Medical Malpractice

What were the conditions in mental asylums during the late nineteenth century?

Public Comments

1. Absolutely HORRIBLE. There was filth, disease, lack of food, clothing, water, sanitation, and even comfortable beds. Patients were submitted to terrible tortures as "treatments," including being submerged in ice cold water until they passed out, beaten, and raped -- man or woman. Surgery would be done without any anesthesia. It was worse than being in prison. They had no recourse to any legal rights -- and almost none of them ever left once they were put in there. Sometimes husbands wanting to be rid of their wives so they could find a new one would commit their perfectly sane wives to the asylum, and the wives had no way to get out. Then, these poor people were put on display for the public, who could pay admission and come in and see them in cages like animals.
2. Often, pretty grim. Not much was known about mental illness in those days. Effective drugs did not exist or were used to keep the patients doped and quiet. People did not believe the insane were deserving of much consideration or there was not enough money to provide good care, attendants were often uneducated, greedy, larcenous and/or abusive. Much like now.
3. not as bad as the current system of letting the mentally ill run around homeless, hungry, dirty, and cold