The author of The Back Building, Julie Dewey, wrote this excellent guest post about the different treatments used throughout history to treat people who suffered from depression and insanity. Very interesting post!!
I wrote the book, The Back Building, because I was intrigued
by the diagnosis and treatment of mentally ill patients in the 1800’s as well
as the early 1900’s. I was astounded to
learn that a person could be diagnosed as being insane just because they were
homeless, jobless, elderly, or opinionated.
Often a person who was seen as a blight on their community was sent away
to an alms house, jail, hospital, or asylum for the insane. Of course, some people were legitimately unbalanced,
but for my purposes anyone declared as being mentally ill suffered the same
treatment.
Once at a given facility, the patient was often mistreated
and dehumanized. Patients were chained
to bed rails and jail cells, they were stripped of their clothing and
dignity. Often they were starved and
beaten, all in an attempt to rid them of the devil.
During the early 1800’s some medical doctors were
experimenting with procedures to “cure” their patients. Lobotomies were first performed with saws but
later ice picks and hammers became the preferred tools. Picks were jammed directly into a person’s
eye sockets where brain matter was scrambled and removed in an effort to
relieve a person from their illness.
Crass tools with scoops and sharp edges come to mind, as well as
catatonic patients.
Insulin therapy was additionally studied and used on
patients in an effort to calm them.
Patients were overdosed with insulin and put into a coma, their brains
were starved and blood sugar levels plummeted.
Trepanation was yet another barbaric form of treatment used
to “cure” patients of their illness.
Holes
were drilled directly into their skulls in patterns in order to
allow the demon to escape.
Hydrotherapy was another, less invasive, yet still
uncomfortable treatment used to calm mentally ill patients. Patients were submerged in a tub of water,
sometimes ice cold, for hours on end and then were wrapped in sheets and
mummified. Or they were blasted with
sharp shards of water from high impact hoses in an attempt to heal them.
ECT is still used today as a treatment for depression,
schizophrenia, and other ailments when medications are not effective. However, the history of ECT is nothing short
of barbaric and hazardous. Patients were
often strapped down to beds, while electrodes were attached to their
scalps. They were not given pain
medication, relaxants, or anesthesia and many had heart attacks on the table,
or died during the procedure.
Mental illness was simply not understood and accepted then
as it is today. Sure, we still have
stigma’s, and there is no doubt that we struggle as a society to understand and
conceptualize what it means to be “normal”.
However, centuries of research, in addition to patient’s rights, and a
wider understanding of the mind has led us to far more practical and humane
treatments for patients.
The Back Building does not delve into all of these
treatments, but it does compare and contrast some of the methods used to treat
patients over the course of four generations.
I believe, and if you read my book you will see why, that it is love,
faith, and understanding that have the greatest impact on anyone who suffers
with a mental illness.
