COVE

The current social understanding and use of the term 'mental health' was not the same as in the Victorian era. In fact, it was not referred to as 'mental health' at all; to this society, it was known as 'mental disease'. The use of the word disease is striking and telling of the culture's reaction to mental disease. Disease is a sign of ill health and in order to treat mental ill health, the Victorian society turned its back on those bearing said 'diseases' the same way you might isolate someone with a fatal physical disease. The general perspective of mental health was rather poor and ill-favored towards those who struggled with mental illness. Those who were unable to function in society properly, according to the standards of the culture, were sent to asylums. Victorian society called them lunatics and was horrified by the idea of them (McCandless 367). Diagnosis of asylum patients varied but included “chronic mania”, general paralysis, and hysteria (Wallis 1). 

The Victorian era saw a surge in discussions regarding the psychiatric community and the connection between “mental disease and the body” (Wallis 1). Researchers were encouraged to examine this connection and therefore utilized the societal outcasts, who were locked in asylums, as their subjects of study. It was believed that “mental disease could be located, somewhere, deep within the bodily fabric” (Wallis 1). The connection between the mind and the body’s physical skin were explored heavily. The skin was believed to “reveal the body's inner workings” and was used to help diagnose the mental disease or its cause (Wallis 21). For example, syphilis scars or rashes potentially led to the diagnosis of dementia or general paralysis of the insane. This was due to untreated syphilis, which will subsequently leave physical markings; untreated syphilis will also greatly affect the mind and enabled doctors to utilize these cases as the body physically demonstrating mental anguish (Wallis 40).  In one case, extreme perspiration on one side of the face was decidedly linked to general paralysis and therefore the skin was credited with the ability to reveal “deep disturbances of the body” (Wallis 41). 

Though not all asylums employed sinister doctors who tortured asylum patients in the name of ‘science’ and ‘treatment’, many cases of horrific treatment of patients led to the “asylum problem” in reference to the frequent abuse within the institutions. “The Blue Book of 1896 (a compilation of statistics or public information) recorded 7,182 deaths in English and Welsh asylums that year” (Wallis 107). Strikingly, “11 of which were a result of fractures or dislocations” (Wallis 107). It is suggested that these deaths caused by broken bones or dislocations of joints were acquired through abuse, either patient to patient or doctor to patient.

In addition to the issue of abuse within asylums, both private and public, there was a great societal concern and interest in wrongful confinement. In particular, private asylums were frequently confronted with accusations of wrongful confinement because families or people of wealth could claim someone is ‘mad’ and pay for their treatment to dispose of said person. For example, Bethnal Green Asylum, 1838, Lewis Philips was admitted by his partners in the family firm. Philip claimed he was not mad but that his partners had “put him away to get his share of the enterprise”. Philip also felt that the asylum’s officers had “assisted in [the] nefarious scheme” of placing him in the asylum (McCandless 372).

All of this is to say that the physical body directly reflected the state of mind according to the beliefs of the Victorian era. It is also true that significant levels of abuse were present in both private and public asylums, including wrongful confinement. This is not to say that all asylums were terrible places or that all patients were sound of mind. However, we can conclude and see that the modern perspective of mental health was greatly different during the Victorian era and is important to keep in mind when studying Victorian literature given that mental health or the analysis of the state of mind is a frequent occurrence in this literature.

Works Cited

McCandless, Peter. “Liberty and Lunacy: The Victorians and Wrongful Confinement.” Journal of Social History, Spring, 1978, Vol. 11, No. 3 (Spring, 1978), pp. 366- 386. JStor, Oxford University Press. URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3786820

Wallis, Jennifer. Investigating the Body in the Victorian Asylum, Doctors, Patients, and Practices.  Basingstoke: Springer Nature; Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/28418/1/Bookshelf_NBK481824.pdf