Insanity and idiocy in Massachusetts : report of the Commission on Lunacy, 1855 / by Edward Jarvis ; with a critical introduction by Gerald N. Grob.

  • Massachusetts. Commission on Lunacy (1854)
Date:
1971
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Insanity and idiocy in Massachusetts : report of the Commission on Lunacy, 1855 / by Edward Jarvis ; with a critical introduction by Gerald N. Grob. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    role within mental hospitals or that such institutions had aban- doned completely their custodial and welfare character. Clearly, the organization of hospitals reflected to some degree the social and class structure of American society. At public mental hos- pitals it was not at all uncommon to classify patients on the basis of socio-economic differences and then to separate them phys- ically and to give individuals with a higher status more privileges and better care.44 Indeed, few Americans questioned the practice of .providing more affluent individuals with superior care. It was the general practice of the majority of public insti- tutions to either exclude or else to provide separate (but un- equal) facilities for insane persons who were black. To most psychiatrists the thought of treating blacks and whites as equals was never seriously entertained. With some exceptions, many hospitals prior to 1860 would not accept black patients at all, since separate facilities had not been provided for by the state legislatures.!® 14 As one superintendent remarked: “It is certainly exceedingly unpleasant, to be almost compelled to associate with those whose education, conduct and moral habits, are unlike and repugnant to us. Because persons are insane, we must not conclude that they always lose the power of appreciating suitable asso- ciates, or are insensible to the influence of improper communications. This is by no means true. It is among our greatest perplexities here, to know how to quiet the complaints of those whose delicacy is shocked, whose tempers are perturbed, and whose quietude is annoyed by improper and unwelcome asso- ciates.” [Eastern] Kentucky Lunatic Asylum, Annual Report (1845), 24. Such sentiments, which were widespread among hospital officials, usually led to dif- ferential care and therapy based on class and status. For evidence on this point see the following: Worcester State Lunatic Hospital, Annual Report, 7 (1839), 89; zbid., 12 (1844), 88-89; ibid., 15 (1847), 33; ibid., 26 (1858), 60; zbid., 36 (1869), 73, 83; South Carolina Lunatic Asylum, Annual Report (1871), 27-29; Taunton State Lunatic Hospital, Annual Report, 15 (1868), 14-15; Vermont Asylum for the Insane, Annual Report, 24 (1860), 12; Insane Asylum of Louisiana, Annual Report (1866), 5; Massachusetts Board of State Charities, Annual Report, 10 (1S 7%5),,19; ‘5 For the policy of some states before the Civil War regarding the treatment of black insane persons see the following: American Freedmen’s Inquiry Com- mission Mss. Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Charles H. Nichols to Thomas S. Kirkbride, April 14, 24, 1855, Kirkbride Papers, Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital; Kentucky Eastern Lunatic Asylum, Biennial Report, 33/34 (1856/1857), 24; Maryland Hospital for the Insane, Annual Report (1851), 7-8; Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum, Annual Report, 4 (1858), 11-12; ibid., 5 (1859), 24; South Carolina Lunatic Asylum, Annual Report (1844), 5; ibid. (1850), 12; ibed. (1851), 8-9; tbed. (1858), 12; abid. (1860), 13; ‘Tennessee Hospital for the Insane, Biennial Report, 1- (1852/1853), 21; Virginia Western Lunatic Asylum, Annual Report, 17 (1844), 26-27; ibid., 18 (1845), 7-8, 29-30; zbid., 21 (1848), 4-5, 32-34; Virginia Eastern Asylum, Annual Report (1848), 23-29; ibid. (1849), 5-6. The segregation in or exclusion of blacks from mental hospitals was by no means unique. A study of other welfare institutions would show much the same pattern. Witness, for example, the following description of conditions among black inmates at the New York City Almshouse in 1837: “In the Building as-