Southwestern Lunatic Asylum, Marion, Virginia
Superintendents at insane asylums had every incentive to cure patients, since high cure rates brought both prestige and validation to their institutions. This is one reason that they urged families to get their loved ones into an asylum quickly, before the mental illness became established and more difficult to alleviate or cure.
Though many, if not most, asylums eventually turned into warehouses for chronically ill patients, superintendents did not really want to see that happen. There was no challenge or scientific thrill in simply caring for people who wouldn’t get well.
Bromide Elixer
Despite their desire to help patients, doctors’ management of their conditions may not have given them real relief. A patient named Katie Galligher, age 22, entered the Southwestern Lunatic Asylum in 1887 with symptoms of paranoia. She also had “epileptic fits” about twice a month.
Within three months, she began to have convulsions regularly, and became so “maniacal in her talks” that she had to be locked in her room. Notes show that her convulsions seemed to come under control through bromides. Two years after she entered the asylum, she was described as being “very dull, stupid and listless at times,” attributed to her use of these bromides.
Among Other Ingredients, This Patent Medicine Contained Bromides, Chloroform, and Alcohol
Whether Katie really needed to be in an asylum or not isn’t clear, because words like “stupid” and “listless” or even “bright” do not really indicate a mental illness. Her family did not visit often, and it may have been that her epilepsy caused all the difficulty for her family. One wonders how forlorn she must have felt in her drugged and friendless state, year after year. Yet, if her family could not manage her medical condition, where else could she stay? Superintendents who did not want chronic patients did realize that their asylums were often the only avenue families had for care. It was a vexing dilemma for all involved, especially for patients who so very often had no input whatsoever into the plans others made for their lives.
