Medical Malpractice

What treatments were used in victorian insane asylums?

I'm very much into the "Darker" side of victorian history as well as the romantic side. Links would be much appreciated. I just mentioned that I like the "darker" side to explain why i wa asking such a question! =D Some people like to pretend that the victorian era was all elegant and well-mannered.

Public Comments

1. i don't think there were treatments in that time. they were probably locked away or tortured
2. I love your question. I haven't studied it much, but I know a few bits and pieces, and I'll definitely link you. The Victorian Era was the era in which methods of treatment changed. Acts and laws were passed. The saddest thing is that lobotomies weren't outlawed until the 1970s... Scary, huh? Also, look up Byberry Asylum. Scariest thing you'll ever read about. http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118840867/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0 http://www.lawreform.vic.gov.au/wps/wcm/connect/Law+Reform/Home/Newsroom/Media+Coverage/LAWREFORM+-+Mental+health+law+ripe+for+reform+-+Feb+2008 Check them out! Hope it helps.
3. There were indeed "treatments." Immersion therapy was one, either using scalding water or freezing water depending on the "problem." Lobotomies were utilized routinely for incorrigible inmates.
4. I could be off on my time line but I do believe masturbation was considered a treatment as well as drilling into the brain and doing lobotomies...
5. laudanum, which is an opiate, to keep the patients passive. Electric shock treatment which was usually given without mercy. Solitary confinement in a sound-proofed cell. Remember that the doctors were groping with mental diseases that they did not understand. Many tried to treat them humanely but most patients were kept doped and ina state of stupefaction. Why not consult a history of psychiatry? As for this being "dark", the term has no scientific basis at all.
6. Victorian era elegant and well mannered? Only for people who have never read Henry Mayhew, or savoured the delight of a "Penny Dreadful" Can I point out a couple of excellent resources. http://www.victorianlondon.org/ - uses frames so I cant give a specific URL but go in the main menu then Health and Hygiene Different places would have had different regimes, from the downright brutal, to the philanthropic. There was not a clear distinction between Learning Disability and Mental Illness. Also, a lot of "Moral Degenerates" (sic) were put into institutions, mostly young women from poor backgrounds who were pregnant, or were percived as "Wayward" - Of course by modern standards these were not ill at all. With no effectivce medication and theories of mental illness that revolved around "weakness" and "moral degeneration" even the most humane Victorian doctor was hard pushed, but it was not all brutality. "The method and regimen adopted are those which have been suggested by the wisdom and humanity of the present school of medicine. Love, and not fear, is the great principle of government, and the unhappy insane are watched over with the tenderest pity." Cruchley's London in 1865 : A Handbook for Strangers, 1865 - section on Bethlehem asylum, also known as Bedlam, and now, appropriately the "Imperial War museum" housing a more modern and destructive form of madness While it is rather academic, victorian web http://www.victorianweb.org/ has lots of stuff on victoria life This Wikipedia articles might be of interest http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Pinel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Tuke