Summary
Gracefully Insane by Alex Beam discusses the history of the McLean hospital, which is a hospital for those with a mental illness. It starts off by mentioning that this hospital does not look like a mental hospital. Rather, it emulates the look of a college with its dorms inside. There are no fences, guards, or locked gates. The hospital was named after a guy named John McLean who was born into a wealthy family. Horace Mann mentioned how there needed to be a home for those mentally insane, and McLean took ownership of the McLean hospital. The people of this hospital believed that treating the mentally ill like criminals was not effective. Instead of whipping them and handcuffing them, they were introduced to the important of hygiene, living conditions that were fit for a human, and they had therapies. Their view was that they should feel like they are in a place of refuge, rather than feeling like they're in a prison, or place of torture. They also talk about the different patients that they had. For example, they talk about their former patient John Warren, who eventually got into trouble with prostitutes and police. His father sent him to McLean to get help, but while he was there he had episodes of paranoia, wild outbursts, and he even made an attempt to escape. He started hearing voices wrapped socks over his shoes so that his strength wouldn't go out of his legs. A few years later he got sick with a painful cough. He spiked with morphine and peppermint to relieve himself from the pain. Later he died because of abscess of his right lung.
As the years went by there would be a sheriff in town that would join the McLean hospital and create a new method for treating their patients. For example, two doctors in McLean used a method called hypothermia. They did this by lowering the temperature of the patient's body so that they nearly reach death. They noticed that by cooling the bodies of some patients showed improvement. A sixteen-year-old boy improved so much mentally that he was well enough to leave the hospital and go home. However, it didn't go well when they tried the same method with a forty-six-year old man who was schizophrenic. He died because his blood pressure could not get warm and rise back to normal. They also tried shock therapies such as insulin coma, metrazol, and electricshock. Electroschock was considered safer and easier than insulin coma and metrazol. There were some patients they tried this method on that were able to leave the hospital, while there were others that suffered fractures in their spine, and some even dislocated their jaw. An example of where this method failed was when it was used on the patient named Sarah Worthington who was admitted to McLean for trying to commit suicide. She suffered depression, and the electroshock made it worse. Then she was lobotomized, and she experienced dramatic improvement. The doctors said that the lobotomy helped her solve many of the problems she had that other therapies couldn't fix. Her IQ increased after her surgery, and she eventually was able to leave McLean. She even wrote her doctor a letter of appreciation and also explained how she was doing so much better.
Quote
"...and in Christian countries it must always be considered the first of duties to visit and to heal the sick...It is worthy of the opulent men of this town, and consistent with the general character, to provide an asylum for the insane from every part of the Commonwealth" (Jackson and Warren 19).
Reaction
Jackson and Warren both believed that it was important to take care of those who were mentally ill. They took part in the work at the McLean hospital. In fact, they are partially responsible for the existence of the hospital. They deemed it necessary for those who were mentally ill to have a place that they can stay where it is geared towards getting them help. Unlike other places that would just beat on the sick, they wanted to heal them. Beating them like criminals will not fix their mental disabilites. Rather, finding methods or therapies for them and making them feel comfortable is what is truly going to make them better. Of course, there isn't one method that works for everyone, but as they tried new things improvements were made, and there were patients who were well enough to return home with their families.
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