Institutionalization: A Forgotten History
This site is dedicated to the idea that the mass institutionalization of the disabled — to include the physically disabled, mentally disabled, and mentally ill — represents an important and chapter in American history and one that most Americans are not familiar with. The first asylums in the United States were founded in the nineteenth century. The first asylums in the United States were founded in the nineteenth century. First asylums for the mentally ill, often known as lunatic asylums or hospitals for the insane, and later followed by institutions for the mentally disabled and epileptics — often known as colonies or schools for the feeble-minded. By the late nineteenth century these institutions began to grow rapidly and their goals shifted from treatment to permanent custodial placement. By mid-1930s, institutions across the country housed over 400,000 individuals1. Very few of these individuals had engaged in any kind of violent crime and, yet, that does not mean that they were not seen as threatening. Labeled "undesirable citizens", if allowed to freely live in communities, they represented a threat to the republic. This 1914 University of Texas report represents an example of this reasoning:
The latter class comes in conflict with law and is generally considered a menace to good government. Scientific study and research today show us that this class is composed of two groups, the delinquent and criminal, or, properly speaking, the undesirable citizen, the class that has ideas and performs actions that are inimical to social health; and a second group composed of the mental and moral defectives and the defective-delinquent, the socially unfit through deprivation of desirable qualities and by inheritance of undesirable ones, from defective strains, and diseases.2
Institutions, then, contained this undesirable element, and while these institutions are largely a thing of the past, the idea that the disabled represent a threat or burden persists within the culture. How might our ideas about asylums or institutions relate to these depictions?
Collective memory: Asylums as Sites of Horror
What ideas Americans do have about the history of these institutions probably relates to the the image of asylums or hospitals for the criminally insane — often used in horror films, television, and comics as a place to confine violent psychotic criminals. While it would be easy to dismiss these ghost stories as simply sensationalistic pulp, I believe we could benefit by taking them seriously. Whether you are a fan of this genre or not, the idea that asylums are creepy places that house dangerous mental patients is so persistent that it seems obvious that it represents some underlying anxiety about human difference. At the same time, it is interesting that other groups that have historically been institutionalized are not depicted as vicious — in fact often they are not depicted at all. Why the history of these groups has been forgotten and is absent from our culture also deserves a closer examination.
Historical Investigation: Learning about People
Another goal of this site is to give a sense of what approach a historian takes to investigate the past. As a first year Ph.D student in history, I am in the process of acquiring these skills myself — learning not only about the past but also how to find and critically evaluate historical evidence. To demonstrate these skills, I have create an small exhibits concerning the Danvers State Hospital, the Weston State Hospital, and the Mississippi Colony and School for the Feebleminded (Jackson) which all feature a connection to asylums depicted in comics, films, video games, television shows and literature. In these exhibits, under the heading of "The Source", I will also explain where I found my evidence. Under "Digging Deeper", I'll share a portion of the source that I find interesting and how I might interpret it. After viewing my exhibits, you can conduct your own historical interpretation of sources I have found or you can search for your own (More on my teaching rationale can be found here). You will probably not be making a groundbreaking historical argument — but neither am I. What you will learn hopefully is a greater understanding of disability history in the United States and an appreciation for the investigative and interpretive skills of the historian.
1. Mental Patients in State Hospitals: Statistics of Admissions, Discharges, and Deaths During the Year and of Patients Under Care at Beginning of Year in State Hospitals for Mental Disease Government Printing Office. 1933 101. http://books.google.com/books?id=HP4fYFSDcl4C&hl http://books.google.com/books?id=G7tBAAAAYAAJ]↩
2. C. S. Yoakum, Care of the Feeble-minded and Insane in Texas University of Texas. 1914. 11. http://books.google.com/books?id=G7tBAAAAYAAJ.↩