Category: Insanity

Kathy Geary Anderson > Journal > Insanity

Are you Insane?

Posted on by Kathy Geary Anderson
In researching reasons someone might be admitted to an insane asylum in 1900, I came across lists in various superintendent log books and yearly reports that left me either laughing or shaking my head. Clearly, doctors in the late 19th century did not view mental illness the way we do today. In our post-Freudian culture of psychoanalysis and scientific enlightenment, a list that includes epileptics, alcoholics and the mentally handicapped among the insane seems somehow wrong. Even more troubling are causes like menopause, overwork, religion, and cigarettes. What helped me make some sense of it all was the understanding that most 19th-century doctors believed insanity could be caused by moral factors as well as physical ones. Also, as with many diseases of the day, they believed heredity played a large part in whether a person was more susceptible to going insane. Thus, statements like “doubt about mother’s ancestors” became a little more clear to me. (I’ve had a few doubts about my own ancestors, but hopefully that won’t lead to my eventual insanity.) It also helped to read the case histories in addition to the cause listed for a patient’s admittance. For the most part, people were committed to insane asylums because they acted, well, insane. Though these lists can cause my novel-writing mind to kick into overdrive with all sorts of sinister scenarios, the woman who was committed for “religious enthusiasm” was most likely there because she believed herself to be the Mother of Jesus or an avenging angel of some kind. Still, there was the case of Elizabeth Packard who spent three years in an insane asylum because she disagreed with her husband’s religious beliefs. And if it could happen to her, who’s to say it couldn’t have happened to someone else given the right circumstances, a believable motive and a few dastardly antagonists? . . . and a novel is born. In case you are interested in getting your own creative juices flowing, check out this list from the late 1800s and this one from the turn of the century. Meanwhile, here’s a sampling of a few causes I’ve been puzzling over:
  • Asthma
  • Superstition
  • Gathering in the head (who or what is doing this gathering?)
  • Remorse
  • Politics
  • Pecuniary losses: worms (really not seeing a connection here)
  • Laziness
  • Novel reading
Wait just a minute. Novel reading? That’s just crazy talk. Everyone knows novel reading doesn’t cause insanity. Novel writing on the other hand . . .

Visiting an Insane Asylum

Posted on by Kathleen Anderson
One scene from my novel is set in an insane asylum. Yeah, I know. Scary stuff, right? Just hearing the words “insane asylum” conjures up images of tortured souls and inhumane treatments: mutilations, lobotomies, electroshock therapy and even castration. In fact, the insane asylum in my novel–the Essex County Hospital for the Insane (also known as Overbrook)–has been featured on several reality ghost-hunting shows. Today, most of its buildings have been demolished to make room for a public park, but home videos such as the following still capture the haunting beauty of the place. So, am I writing a horror story? Well, no. In fact, the scene in my novel, while sad, is not at all scary. It’s set in 1900, when the first and (at that time) only building at Overbrook had been in use less than two years. Built on 300 farm acres in Cedar Grove, New Jersey, the hospital housed 244 patients at that time, 102 male and 142 female. Its main purpose was to ease the overcrowded conditions of the original Essex County Hospital for the Insane located on South Orange Avenue in Newark. The history that became fodder for its ghost tales had yet to happen. Instead, during the 1890s, the hospital had gained a reputation as a model for other county asylums across the country. Its superintendent, Dr. Livingston Hinckley, had incorporated many innovative practices to keep his patients amused and occupied, including a day school for the patients and a monthly newspaper, edited by patients. He clearly subscribed to the common theory of the Victorian time period that the best way to treat insanity was to keep the patients busy. Overbrook, with its rural setting, offered opportunities for outdoor activity and plenty of fresh air and sunshine—all benefits that would have been considered ideal for treating the insane. That’s not to say that all treatments for the patients at that time were benign. Dr. Hinckley was also an advocate of mechanical restraints, such as canvas muffs or padded leather straps, for his more violent and agitated patients. Another treatment gaining popularity among asylums was hydrotherapy. Used extensively in Europe to calm aggressive patients, doctors championed this method in medical journals as a more humane alternative to chains and handcuffs. Hydrotherapy treatments were varied, with some as simple as an icepack to the head or feet. More extensive treatments included continuous warm baths where a patient was suspended on a canvas hammock in a tub of warm water for several hours or sometimes overnight. Probably most uncomfortable was the practice of wrapping the patient in a cocoon of wet sheets for extended periods of time. Some patients were kept restrained in this manner for days. Another that was often misused was spraying a patient’s spine and legs with jets of cold water. Still, though unsettling, a trip to the insane asylum in the late 19th century would probably have been no more horrifying than a visit to a psychiatric ward would today.