Arlena Bateman
T00554734
Research Proposal
History 4250
Tracy Penny Light
January 29, 2018
The topic I have chosen for my research paper is the history of mental illness in relation to the asylums in the nineteenth century. I have researched many articles, books and newspapers that provides insight on the changes in the operation of the asylums an how mental illness is defined and perceived. Some articles focused on the statistics, others on first-hand accounts of mentally ill people’s perspectives and the caregivers. My primary focus is on how the operations of asylums in the nineteenth century affected the mentally ill. In regards to the financial structure, staffing, geographical location, and concluding with the closure of asylums.
In the chapter, “The Uses of Asylums: Resistance, Asylum Propaganda, and Institutionalization Strategies in Turn-of-the-Century Quebec” by Andrea Cellard and Marie-Claude Thifault, focuses on the challenges within families that have a mentally ill family member in which higher care is recommended. For example, “It is almost impossible in private families with a mentally ill deranged member to provide the supervision his conditions requires, for his own sake and for the well-being of the family and society in general.”[1] This chapter also focuses on the asylums growth within the nineteenth century that explored the positive and negative impacts this had. For example, some families resisted placing mentally ill member into a facility and would choose to care for them at home, which was not always appropriate.
The book, Concise Introduction to Mental Health in Canada by Elliot M. Goldner, Emily Jenkins, and Dan Bilsker will be beneficial to the research of this paper as it provides the enormity of how difficult it is to define mental health. The chapter, “What is Mental Health?” explores the fact that there is no test that is able diagnose the severity of one’s mental state. Within society, the differences of cultures and so forth discuss that there is no way to define mental health. Similarly, the chapter, “Barriers to Effective Mental Health Care” by Alexander H. Leighton also examines the variety of mental health illnesses and the many different views different cultures have. Leighton also focuses on the challenges of the proper health care for the mentally ill that needs to be implemented, however, is far to intensive or challenging due to the overwhelming amount of people who need this care. The barriers faced were the amount of people who need the care, the lack of people who have the proper training and of course, funding.[2]
In Edward Shoter’s chapter “The Asylum Era” describes the history of Asylums and gives vast description as to why asylums failed. For example, due to the overwhelming amount of people going to asylums lead to this failure, however, the author clearly states that this does not mean there were not benefits to the asylum. For example, a psychiatrist at one asylum states, “The whole asylum really was a kind of family, and everybody shared in the ups and downs of the individuals.”[3] This reiterates that although the mentally ill were segregated, some patients did have a positive experience. In addition to the era of the asylum, this following chapter, “Outside the Walls of the Asylum? Psychiatric treatment in the 1980s and 1990s” by Sarah Payne gives insight on the rationale from shifting away from asylums and instead providing care in the community one resides in. However, allowing community care versus having the mentally ill in asylums, allows for challenges between who is considered “safe” to be in the community and who is not. Another challenged faced is the mentally ill men and women within society who are deemed dangerous or not. As stated, “In which women were seen as the majority of the worried well whilst men made up the majority of the threateningly mad.”[4] It circles back to defining mental illness and the difficulties associated with the severity of the illness.
Christopher A. Smith, David Wright, and Shawn Day’s article, “Distancing the Mad: Jarvis’s Law and the Spatial Distribution of Admissions to the Hamilton Lunatic Asylum in Canada, 1876-1902” gives conclusive information throughout statistics, graphs, and topographic images which supports the relationship between proximity of asylums and compliance of patients. The author provides insight on the various studies done by other scholars to determine the benefits of the asylum and how to improve them. Smith et al also provide numbers to amplify the large growth within these institutions. Similarly, Smith et al article, “Society, Place, Work: The BC Public Hospital for the Insane, 1872-1902” by Ken Scott which also provides comprehensive data by incorporating graphs. However, Scott includes pictures of the hospital that gives emphasis on the segregation of some asylums and the building layouts and plans of how to construct them in order to compensate for the patients attending the asylums. This article discusses how the asylum were not only segregated by gender, but by race as well. The author also incorporates the patient labour they maintained in order to benefit the asylum financially which also allows for patients to have activity day to day.
Daniel Malleck’s article, ““A State Bordering on Insanity”?: Identifying Drug Addiction in Nineteenth-Century Canadian Asylums” contributes to the aspect of who was deemed mentally ill and people attending asylums who thought drug and alcohol was deemed a mental health problem. This is one aspect that researchers had to consider as what drugs and alcohol contributed to mental illness.
Geoffry Reaume’s article, “Keep Your Labels Off My Mind! Or “Now I Am Going to Pretend I Am Craze but Don’t Be a Bit Alarmed”: Patients Perspective” focuses on perspectives of patients, as some did not have a voice previously, however, these perspectives are beneficial to the future patients who are struggling with mental health, likewise to Erika Dyck’s article. Dyck’s article, “Dismantling the Asylum and Charting New Pathways into the Community: Mental Health Care in Twentieth Century Canada” is a more recent article that focuses on the shift from institutions. Dyck’s primary focus is similar to Reaume’s in which they both focus on how mental health has shaped our society in the past and how it will continue in the future.
In the newspaper, “Horrible Calamity” gives insight on the dangers of the staff and other patients in insane asylums. During the late eighteen-hundreds it brings the question of how many other occurrences have happened. It sheds light on the lack of qualified staff who should be observing the patients, as well as the conditions of the asylum and perhaps the staff to patient ratio. In comparison to the “Diary Written in the Provincial Lunatic Asylum” written by a previous patient, Mary Huestis Pengilly, who wants to bring attention to what occurs within the asylums in order to find a more cohesive system. Pengilly shares her experience as a native woman being in asylums and mental hospitals. In the chapter “Construction and Organization of Hospitals for the Insane” by Thomas S. Kirkibride focuses on asylums and mental hospitals in the United States that have similar problems to asylums and mental hospitals in Canada. It provides a wider range of statistics which allows researchers to compare and develop new treatment plans.
Bibliography:
Cellard, Andre and Marie-Claude Thifault. “The Uses of Asylums: Resistance, Asylum Propaganda, and Institutionalization Strategies in Turn-of-the-Century Quebec.” In Mental Health and Canadian Society. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2006.
Dyck Erika, “Dismantling the Asylum and Charting New Pathways into the Community: Mental Health Care in Twentieth Century Canada.” Social History, 44, 88 (2011): 181-196.
https://muse-jhu-edu.ezproxy.tru.ca/article/466810/pdf.
Goldner, Elliot M., Emily Jenkins, and Dan Bilsker. “What is Mental Health?” In A Concise Introduction to Mental Health in Canada. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press Inc, 2016.
“Horrible Calamity.” The Atchison Champion, May 7, 1890.
Hurd, Henry Mills, “British Columbia Mental Hospital.” In The Institutional Care of the Insane in the United States and Canada, eds. Richard Smith Dewey, Charles Winfield Pilgrim, George Alder Blumer, Thomas Joseph Workman Burgress. The Johns Hopkins Press, 4 (1917): 22-25. https://archive.org/details/institutionalcar04hurd.
Kirkbride, Thomas S., “Hospital for the Insane.” In On the Construction, Organization and General Arrangements of Hospital for the Insane. New York, Arno Press, 1854. https://archive.org/details/onconstructiono01kirkgoog.
Leighton, Alexander H. “Barriers of effective Mental Health Care.” In Caring for Mentally Ill People. London: Cambridge University Press, 1982.
Malleck, Daniel, ““A State Bordering on Insanity”?: Identifying Drug Addiction in Nineteenth Century Canadian Asylums.”” Canadian Bulletin of Medical History, 16, 2 (1999): 247 269. http://www.utpjournals.press/doi/pdf/10.3138/cbmh.16.2.247.
Payne, Sarah. “Outside the Walls of the Asylum? Psychiatric treatment in the 1980s and 1990s.” In Outside the Walls of the Asylum: The History of Care in the Community 1750-2000, London: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Pengilly, Mary Huestis, “Diary Written in the Provincial Lunatic Asylum.” 1885.
Reaume, Geoffrey, “Keep Your Labels Off My Mind! Or “Now I Am Going to Pretend I Am Craze but Don’t Be a Bit Alarmed”: Patients Perspective.” University of Toronto Press, 11 (1994): 397-424. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1353829297000075.
Shorter, Edward, “The Asylum Era.” In A History of Psychiatry: From the Era of the Asylum to the Age of Prozac. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 1997.
Smith, Christopher A., David Wright, and Shawn Day, “Distancing the Mad: Jarvis’s Law and the Spatial Distribution of Admissions to the Hamilton Lunatic Asylum in Canada, 1876-1902.” Social Science and Medicine, 64 (2007): 2362-2377.
Statement of Process
- I took an interest in how asylums changed and affected the accessibility, as well as treatment for the mentally ill. Originally, I had planned on focusing specifically on a mental disorder, although as I explored deeper into research, asylums continuously were intertwined with treatment in the nineteenth century. As I continued to read more on the topic, I found I knew very little about the era when asylums were created and the history of what occurred within the institutions. Also, the controversy that surrounds defining mental illness and how so many factors affect who is treated or not. Through my research I have discovered the significance and stigmas that were attached to these asylums.
- Upon searching specific key words, asylum articles continued to manifest, which led to an abundant amount of research on the asylums and mental health. The transformation regarding how they were perceived, staffed and funded prevailed as key contributors to the changes that occurred. Multiple sources that I found also examined what led to the closure of asylums. The sources I chose give insight on various aspects of the asylums such as, proximity to urban areas, financial concerns, the social stigma around people admitted, and the closure of the asylums. The history librarian, Brenda, was very helpful in directing me to areas that had an abundant amount of information and various aspects on my topic.
- I had very little knowledge on asylums overall which made this topic much more informative. For example, through my research proximity to urban areas was proven to be better for patients. I thought asylums being more rural would be beneficial, although, due to the distance, on the contrary, made it more challenging. Who was being admitted was very shocking as well, such as who they deemed to be mentally ill. It seemed that asylums accepted anyone who showed up, however, over time it became much stricter. Also, the caregivers initially were not necessarily trained and yet work in the institutions which overtime became more regulated. Since there are no asylums truly left other than psychiatric wards, I had no idea that so many asylums existed at one point. What was not surprising was the amount of stigma that is attached to mental illness and unfortunately, still remains.
- This topic has opened up a profuse amount of new material because mental health is such a broad topic, has a vast history and much controversy around this subject matter. From the designation of who is mentally ill, what placement is appropriate, changes in government funding, staff qualifications, and the ever-changing treatments for mental illness. It may be an area I continue to research and study in the future due to the complicated topic matter and controversial opinions that surround mental health.
- Next time I would like to spend more time in the library looking through books which pertain to my topic. Also, I would have liked to spend more time in advance looking for sources.
Endnotes:
[1] Andrea Cellard and Marie- Claude Thifault, “The Uses of Asylums: Resistance, Asylum Propaganda, and Institutionalization Strategies in Turn-of-the-Century Quebec,” In Mental Health and Canadian Society. (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2006), 97
[2] Alexander H. Leighton, “Barriers of effective Mental Health Care,” In Caring for Mentally Ill People. (London: Cambridge University Press, 1982), 15.
[3] Edward Shorter, “The Asylum Era,” In A History of Psychiatry: From the Era of the Asylum to the Age of Prozac. (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 1997), 39.
[4] Sarah Payne, “Outside the Walls of the Asylum? Psychiatric treatment in the 1980s and 1990s.” In Outside the Walls of the Asylum: The History of Care in the Community 1750-2000, (London: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 246.