Library Collections: Document: Full Text

The removal of the insane from home and former associations, with respectful and kind treatment under all circumstances, and in most cases manual labor, attendance on religious worship on Sunday, the establishment of regular habits and of self-control, diversion of the mind from morbid trains of thought, are now generally considered as essential in the Moral Treatment of the Insane.

We shall therefore, in this essay, confine ourselves mostly -- lst, to a brief historical review of this subject, in order to do at least partial justice to our predecessors, and 2d, notice such new suggestions and new methods of treatment as have come to our knowledge.

Previous to the time of Pinel, the moral treatment of the Insane was fluctuating and unestablished. In some periods and in some countries, a portion of the insane at least, were treated with great kindness, while at the same time, others were neglected and abused. From the most remote periods, insanity was regarded for the most part as a sacred disease, as coming direct from heaven, and as a consequence of the possession of a spirit or demon. This was the belief of the Chaldeans and the Jews. Saul was troubled by an evil spirit, and Job by a demon. Hence recourse was had to various moral means of cure. Thus Saul was cured by the music of David. "And it came to pass when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took a harp and played with his hand so Saul was refreshed and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him." 1 Sam. xvi. 16.

Similar methods of treatment prevailed in ancient Egypt and Greece; the priests of the former country amused insane persons, and diverted their minds by music, and by pleasant walks in groves and gardens, filled with perfumes and flowers; and Melampus cured the daughters of Pretus, king of Argos, not with Hellebore as some have stated, but by bodily exercise, and by mysterious ceremonies that acted powerfully on the imagination.

But all the insane were not treated in the same manner; while those who were gay, sociable and courageous, were treated with respect and kindness, and even idolized and worshipped as Oracles, many that were timid and melancholy, were considered objects of Heaven's wrath, and driven forth as outcasts, and subjected to the greatest abuse.

The treatment of the insane, has ever varied with the philosophy and intelligence of the age. That they are treated better in modern times, more kindly and judiciously, is not owing to any increase of benevolence, but to an increase of knowledge. Benevolence has ever existed in the heart of man, and compassion for suffering, been manifested from the most remote period. But without knowledge, benevolence may prove to be as injurious as tyranny itself. Hence we find in the ignorant ages. the insane not merely neglected, but abused and persecuted, and in many cases put to death in the most inhuman manner, and not for want of pity and compassion in the human heart, but from ignorance of the nature of insanity, Those thus treated were not considered as diseased, insane or as deserving of pity, but as wicked beings, in league with evil spirits, and meriting punishment.

From the earliest period, some individuals had correct notions on insanity -- Celsus who lived at the time of Christ, gave many excellent precepts relating to the moral treatment a the insane, and Caelius Aurelianus, who lived three centuries later, insisted in strong terms on the necessity of acquiring the confidence and esteem of the insane by frankness of manner and by kind treatment.

But the difficulty has ever been to determine who are insane.

Not to go back to times too remote for abundant and correct historical details, we know that from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century, very many thousands of insane persons were put to death, and most of them by order of Courts of Justice. Some were condemned to death or to imprisonment for life as heretics, some were hung for practising witchcraft, and vast numbers were burned as sorcerers, or for being in league with the devil.

These cruelties have for the most part passed away, yet still down even to the present time, there are we believe in most countries, some deranged persons confined with criminals in prisons, and not unfrequently some are put to death for acts committed by them when deprived of their reason.

The burning of Joan of Arc, and the thousands of supposed sorcerers, and which we now look upon with horror, was caused by the ignorance of the times. In fact, ignorance has ever been the worst of all diseases, and as relates to insanity much yet remains, and we should regard it among our highest duties to endeavor to dispel it, and to diffuse such a knowledge of insanity among all classes, as will prevent the recurrence of the enormities we have mentioned.

Owing to the spread of science, the insane towards the beginning of the last century, ceased to be regarded as witches or sorcerers. Still they continued to be abused and neglected. The most furious were confined in cells and dungeons, and when obstinate or mischievous, were cruelly whipped, and in all respects treated like wild beasts. For many years no other method of treatment was supposed practicable or useful. No one scorns to have thought of attempting to cure them.