In Nellie Bly’s book, Ten Days in a Mad-House (see category, “Nellie Bly,” for related posts), Nellie Bly described various women she met in the Blackwell Island Women’s Lunatic Asylum. She was confined to Hall 6 with 45 of the least dangerous women in the institution. While some of them were certifiably “crazy,” (her words), many, she felt, had been wrongly locked up. A Frenchwoman, for example, named Josephine Despreau, fell sick in a boarding house and the woman of the house called in the police. They arrested her and took her to the station-house. She didn’t understand the proceedings because of the language barrier and the judge paid no attention to her protests. She was locked up in the insane asylum in no time.
Well into the twentieth century, it was easy to get a woman locked up in a mental institution. It was not unheard of for a man to tire of his wife in favor of another woman and get his wife declared insane and committed to an insane asylum. I was remarking upon this horror the other day and my mother told me that my great uncle Sam P did this very thing to his wife Helen. He had her committed to an asylum in San Antonio. Helen found a way out, though, and slipped away to Corpus Christi to live with her sister.
Do any of you have any asylum stories to share?
Ah! My great grandfather did that to my great grandmother, when she was “going through the change”. One IS a bit erratic at that time, I know, for I’ve been there. My graondmother, however, then became a big women’s rights activist (in Texas), lobbying to have the laws changed so that men could no longer “dispose” of their wives so easily. My grandmother’s name was (is) Gladys Kennedy Bright. Way to go, Granny! Her daughter, grand-daughters, and great-grandaughters are all feminists. But of course!
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Suzanne-y, I suppose your great grandmother must have gotten out of the asylum. Where was she kept?
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In the mid-1950’s, my father had my beautiful mother committed to Patton State Hospital for ’emotional instability,’ where she was forced to undergo shock treatments without anesthesia.
She did not have a mental illness. Multiple agonizing injuries inflicted by a vicious and brutal husband had triggered her distress. Her protests, like her injuries, were dismissed as inconsequential. Even local police considered a woman property of her husband, to ‘manage’ as he saw fit. Those men did not realize Mom’s beauty was matched only by her strength of will.
With independence rare for that era, she fought her way back and managed to retain custody after divorce. Enrolling in college, she achieved straight A’s while juggling a full time job and life as a single parent.
Following her example, my brother and I earned college degrees and satisfying careers. Her lessons and values were taught to our children and grandchildren and they have become successful, community-oriented individuals in their own right.
As her 80th birthday approaches, our family’s matriarch is the epitome of grace and beauty. Although disabled by those old injuries, Mom remains the strongest person I’ve ever known.
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Bob, I appreciate your taking the time to share this beautiful story. Many people were committed to institutions in the fifties who would have benefitted from talk therapy and other modern methods. Thanks for visiting Lisa’s History Room and God bless you and your precious mother.
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I recently got done with a 6 day stay in the psych ward of a hospital. I must admit, the worst part was not being listened to. Any verbal protests were ignored, no matter what I said, and medical treatment that I actually NEEDED didn’t happen in time. I am disgusted by the conditions I encountered in our mental health system.
That being said, I am thoroughly grateful I did not receive shock treatment or anything of the like. The worst I encountered was being held down & given shots against my will, though that was traumatizing enough.
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