Releasing Lunatics from their Chains (Robert-fleury)
I was recalling something my grandmother told me about a “field trip” she and her sister Maurine took to Austin, Texas, back in the 1920’s. Both Grandmother and Aunt Maurine were young and single, living in Lufkin, Texas. They had heard all about the state lunatic asylum and wanted to see it for themselves. I think they were hoping to spot a flesh and blood lunatic. The trip was a real highlight.
The two took the train all alone from East Texas to Austin to visit the asylum.
“It’s lucky they weren’t captured,” says my sister Loise.
I’ve seen the maps of Austin from those days. The important buildings are marked, including the University of Texas, the State Capital, and the State Lunatic Asylum. True, the Lunatic Asylum was a garden spot and people other than my relatives were drawn to it for good reasons. But I think novels like Jane Eyre give us an insight into attitudes toward the mentally ill. They were weird, scary, and dangerous.
Evidently the Texas State Lunatic Asylum was ahead of its time in its compassionate approach toward the mentally ill. The asylum movement in America and Europe at that time “strived to provide a healthy diet, exercise, fresh air, adequate rest, a strict daily routine, social contact, and a kind but firm approach,” according to the website of the Texas Dept. of State Health Services (1). No longer flogging the patient or tossing cold water on him, the treatment for the mentally ill in the first half of the twentieth century was still far from humane.
Rosemary Kennedy
In 1941, Joseph Kennedy authorized a frontal lobotomy for his beautiful special needs daughter Rosemary, who was proving to be a bit of an embarrassment to him when she tripped curtseying to the Queen of England.
According to Dr. Watts, a surgeon assisting in the lobotomy of Rosemary Kennedy:
“We went through the top of the head, I think she was awake. She had a mild tranquilizer. I made a surgical incision in the brain through the skull. It was near the front. It was on both sides. We just made a small incision, no more than an inch.” The instrument Dr. Watts used looked like a butter knife. He swung it up and down to cut brain tissue. “We put an instrument inside,” he said. As Dr. Watts cut, Dr. Freeman put questions to Rosemary. For example, he asked her to recite the Lord’s Prayer or sing “God Bless America” or count backwards. … “We made an estimate on how far to cut based on how she responded.” … When she began to become incoherent, they stopped.” (2)
1. http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/mhhospitals/AustinSH/ASH_About.shtm
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosemary_Kennedy
NEXT: Stunt reporter for THE NEW YORK WORLD Nellie Bly writes TEN DAYS IN A MAD-HOUSE
Lisa's History Room 
Holy cow, that is a really scary story about the lobotomy. Very interesting blog, I look forward to reading more!
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Elisha, thanks for your comment. Can you believe that a surgeon could just dream up a surgical procedure and then start operating without getting any approval back in 1941?
Lisa
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Poor Rosemary Kennedy. She was 23 years old when she had the surgery. It reduced to her to the level of a babbling baby. She was incontinent and stared at the walls for hours. Her life was ruined.
Meanwhile, the chief surgeon Freeman went on to perform 3,000 more lobotomies before his medical license was revoked.
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Oh my…that creeped me out. I can not imagine a parent giving a doctor permission to do that. And for a doctor TO do that. How very sad. Very interesting. Thanks for sending the link to your site. 🙂
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Katie,
Thanks for commenting. Rosemary’s mother, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, told biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin that she did not know that Rosemary had had a lobotomy until 1961, JFK’s first year as president.
Keep coming back.
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My first reaction is, “How horrible, I’m so glad we don’t do things like that anymore.” But porbably we aren’t so enlightened as we pretend and are doing things that in 50 years will make people shudder.
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Hi. I see your interest in the history of insane asylums, and I was wondering if you had any information on Bellevue in the 1940’s. My grandmother died in their psychiatric facility in 1941, and I am trying to find out what her treatment might have been like and the living conditions there. Thanks for your help!
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Hi, Anne, there is oodles of Bellevue history info on the Web. This site is a good beginning with its many external links:
http://www.answers.com/topic/bellevue-hospital
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Thanks for the site info. I will check it out.
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