DARE TO IMAGINE;FROM LUNATICS TO CITIZENS

From Asylum to Hospital

     While researching and writing chapter two of the book, “Dare to Imagine: From Lunatics to Citizens”, Nere St- Amand (social worker)  and Eugene Leblanc (Editor) were very fortunate to find two diaries of abused inmates of the lunatic asylum in Saint John, New Brunswick. The first letters were Stephen Innis’s ,who was incarcerated in 1869, and the second one was Mary a lady who was institutionalized in 1883.  Mr. Innis  apparently had a big family row over his sisters upcoming marriage, the police were called,  and he was dumped into the asylum.   His letters to his boss depict a violent environment where he received abuse  from both inmates and staff.  Innis predicted that his stay would be a long one and so he committed suicide.  Mary’s diary was a gem to researchers trying to find out what asylum life at the end of the 19th century was like.  Originally, Mary wasn’t eating or sleeping well and her five sons had her committed to the asylum.  She talks about the abuse of other patients by the staff, the cold, the hunger, the brutality, and the despair.

From 1903- 1980‘s

     In the beginning of the twentieth century the word “asylum” was changed to “hospital”. 
Superintendent Hetherington describes 1903 as a time of great “scientific enlightenment” and
“intense humanity” and Chapter Three of “Dare to Imagine” analyzes this time period to see if these optimistic words come true or if they are just fantasies.  In 1904 Dr. James Anglin  became superintendent of the Provincial hospital and he had the fence torn down and the chains removed from the patients. However, the hospital's capacity originally was 80 patients and at the time 1,500 patients were in it.  In fact so many patients  were admitted at one time that the type of their illnesses and the circumstance of their committal were not even registered. 

     In 1916 a teenage Wendy Tupper was admitted to the Provincial Hospital allegedly because she was afraid of men.  After 60 years of psychiatric care Miss Tupper still had her original complaint and she was playing with dolls and waiting for her mother to come back to her.

“A newcomer to the hospital encounters sighs, sounds, and smells which he has never encountered before.  Everywhere he goes doors must be locked and unlocked.  Everywhere patients have a drugged look. And idleness reigns.” Camp 1976:15  By 1920 conditions at the hospital were considered to be 20 years behind the times, the building was in ruins, and the 35 staff members were inadequately trained.  Patients were placed in restraints, and the dreaded crib beds were still being used.  Twenty years later the same kind of criticisms were levied at the hospital.  By 1929 the Provincial Hospital expanded.  There were to more wards, a store, and another kitchen.  In 81 years the hospital grew 13 times.

     From 1931-56 Superintendent Dr. E. C. Menzies was at the helm of the Provincial Hospital.  His main innovation was to allow the patients to go to the bathroom at night, by keeping the bathroom door open.  Prior to that the patients were chained to their beds at night and had the doors to their bedroom locked.  That left them no choice but to relieve themselves in their beds. Dr. E.C. Menzies boasted that the Provincial Hospital had treated 11,796 and 4,708 were thought to be completely cured.

     By 1936, insulin shock was practised at the Provincial Hospital.  This was the practice of

overdosing patients with insulin to make them go into convulsions.  Insulin shock was a crude form a shock therapy.  During World War II there was a lack of doctors and trained personnel,

since many had gone to war.  There was an influx of patients who were shell shocked and suffering post traumatic stress syndrome from fighting in the war.  By 1942 electroshock was introduced and used on the patients under the supervision of Dr. Fisher. The great writer, Earnest Hemingway, had shock therapy in 1961 and a few days later committed suicide.  Dr. Cerletti invented shock therapy in 1938, calling it “annihilation”.  He got the idea for this kind of treatment or mistreatment by watching pigs being killed in a slaughterhouse.  The pigs were electrocuted before having their throats slit.  Even today in Southeastern New Brunswick15-20% of helpless psychiatric patients are either tricked or forced to have shock therapy which is barbaric. Shock therapy causes permanent memory loss and brain damage and in many cases destroys the person.

     By 1945 three former staff members of the Provincial Hospital wrote to Montreal paper, The Standard” and made complaints about the hospital.  This lead a retired reporter from “Time” magazine to pose as a staff member.  His article, “Eight Days in a Mental Hospital” soon became public.  An excerpt said, “I noticed that eight patients wore hobbles around their ankles which mad it very easy to push them off balance should they become violent.  Four were strapped to benches and were released to be transferred to bed, where they were  strapped down by wrists and ankles to the bed itself.  I was shown dungeons underground where unruly patients were formerly confined.”  When this article came out there was panic among the administration and the politicians in whose riding these atrocities were committed.

     Starting in 1956 people in the United States, England, and Italy started challenging the

way that psychiatric hospitals were handling their patients and by 1968 “A Report of the Study Committee on Mental Health Services' aimed at reforming psychiatric care by treating patients in the community instead of institutionalizing them.  Self-help and consumer-driven groups were encouraged.