The Horrors of the Asylum: Treatments and Torture Procedures

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The dark and sordid history of asylums will always be a heavy reminder of what happens when good intentions are ultimately not realized. There’s no justification for what the asylum system became. There should be no forgiveness of the horrors of the asylum.

Treatments and Torture Procedures

The asylum institution was initially intended to be a place for mental care and refuge. When they began in full swing, it was still an area of heavy prejudice, intense discrimination, and bigotry. This was especially the case to those people who were seen or regarded as having mental illnesses. The establishment of the asylums was supposed to be a godsend, an actual light at the end of the tunnel.

Yet, the reality was–for much of their operations before the modern era–asylums had become places of confinement and suffering. The difference between treatments and torture procedures was difficult to tell. And there were a lot of them.

In days gone by, when people had mental illnesses, the science behind them was still in its infancy or practically non-existent. As such, due to superstition and ignorance, many mental illnesses were explained away as being caused by the supernatural. From demonic possession to divine punishment, there was a medley of incoherent and terrible justifications as to why a person might be mentally ill.

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During these times, treatment was ritualistic, focusing on expelling the “evil spirit” or appeasing the anger of the gods. Most often, these treatments were torturous for the body and the mind.

That was why mental institutions like asylums emerged in the first place: to provide a systematic and scientific approach to dealing with and helping heal mental illnesses.

The Horrors of the Asylum: A Brief and Terrible Timeline

When the populations of asylums grew in the 15th and 16th centuries, and there was a surge in negative attitudes towards the mentally ill, asylums resorted to confinement to keep order. This was the most common form of torture. Any minor infraction was often dealt with by chains, restraints, and, in the worst cases, solitary confinement.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, conditions for asylums saw a period of stability. The Moral Treatment Movement advocated for a more humane and careful approach, emphasizing the need to treat patients with dignity and respect and to provide a space that was actually conducive to healing and recovery. However, while these were welcome changes, they wouldn’t last long.

As the 20th century approached, asylum populations continued to grow, and the positive attitudes of the Moral Treatment Movement dwindled. This was also a period of great scientific enlightenment. Many treatments for mental illnesses were created and disseminated across the asylum network, but despite their basis in scientific knowledge, these treatments proved to be extremely harmful and destructive. They were more akin to torture procedures than any attempt at care.

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The Horrors of the Asylum: What Patients Suffered Through

There are many treatments that transformed into torture–too many to list, in fact, but here are some of the more egregious and most utilized:

• Bloodletting. This ancient procedure is, as its name says, the drawing of blood from the body in an attempt to balance the bodily humors, which were believed to have caused mental illness.
• Hydrotherapy. As a result of medicinal techniques modernizing, the idea of using water as a source of therapy gained popularity. This treatment had patients subjected to various water treatments that ranged from being harmless to extremely deadly.
• Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT). As more insight and knowledge was gleaned from studies of electricity and its effects on the human body, the idea of using it to treat mental illness also came into vogue. This was a highly dangerous procedure that involved inducing seizures by passing electric currents through the brain.
• Psychosurgery. The 19th century saw a rise in the sophistication of surgical methods, but it was also a period of horrific experimentation and callous disregard for people. One such procedure that came about was lobotomy, which was the deliberate severing of different parts of the brain. This was intended to limit brain activity, thus eliminating mental illness in theory. This had devastating consequences.

While mental health treatment has progressed by leaps and bounds today, its dark history is a reminder that the only way to progress is forward. Read more in Patricia Lubeck’s Asylum Scandals: Abuse, Torture, Corruption and Murder in Minnesota’s State Hospitals. Click here to order a copy now!