Mental health facilities

[Sarah S]

Good morning

As someone who studies this kind of subject in University, I really would like to know about the mental health facilities during the edwardian times. I have heard horrible anecdotes of what it was like to be labelled „mentally sick“ or „insane“ in the 19th century. There was lots of abuse of the patients inside the facilities, many were chained and forbidden to have any contact to the outside world. I read that many women were sent to these facilities for being „unruly“ and expressing their opinions or disobeying men.

How was mental health perceived by the general public in 1900-1912?
Have any Titanic passengers had experience before or after the sinking with mental health institutions? I also wonder about the officers, what kind of reaction they had when they heard someone in their circle needed „mental healthcare“. Would they distance themselves from these people or would they have compassion and despise the stigma around it? Officer Wilde was for example very depressed after the death of his wife and grieved openly about it. I wonder if we can make conclusions on his mental state and if we know how his co-officers dealt with him during these hard times. Was it ever considered that he needed „help“? I hope it doesn’t come off the wrong way now.



Thank you very much

 

[Arun Vajpey]

How was mental health perceived by the general public in 1900-1912?

Difficult to say first hand, but going by how people with mental health problems were depicted in novels from the 19th Century, (Mrs Rochester in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, for example), I imagine that there was a LOT of social stigma attached to it. Things had probably improved to some extent by the late Victorian & Edwardian times but general words like "mad" or "insane" were still used because most general public and probably many unspecialized doctors did not know about classification of mental illnesses and such. Therefore, it is quite possible that someone with postnatal depression was not treated much better than a patient suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. Confining, or even institutionalizing them was a common practice.

Have any Titanic passengers had experience before or after the sinking with mental health institutions?

Second Class passenger and Titanic victim Percival Sharp was supposed to have had spent quite a lot of time in Mental Health instituitions in the years leading up to the voyage. In fact, some unsubstantiated reports say that he was released from one such place only a few months before April 1912. There is a record that he was an inmate at the London County Lunatic Asylum in Norwood, Middlesex in 1911.

There are a lot of unexplained mysteries about Percy Sharp. Some researchers believe that Percy Sharp's mother died in 1891 when he was around 8 years of age... or, unable to cope after her husband's death, simply abandoned him to an orphanage. But there is also evidence that his "mother" (stepmother?) received £35 compensation from the Mansion House Relief Fund following his death in the Titanic disaster.

But the biggest mystery with Percival Sharp is that he was travelling on the same ticket (and very likely sharing a cabin with) as Henry Beuchamp, another Second Class Titanic victim. Beauchamp was a respectable middle-aged family man and working as a Head Steward at a posh London Country Club before his sudden and unexpected departure on board the Titanic. Nobody among Beauchamp's friends or family, including his wife, knew the reason why he was travelling to America or what his destination was; none of them had ever heard of Percival Sharp before and could not explain why the two men were travelling on the same ticket. The only clue is that in a letter written to a friend (a lawyer?) just before the trip, Beauchamp indicated that there had been a lot of bad feelings between his wife and himself about his sudden and unexlplained voyage but he was gong away hoping to set right some "past folly". Make what you want about that.

Jason Tiller is also interested in this Henry Beauchamp / Percival Sharp mystery and we occasionally privately converse about it. If it is OK with Jason, you can join in.

 

[Arun Vajpey]

Third Class passenger and Titanic Survivor Juho Niskanen developed mental health problems in the years following the disaster but in his case, unemployment, poverty and estrangement from his wife and children might have led to it - perhaps severe depression. Niskanen was a Finnish-American who had worked in the USA before returning to Finland planning bringing his family back with him. But for whatever reason, he boarded the Titanic in Southampton alone, except for a few fellow Finnish travellers. He survived (lifeboat uncertain, probably #15) but failed to make a success of his life in America and so his wife and children never joined him. He became a recluse, living alone in an isolated country cabin and had several brushes with the law, usually for threatening behaviour and assault. His neighbours reported him to have become something of a firebug and he eventually died when he set fire to his cabin in 1927.

 

[Sarah S]

Second Class passenger and Titanic victim Percival Sharp was supposed to have had spent quite a lot of time in Mental Health instituitions in the years leading up to the voyage. In fact, some unsubstantiated reports say that he was released from one such place only a few months before April 1912. There is a record that he was an inmate at the London County Lunatic Asylum in Norwood, Middlesex in 1911.

There are a lot of unexplained mysteries about Percy Sharp. Some researchers believe that Percy Sharp's mother died in 1891 when he was around 8 years of age... or, unable to cope after her husband's death, simply abandoned him to an orphanage. But there is also evidence that his "mother" (stepmother?) received £35 compensation from the Mansion House Relief Fund following his death in the Titanic disaster.

This is interesting. I scrolled through his ET biography but not much seems to be known about him. I wonder what he must have gone through in those institutions, what kind of medicaments were prescribed to him, and what his mental state was on the titanic.

But the biggest mystery with Percival Sharp is that he was travelling on the same ticket (and very likely sharing a cabin with) as Henry Beuchamp, another Second Class Titanic victim. Beauchamp was a respectable middle-aged family man and working as a Head Steward at a posh London Country Club before his sudden and unexpected departure on board the Titanic. Nobody among Beauchamp's friends or family, including his wife, knew the reason why he was travelling to America or what his destination was; none of them had ever heard of Percival Sharp before and could not explain why the two men were travelling on the same ticket. The only clue is that in a letter written to a friend (a lawyer?) just before the trip, Beauchamp indicated that there had been a lot of bad feelings between his wife and himself about his sudden and unexlplained voyage but he was gong away hoping to set right some "past folly". Make what you want about that.

Jason Tiller is also interested in this Henry Beauchamp / Percival Sharp mystery and we occasionally privately converse about it. If it is OK with Jason, you can join in.

A highly respected and reputable man leaving his family with no explanation to travel with another man he has nothing in common with and nobody from Beauchamps family knew? Very mysterious. I have no idea what they intended to do in America, but Beauchamps letter about him leaving because of problems with his wife sounds more like a lie or deception. If you or Jason make any new discoveries in this matter, I would be more than happy if you like to let me know.



Juho's fate seems very tragic and the way he died so horrifying, and the fact he suffered from depression and commited crimes because he failed to lead a succesful life...He went through a lot in his life to end up the way he did.
I wouldn't be suprised if a lot of people of that era who suffered depression never tried to seek help to overcome it or opened up to anyone about it, but rather let the depression make the worst of them, feeling miserable and destroying themselves in the process. Not to forget that most mental health institutions weren't all that helpful or "healing" either from what I've read, so the hopelessness must have been stifling.


I also wonder with regards to the maritime life of officers how they dealt with depression. If we look at the lives of officer Moody, Lightoller etc., their jobs must have been a huge mental (and physical) burden for them. Being overworked, and especially bullying must have been rampant and therefore resulted into deep depression for many. It would be interesting to know if the officers themselves made experiences seeing their coworkers suffer mentally and how they dealt with it to keep themselves positive and healthy. I wonder if there are more stories to be told.

 

[Arun Vajpey]

I also wonder with regards to the maritime life of officers how they dealt with depression. If we look at the lives of officer Moody, Lightoller etc., their jobs must have been a huge mental (and physical) burden for them. Being overworked, and especially bullying must have been rampant and therefore resulted into deep depression for many

Reactive depression was just as likley in that era (or any other era) as it now is but the question is whether it was recognized as such, let alone supported and treated. If you look at the 'cut-and-dry' manner in which White Star dealt with their own employees after the disaster - stopping paychecks etc - one feels that the era lacked empathy, especially towards the working class, who were largely taken for granted. With that social attitude and the aforementioned stigma associated with mental health problems, it is possible that those who felt depressed preferred not to see anyone about it, managing by themselves or with family support. Seeking solace in alcohol was also an issue.

That said, where the bygone eras could have been better is that there were probably more coping mechanisms in place within families and sometimes even among friends. Family support was available a bit more in those days than it is now but how far that could have helped is debatable. The one thing most people dreaded was being institutionalized, unless one was rich enough to go to one of those exclusive "Rest Farms" and such.

But let us not kid ourselves that management of Mental Health issues today is that much better as it used to be. As a former GP I know that our understanding of Mental Illness is relatively superficial compared with advances made in treating physical ailments. By and large patients are controlled on medications but that cannot really 'cure' the problem. Things like Psychotherapy, CBT etc have a long way to go before they can be perfected and overall there is a lot of unsaid "let's hope for the best" atmosphere. If you look at the film One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest set in an Oregon sanitarium in 1963, it gives an idea of how backward things were even in lifetimes of some of us.

 

[Sarah S]

Reactive depression was just as likley in that era (or any other era) as it now is but the question is whether it was recognized as such, let alone supported and treated. If you look at the 'cut-and-dry' manner in which White Star dealt with their own employees after the disaster - stopping paychecks etc - one feels that the era lacked empathy, especially towards the working class, who were largely taken for granted. With that social attitude and the aforementioned stigma associated with mental health problems, it is possible that those who felt depressed preferred not to see anyone about it, managing by themselves or with family support. Seeking solace in alcohol was also an issue.

That said, where the bygone eras could have been better is that there were probably more coping mechanisms in place within families and sometimes even among friends. Family support was available a bit more in those days than it is now but how far that could have helped is debatable. The one thing most people dreaded was being institutionalized, unless one was rich enough to go to one of those exclusive "Rest Farms" and such.

But let us not kid ourselves that management of Mental Health issues today is that much better as it used to be. As a former GP I know that our understanding of Mental Illness is relatively superficial compared with advances made in treating physical ailments. By and large patients are controlled on medications but that cannot really 'cure' the problem. Things like Psychotherapy, CBT etc have a long way to go before they can be perfected and overall there is a lot of unsaid "let's hope for the best" atmosphere. If you look at the film One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest set in an Oregon sanitarium in 1963, it gives an idea of how bd things were even in lifetimes of some of us.

That's true, the institutions could be very cruel and the White starline is a good example of a company abandoning their employeers during hard times. Though I can see modern day companies pulling off such a cruel thing too. That's why I am also interested in how the general public dealt with their psychologicallly ill or traumatized relatives and friends if they opened up about their problems. The lack of empathy applied to institutions and companies, but I would assume that people from any era in history would show compassion and understanding to their mentally afflicted citizens and actively work on the healing process. We have seen with the example of titanic survivors how not approaching one's inner turmoil can lead to severe depression or suicide (example Jack Thayer), while other survivors with strong social rapports overcame pschological issues (example Lightoller). Though I don't know in how far we can compare these individual cases, as even people with strong social support can commit suicide while lonely people could still continue their lives..


So in general I wonder if mental health "awareness" was in some form existent in edwardian times, that people realized they needed to somehow conciously take care of themselves and their loved ones in order to preserve a mentally stable life. For example Lightoller made it a mantra to "not dwell" in those traumatic memories and he managed to pull through. A lot of others probably couldn't do so for various reasons and lost their lives to depression or suicide.

 

[Sarah S]

Mental health management nowadays is all about the medications and not really about curing as you said..but there is more awareness to actively question and stabilize one's own mentality. People share their stories and find ways to relate with others, and many other forms of spaces and comfort zones where people with depression could retreat (though it of course isn't always enough to cure them). These things weren't present 30 years ago let alone in edwardian times, yet I wonder if there were different forms of raising awareness back then

 

[Arun Vajpey]

That's why I am also interested in how the general public dealt with their psychologicallly ill or traumatized relatives and friends if they opened up about their problems

Obviously, I cannot speak first hand for attitude towards Mental Health in Europe or North America in the Edwardian era, but going by books and some films set in that period, it was not good at all. Families often suppressed the existence of Mental Illness among relatives, often hiding them away from exposure to the general public; such isolation and ostracization made matters worse, as you can expect. If things got out of hand and the families could not cope, the person concerned was usually institutionalized, in many cases in an 'asylum' for life. Even then families did not often talk about them because of the social stigma.

But what I can tell you first hand is such attitudes in India while growing up in the 1960s; considering that India was then perhaps not very far from what the West used to be like during the Edwardian times, there might be parallels. As a boy in the early and mid 1960s I used to play cricket at a large field owned by a local temple. Across the road was an upper-middle class house with an enclosed verandah on the side facing the playing field; it had large grilled windows and for as long as I can remember there was a young man perpetually pacing about inside. Over time I was told that he was "mad" and the family had simply imprisoned him in that room and looked after his basic needs. Sometimes I could hear his anguished screams and the roar of his father or uncle as they whipped him with their belts to "pacify" him. Even after over 50 years, I still shudder at that memory.

Women came off much worse than the men. It was not unknown in Indian villages for a woman to 'disappear' never to be seen again if she developed so much as postnatal depression. Things are better now with increased awarness, but the social stigma largely remians.

So in general I wonder if mental health "awareness" was in some form existent in edwardian times, that people realized they needed to somehow conciously take care of themselves and their loved ones in order to preserve a mentally stable life

I am sure there were intelligent and educated people who had some empathy and awareness about Mental Health issues, but even they were handicapped by a lack of knowledge. Even today, our knowledge of the workings of the human mind is rather primitive compared with progress other fields in medicine and that is reflected in the management plans that you have asked about below.

Mental health management nowadays is all about the medications and not really about curing as you said..but there is more awareness to actively question and stabilize one's own mentality

True, but to some extent that is because even the best psychiatrists often do not have a Plan B and so simply follow the local guidelines. 'Treatment' is more about symptom control and safety of the individual and the public arund him/her than aim at a 'cure'. During on-call nights as a GP, I have had to visit patients with Mental Health issues undergoing an acute deterioration; all we could do was talk to them, where applicable prescribe a sedative to tide over the night or in severe cases 'section' them - effectively a process of enforced admission. All of us hated such call-outs but there was little else we could do; even with a full history available, there is precious little a doctor can do when meeting a mentally ill patient for the first time. Honestly, Mental Health management in the UK (the only country that I can speak for on this matter) is very poor and I suspect not a great deal better than most 'Developing' countries.

 

[Sarah S]

But what I can tell you first hand is such attitudes in India while growing up in the 1960s; considering that India was then perhaps not very far from what the West used to be like during the Edwardian times, there might be parallels. As a boy in the early and mid 1960s I used to play cricket at a large field owned by a local temple. Across the road was an upper-middle class house with an enclosed verandah on the side facing the playing field; it had large grilled windows and for as long as I can remember there was a young man perpetually pacing about inside. Over time I was told that he was "mad" and the family had simply imprisoned him in that room and looked after his basic needs. Sometimes I could hear his anguished screams and the roar of his father or uncle as they whipped him with their belts to "pacify" him. Even after over 50 years, I still shudder at that memory.

I am very sorry to hear that you made such a horrible experience, and even more sorry for the poor man who must have been deeply suffering but neither got professional mental healthcare nor a compassionate heart to love and understand him. To think many people with similar conditions have been inhumanely treated like this in the past as well as in the present all around the world is making me shudder as well

True, but to some extent that is because even the best psychiatrists often do not have a Plan B and so simply follow the local guidelines. 'Treatment' is more about symptom control and safety of the individual and the public arund him/her than aim at a 'cure'. During on-call nights as a GP, I have had to visit patients with Mental Health issues undergoing an acute deterioration; all we could do was talk to them, where applicable prescribe a sedative to tide over the night or in severe cases 'section' them - effectively a process of enforced admission. All of us hated such call-outs but there was little else we could do; even with a full history available, there is precious little a doctor can do when meeting a mentally ill patient for the first time. Honestly, Mental Health management in the UK (the only country that I can speak for on this matter) is very poor and I suspect not a great deal better than most 'Developing' countries.

Your stories about your work as a doctor are very interesting. This is actually a profession I wanted to pursue myself as well but sadly it didn’t work out. But maybe in the future, who knows.

I understand the argument that people in the pre 20th century lacked knowledge and progress in these psychological fields, and therefore mental health patients suffered abuse and alike just for being considered „lunatic“ or „insane“, but I cannot wrap my head around how doctors in those institutions thought it was a good thing to abuse and chain their patients in order to „restore“ their mental health. People were sent into these institutions even for „minor“ things like being melancholic but still were subject to inhumane treatments.
I never needed the knowledge to understand that an afflicted and concerned person needs to be treated with kindness, this is simply ingrained in me and probably most people. How mentally ill people could have been mistreated and abandoned with such ease is impossible for me to understand, even if I view it in context of the times.

 

[Arun Vajpey]

I cannot wrap my head around how doctors in those institutions thought it was a good thing to abuse and chain their patients in order to „restore“ their mental health

Sadly, that sort of thing used to happen even into recent times. In southern India there is a well known Vishnu Temple in a village named Gunasheelam; the temple authorities own a psychiatric rehab centre nearby which is visited by proper psychiatrists, reportedly with good results. The treatement procedure consists of conventional medications, counselling, group therapy etc, as well as a visit to the temple itself for those who wish.

All seems fine and harmless, doesn't it? But what many people don't know or choose to ignore is that until as recently as the early 1990s, mentally ill patients received quite a different sort of "treatment" at a specially designated quadrangle within the temple perimeter. They were led there in chained lines line prisoners, drugged and made to sit and gyrate to loud religious music for up to 2 hours. The whole scenario was supervised by cruel, burly guards who were quite handy with use of their whips should any of the pitiful patients refuse to follow the ridiculous ritual. It was only after major protests and a state level political meeting that the practice was ordered to be stopped.

I would not be surprised if some reseracher found out that such ritualistic 'treatment' of Mental Illness existed even in the West in the 19th Century or before.

 

[Sarah S]

Sadly, that sort of thing used to happen even into recent times. In southern India there is a well known Vishnu Temple in a village named Gunasheelam; the temple authorities own a psychiatric rehab centre nearby which is visited by proper psychiatrists, reportedly with good results. The treatement procedure consists of conventional medications, counselling, group therapy etc, as well as a visit to the temple itself for those who wish.

All seems fine and harmless, doesn't it? But what many people don't know or choose to ignore is that until as recently as the early 1990s, mentally ill patients received quite a different sort of "treatment" at a specially designated quadrangle within the temple perimeter. They were led there in chained lines line prisoners, drugged and made to sit and gyrate to loud religious music for up to 2 hours. The whole scenario was supervised by cruel, burly guards who were quite handy with use of their whips should any of the pitiful patients refuse to follow the ridiculous ritual. It was only after major protests and a state level political meeting that the practice was ordered to be stopped.

I would not be surprised if some reseracher found out that such ritualistic 'treatment' of Mental Illness existed even in the West in the 19th Century or before.

This reminds us all how recent these times of ignorance and cruelty actually is. The 90s aren‘t even 30 years ago. It is also impressive how fast things have developed and changed since then. But we still need better ways of curing people instead of pumping them with medications and hope to somehow suppress the pain without it ever actually going away. At least nowadays patients are treated as humans and given a chance to get better. I wish people had these insights long time ago so less people had to suffer in past eras.

 

[Steven Christian]

Mental health institutions were pretty bad up until the 1970's. They basically just warehoused people and kept them drugged up. But then they just emptied them out and let people try to survive on the streets because of court rulings and society didn't want to pay for it anymore. There was a stigma attached to it and if families had someone who was suffering from mental illness they often would just have them sent away. Probably because they didn't know how to deal with it or couldn't. Sometimes they even would do drastic stuff. Like the Kennedy clan having their daughter lobotomized so they could keep her out of the publics view and not embarrase the family. Of course that was an extreme example but par for Joe Kennedy. He was a dirtbag royale. But today I sometimes think they have gone too far in the other direction. Today it seems they have a pill for everything. Everybody i know and their kids seems to be on something now. But I get it. Big profits in that stuff for the drug companies. Cheers.

 

[Steven Christian]

Good morning

As someone who studies this kind of subject in University, I really would like to know about the mental health facilities during the edwardian times. I have heard horrible anecdotes of what it was like to be labelled „mentally sick“ or „insane“ in the 19th century. There was lots of abuse of the patients inside the facilities, many were chained and forbidden to have any contact to the outside world. I read that many women were sent to these facilities for being „unruly“ and expressing their opinions or disobeying men.

How was mental health perceived by the general public in 1900-1912?
Have any Titanic passengers had experience before or after the sinking with mental health institutions? I also wonder about the officers, what kind of reaction they had when they heard someone in their circle needed „mental healthcare“. Would they distance themselves from these people or would they have compassion and despise the stigma around it? Officer Wilde was for example very depressed after the death of his wife and grieved openly about it. I wonder if we can make conclusions on his mental state and if we know how his co-officers dealt with him during these hard times. Was it ever considered that he needed „help“? I hope it doesn’t come off the wrong way now.



Thank you very much

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[Steven Christian]

One more comment on this subject as I'm drifting off the subject of Titanic. After WW1 and WW2 the American and British military did their best to try and treat their psychological casualties the best they could. I give them an "A" for effort but the brain being such a tricky thing I don't know how effective they actually were. I've read that during WW2 on the American side there were over 500,000 such casualties (combat fatigue/PTSD) to some extent. A bit of trivia...during the drive to Germany troops often found themselves under constant fire and artillery barrages. Sometimes for weeks to no end. Some would end up in a catatonic state. The way they treated them was to take them off the front line give them a pill that was nicknamed a "Blue 88". They called it that because it knocked them out harder than a 88mm German gun for 12 hours or so. Give them a hot shower, clean uniform and a hot meal then send them back to the front. They were desperate for troops. From what I read that would snap most of them out of their debilitated state and let them continue to fight. The reason I posted about that is because today that would probably never happen. But things were different back then the way they treated things. And as the saying goes..."desperate times call for desperate measures".

 

[Arun Vajpey]

After WW1 and WW2 the American and British military did their best to try and treat their psychological casualties the best they could. I give them an "A" for effort but the brain being such a tricky thing I don't know how effective they actually were. I've read that during WW2 on the American side there were over 500,000 such casualties (combat fatigue/PTSD) to some extent. A bit of trivia...during the drive to Germany troops often found themselves under constant fire and artillery barrages. Sometimes for weeks to no end. Some would end up in a catatonic state.

In those days, they called it "battle fatigue" or as being "shell shocked". They were superficially right and the support given probably did help at the time but they did not understand so much the long term effects of PTSD.

But considering the numbers involved, PTSD as we now understand it was probably less common among Allied military personnel but proportionately greater among the Germans (and probably the Japanese, but difficult to measure because the average Western mind still struggles to correctly assess the Oriental way of thinking). The reason for that is that the Brits, Americans, Russians and other Allied soldiers knew that they were fighting on the right side of the cause and so harboured no feeling of guilt. There might have been exceptions among the bombing crew, especially those of Enola Gay and Bockscar but by and large the role of the allies in WW2 was justified.

From an Americam point of view, PTSD was probably more apparent during the Korean War but it was well known among the POWs of the Vietnam War where justification was more difficult. Likewise the two modern Gulf wars.