Asylums Through the Years

Bethlem Royal Hospital

Bethlem Royal Hospital was founded in 1247 as a general hospital to benefit the church. Making it the oldest documented mental institution. It was not originally intended as an asylum for the clinically insane. Bethlem gradually changed from simply helping the needy into being an asylum that held the madness that resided in London. According to Simon Cross et al., in their article "Bedlam in Mind: Seeing and Reading Historical Images of Madness," madness was fantasized about and required a place to come to life. Hence, Bedlam.

Works Cited:

Cross, S. (2012). Bedlam in mind: Seeing and reading historical images of madness. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 15(1), 19-34. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549411424949

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethlem_Royal_Hospital

William Tuke

William Tuke, founder of the York Retreat, originally built for rich members of a spcficif denomination, by the name of Quakers, but soon opened to everyone. William Tuke built the Retreat to be therapeutic and provide comfort. There he included Quaker ideals and values in his treatment of his patients. He popularized the 'moral treatment' of lunatic patients. 

Works Cited: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tuke

Philippe Pinel

Born in April of 1745, Philippe Pinel was a French physician, specifically in psychology. He helped to pioneer the developmental of a humane treatment of patients in the 'lunatic' asylums. He helped to abolish the physical restraints of patients change their treatment to a more human approach. He also created what he called traitment morale. He is also referred to as "The Father of modern psychiatry". 

Works Cited:

Gittelman, Martin. “The French Mental Health System.” International Journal of Mental Health, vol. 38, no. 4, 2009, pp. 5–24. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41345299. Accessed 13 Dec. 2023.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Pinel

Saint Luke's Hospital

Opened in 1751, Saint Luke's Hospital was determined to "cure" insanity. Originally built to house up to 25 patients, but had to be remodeled and expanded for the reception of more patients. It was soon expanded toallot for 300 cells. Originalyl built to house 'pauper lunatics' they soon began housing middle class patients as well. Patients were released in 1916 due to The Bank of England purchasing the property and becoming a printing property. 

Works Cited:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Luke%27s_Hospital_for_Lunatics

Cheadle Royal Hospital

Originally opened in 1766 under the name Manchester Lunatic Hospital, around the time Bethlem and Saint Luke's were opened. The hospital accepted voluntary patients into their walls. Although the Manchester Lunatic Hospital was located near the Manchester Infirmary, their treatments were very closely intertwined.  In Leonard Smith's book "Lunatic Hospitals in Georgian England, 1750-1830" the trustees of Manchester said "no cases can be as truly deplorable as those lunaticks" (23) in reference to their patients. The asylum became Cheadle Royal Hospital in 1902. 

Works Cited: 

Smith, Leonard. Lunatic Hospitals in Georgian England 1750-1830. Routledge.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheadle_Royal_Hospital

William Charles Ellis

Born in March of 1780, passed in October of 1839. Held the position of Superintendent at Hanwell Asylum, one of the first pauper asylums. They began introducing the humane treatment, and a more moral approach. This idea went over well with the patients and Dr. Ellis was welcomed into Hanwell. Being employed in a pauper asylum, diseases such as tertiary syphilis and gonorrhea were being introduced as more 'uncurable' illnesses into the asylums. Ellis resigned his post from Hanwell in 1838.

Works Cited: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Charles_Ellis

John Conolly

John Conolly, born in May of 1794, set out in his medical career to investigate the insanity of the mind. Conolly struggled to gain traction in the field of mental health as he was at odds with how he believed a lunatic ought to be treated. He set out to create a more humane treatment of the insanity, and teach the physicians the varying degrees of restraint necessary for each patient. Andrew Scull wrote in his article A Brilliant Career? John Conolly and Victorian Pschiatry: "It was precisely the expert's task, not just to distinguish the mad from the sane but 'to point out those circumstances which, even in persons decidedly insane can also justify various degrees of restraint" (209). HE did accomplish a more humane way of treatment for patients. He passed away in March of 1866.

Works Cited: 

Scull, Andrew. “A Brilliant Career? John Conolly and Victorian Psychiatry.” Victorian Studies, vol. 27, no. 2, 1984, pp. 203–35. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3827132. Accessed 14 Dec. 2023.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Conolly

The York Retreat

The York Retreat, originally founded by WIlliam Tuke in 1796 as a place of refuge for members of the Quaker community, soon became open to all members of the public. Tuke based the asylum off his own Quaker beliefs. BArry Eddington in his article "The York Retreat" stated: "The two influences affect Tuke's ability to carry on the project of asylum reform came from his Quaker beliefs. First he acknowledged that the force of goodness flowing through him and, second, that this 'inner light' enveloped every person" (9). The design of the Retreat included gardens for exercise, and tennis courts, as well as a cricket pitch. This retreat included moral treatment and humane practices. There was also a comparison between the patients and the feeling of the architecture in the building in which they resided. Tuke eventually passed doen his title of director to his son. The Retreat eventually closed its doors in 2018.

Works Cited:

Stanley Royd Hospital

Located in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, this hospital was originally named West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum. Opened in 1818. Best known for the Salmonella outbreak after not conforming with the committee's regulations. Although plans had been madeto prevent outbreaks, the hospital did not follow regulations, and the outbreak descimated the population of the hospital. The hospital slowly declined until finally closing in 1995.

Works Cited:

Stanley Royd: the epidemiological lesson. Br Med J (Clin Res Ed). 1986 Mar 8;292(6521):644-5. doi: 10.1136/bmj.292.6521.644. PMID: 3081205; PMCID: PMC1339635.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Royd_Hospital

The Lawn Mental Asylum

Also called the Lincoln Lunatic Asylum. Founded 1820, closed in 1985. Was among the first to introduce a more therapeutic approach, and dispense with mechanical restraints (see also Hanwell Asylum). According to The British Journal of Psychiatry, Dr. Robert Gardiner Hill was among the first at The Lawn Mental Asylum to suggest that the patients couldconduct themselves without mechanical restraining. 

Works Cited:

Mindham RHS. The Lawn Hospital, Lincoln, and Dr Robert Gardiner Hill – psychiatry in pictures. The British Journal of Psychiatry. 2022;221(2):503-504. doi:10.1192/bjp.2021.210

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lawn,_Lincoln#:~:text=The%20Lawn%20is….

Middlesex County Asylum (Hanwell)

Built in 1829, and opened in 1831. Originally erected to house 300 patients, additions to the original building offer housing for up to 900. Although it was frowned upon, brute force was used to on patients. No laws stretched to cover the protection of the patients of the asylum. However, in the 18th century, improvements were made, and laws enacted. According to On the Morality of Lunatics by William Farr, "At the Middlesex Asylum no strait-waistcoats, or other instruments of personal coercion have been used since the 21st of september, 1839" (18). 

Works Cited:

"A Curious Dance Round a Curious Tree" by Charles Dickens

In 1851 Charles Dickens published an article in a magazine called Household Words. Dickens interviewed mambers of the staff, Doctors who treated patients, and inquired about their treatment of the patients. He writes "These practitioners of old, would seem to have been, without knowing it, early homeopathists; their motto must have been Similia similibus cuantur; they believed that the most violent and certain means of driving a man mad, were the only hopeful means of restoring him to reason." (Dickens 1851)

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