Straitjacket
Most accounts of assaults within insane asylum walls concern assaults on patients. However, asylum duty held dangers for staff, as well. On October 15, 1878, The New York Times published a vivid account of an assault on an attendant. Only three months on the job, Richard T. Harrison was beaten so badly by a patient at Ward’s Island Insane Asylum that he died within six hours of the attack. Continue reading
Devices for Physical Control, courtesy Medscape
Early treatments for insanity left much to be desired, but they were infinitely preferable to old-style treatments. In 1916, several authors gave an overview of the progress within the field; they noted that by the mid-1800s, treatment for insanity had begun to include non-medical procedures. Within the non-medical area of treatment, practitioners began to sharply diverge from former practices.
Dr. Benjamin Rush (1745-1813) believed that the people in charge of caring for the insane should control them through fear or intimidation. Rush said, “The first object of a physician when he enters a cell or chamber of the average person should be to catch his eye and look him out of countenance.”
Dr. Benjamin Rush
Rush endorsed the use of straitjackets and the tranquilizing chair (see post from 3/30/10), along with depriving a stubborn patient of his “customary pleasant food.” An unusual way through which Rush sought obedience was to “pour cold water under the coat sleeve so that it may descend to the arm pits.”
Illustration in Former Asylum Patient's Book
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