn’t complete. Though restraints were supposed to be used only with the permission of the superintendent, the restraints at Canton Asylum were kept in the financial clerk’s office and given out to any attendant who asked for one.

A DeKalb Crib, circa 1905, Used for Patient Restraint, courtesy Maryland State Archives

Exhibit of Patient Restraints From Glore Psychiatric Museum

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Picturing Insanity

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Hospital Patient

Hospital Patient

Patients in insane asylums had few rights, and certainly little right to privacy. Public tours of insane asylums were common in the nineteen and early twentieth centuries, and few professionals seemed to find these tours insensitive. Doctors, themselves, often used patient histories in their lectures, though they didn’t usually divulge their patients’ identities.

Patients were often photographed. Some snapshots were taken by visitors to asylums, but others were taken by professional photographers for a variety of reasons (to illustrate newspaper accounts or academic material, for example). It is highly unlikely that these photographs were taken with informed consent by either patients or their families.

Glore Patients Out For a Stroll, 1902, courtesy Glore Psychiatric Museum

Glore Patients Out For a Stroll, 1902, courtesy Glore Psychiatric Museum

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Some Treatments Were Moral

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Dr. Philippe Pinel

Dr. Philippe Pinel

Early treatment of insanity generally embraced a view that insane persons had lost their reason, and though not responsible for their actions, could only be housed until they either somehow got better or died. Such treatments as existed were typically physical: bleeding, whipping, spinning, chaining, isolating from others, etc.

In the early 1800s, reformers such as Dr.  Philippe Pinel began to view the insane as people who had lost their reason because of exposure to severe stress or shocks. Victorians had terms like brain fever and shattered nerves to describe this kind of condition. Patients were seen as needing protection from society for a time so they could recover, and many alienists began using fewer restraints and stressful physical treatments. They believed that patients could be helped by moral treatments. These included friendly discussions of the patients’ problems, chores or occupations to discipline their time, and guidance for their interactions with others.

Glore Patients Out For a Stroll, 1902, courtesy Glore Psychiatric Museum

Glore Patients Out For a Stroll, 1902, courtesy Glore Psychiatric Museum

Though popular for several decades, the movement lost favor as medicine became incorporated into treatments, asylums became overcrowded, and money to pay for moral treatment (which required more attendants because patients received more than custodial care) became issues.Depiction of Dr. Pinel Intervening to Unchain a Patient

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