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Mental illness affects a big portion of the US population. The National Alliance on Mental Illness claimed that roughly one in five American citizens experience mental illness at some point during their lives, which is almost 20 percent of the total population (NAMI, 1). With such data available, it is no surprise that the approach toward mental health has changed recently as it is estimated that almost 90 percent of Americans value physical and mental health equally (Ansari, 1). However, this has not always been the case as mentally ill individuals in the 19th century, for instance, were treated poorly. A short story ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman shows the way doctors viewed patients with mental problems at the time. The narrator, who suffers depression after she gave birth to a child was prescribed to just rest and stay in the house, which led to the further deterioration of her condition. The culture of that time was the main reason why society wanted to isolate itself from people with psychological disorders, who were put in asylums.
For most of history, mentally ill people have been treated extremely bad since society commonly believed that mental disorders were caused by witchcraft or demonic possession. In the early 19th century, there was almost no care for the mentally ill individuals as they were usually sent to almshouses, prisons, or stayed under the supervision of their families (Holzman, 24). That harsh attitude towards people with mental illnesses was heavily influenced by the perception of those individuals in the culture of the period. The madness was still seen as an organic physical phenomenon, while the mentally ill were typically perceived as wild animals. With the emergence of the Industrial Age and the rapid growth of big cities, most of the people feared individuals with mental disorders who were considered as a significant threat to society (Holzman, 24). In those days it was expected that people who had behavioral disorders or delay in cognitive development should be taken care of by their families (Gilman, 2). The most severe cases were often shut up in a room to protect the other members of the family and if the individual was too dangerous, he or she might even live chained in a shed (Gilman, 5). And if the family eventually could not care for the ill person he or she could be confined to an insane asylum. So, in the 19th century, the attitude towards mentally ill individuals was extremely disrespectful as society does not want to have any connection with them.
Asylums were the predecessors of modern hospitals that often looked more like prisons than medical centers. It became the early facilities made to shelter people who suffer from psychological problems. However, the primary objective of such places was rather to outlaw them from society than treat their disorders (Reiss, 26). These institutions have seen an ineffective and cruel therapy of those who were hospitalized as psychiatrists at the time when spoke of mental illnesses often stated that this expression was a figure of speech or metaphor, which means that they do not even bother themselves about finding ways to properly cure patients (Pies, 1). Most of the asylums built in the US were located in rural settings, far away from city life to protect society from those who were mentally ill (Smith, 1). Therefore, society at the time does not even consider the possibility of treating mentally ill individuals as it just wanted to get rid of them.
The situation started to change thanks to a couple of brave activists. Journalist Nellie Bly who spent ten days in the asylum was struck by the unsanitary, unscientific, and inhumane conditions in which the patients were held. She then wrote that most of the day the patients were in a bound state, they were fed with spoiled beef and stale bread (Reiss, 26, 40). Furthermore, patients did not receive any treatment other than punches. Her materials, along with the enthusiasm of the activist Dorothea Dix, led to the fact that authorities began to allocate significantly more funds for psychiatry. Consequently, hospitals and asylums began to be inspected regularly, and treatment methods began to change rapidly. Women initiated the transition from medieval medicine to the modern one, and patients began to feel all the consequences of their struggle in the 20th century.
The state of diagnosis and treatment of individuals with mental illness was extremely harsh and poor in the 19th century. It was mainly caused by the perception of such individuals who were considered not sick but possessed by a devil. As a result, society was not only uninterested in curing mentally ill people but it wanted to isolate them from healthy citizens. Taking into account the lack of attention and consequently, poor financial support from the government individuals who were kept in asylums were suffering horrific conditions of the place.
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