Dorothea Dix: Insane In The 19th Century

In the late 1800’s people with mental illness weren 't accomdated like people are today. Often people with illnesses, such as bipolar disorder, we 're teased and forced to lock themselves in a room away from civilization. No one truly cared for those with mental illness or tried to find out ways to accomdate them in school or regular life. Even when mental hospitals became more helpful those suffering from different illnesses would rather stay at home in fear than to seek professional help because of the risk of getting teased or called pathetic. The mentally ill patients were made prisoners, sent to alms houses or forced to remain at home because the first colonist believed they were “sick in the head” due to practicing

Madchen Amick, an American actress, once said, “I do love that witches haven 't really been explored that much. Usually, witches are the little side character... a bad female character that comes in and leaves”. Throughout history, witches have been portrayed as many different things; old, scary, but do people really know about “witches” and their historical past? Although the fifteenth century was a progressive and prosperous time for many in Europe, tens of thousands of people were killed as a result of witchcraft; associations with the devil, unexplained nature, and evil doings.

Imagine being trapped in a damp, dark, cage as a form of punishment for something that seems completely out of your grasp. Prisons were understaffed and as barbaric as it gets the people charged with crimes were whipped. The primary cause for their creation was to keep the crooks from harming any people right? Everyone in solitary confinement is treated the same way but not everyone came for the same reason. In fact, mentally ill people were considered to be harsh maniacs which did not receive treatment for a long time.

Dorothea Lynde Dix was born on April 4, 1802 in Hampden, Maine. She was a pioneer in the treatment of the mentally ill. “She was instrumental in founding 32 mental hospitals, 15 schools for the feeble minded, a school for the blind, and numerous training facilities for nurses. Her efforts were an indirect inspiration for the building of many additional institutions for the mentally ill. She also helped establish libraries in prisons, mental hospitals and other institutions.”

Gavi Kamen November 23, 2015 Dorothea Dix was born in Hampden, Maine in 1802 and became a social reformer whose devotion to the welfare of the mentally ill led to universal reforms. Her father Joseph was a Methodist preacher who was prone to depression and alcoholism and her mother suffered from crippling periods of depression. After teaching for many years, Dorthea took a job teaching inmates in an East Cambridge prison, where she was inspired by the dreadful conditions and the inhumane treatment of prisoners to spend the next 40 years lobbying U.S. and Canadian legislators to establish state hospitals for the mentally ill. Her efforts directly affected the building of 32 institutions in the United States. Dorothea began teaching

Involuntary admission and medication have been administered to the mentally ill and disabled for centuries; this course began in the 1800s when the first insane asylum opened in Britain after the 1808 County Asylum Act. While many organizations are aimed at equal rights for all who are not a direct danger to themselves or others, there is still large injustice for the mentally handicapped when his/her rights are violated by being pushed into unnecessary hospitalization. Countless innocent, mentally ill people are impacted by having treatments they are involuntarily given; fortunately, organizations such as Mental Disability Rights International are attempting to make a difference by fighting against the treatment the mentally disabled receive

Mental Illness in the 1800's: something needed to be done If you had a mental illness in the 1800's you'd be put into an asylum which usually had horrible conditions. Thanks to Dorothea Dix that is not how we treat mentally ill people today. Dorothea Dix reformed society by showing the gov. how people were treated in these asylums and wanted to make the conditions better by, for example putting in libraries.

Humans everywhere should be able to make their own decisions, based on what they feel is right. Making your own decisions defines your character, and ensures success in future careers. Children nowadays need to be able to make their own choices, and learn from their mistakes. For example, in the story The Moth Presents: Aleeza Kazmi, Aleeza made the choice to color her self portrait peach, instead of her “color.” This proves that Aleeza was making her own choice to what her self-perception was, and not what others thought of her.

Whereas mental asylums in the 1870s focused on methodology, lunatic asylums in the early 1900s tackled the issue of sanitation and communicable diseases. Beginning in 1912, the Indian Government, under the influence of the Britain, passed the Indian Lunacy Act of 1912.14 This act specified guidelines for the management of mental asylums, including various procedures for admissions and standards of care.14 At this time, changes were also occurring structurally within the mental asylums in Britain.14 These changes were transforming the care of the mentally ill into a more professional setting.14 As a result, British India underwent similar transformations to the structure of their cells and the status of mental conditions. For instance, controlling

While mankind has made substantial progress in ridding the world of diseases, mental illnesses are still prominent, and often overlooked. In the novel Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë highlights illnesses caused by tensions in order to construct a world where mental health problems and internal struggles take on a life of their own. In the case of Catherine Earnshaw Linton and Heathcliff Earnshaw, the body follows the mind 's descent into distress, with mental illness inflating strenuous circumstances. On the surface, the fevers and hallucinations are nothing more than a plot point orchestrated to spawn grief.

Taking a Stand for the mentally ill Thesis Dorothea Dix took a stand by recognizing the importance of establishing mental institutions. Her philosophy saved mentally unstable people from the harsh treatments they once received in jails Background The conditions that the mentally ill lived under in the mid-19th century were unfitting. Unstable individuals were imprisoned and mistreated. People who suffered from insanity were treated worse than criminals.