The Family as Primary Caregivers
In the first instance of an illness, be it mental or physical, the family have always been, and often remain, the primary caregivers for their relatives. For centuries prior to the introduction and expansion of the county lunatic asylum network in the Victorian era, the treatment of a mental condition was administered in the family home. As the asylum as an institution of care became increasingly commonplace, families became increasingly willing to admit their relatives. Thus, as Adair, Melling and Forsythe assert, the lunacy legislation of the nineteenth-century signalled an intervention into family life, as it allowed for the lunatic population to be shifted from the private to the public sphere. (R. Adair, B. Forsythe and J. Melling, ‘Families, Communities and the Legal Regulation of Lunacy in Victorian England: Assessments of Crime, Violence and Welfare in Admissions to the Devon Asylum, 1845-1914’, in Bartlett and Wright, Outside the Walls, p. 165.)
The decision to commit a relative to the asylum was often signalled by a deterioration in their behaviour. Violence and erratic behaviour were seen as disrupting the accepted boundaries in society and the domestic sphere. For instance, in 1887, Ann C described her husband's behaviour which led to her having him admitted to the Garlands Asylum:
he wanders about
all day, and comes home generally very dirty and without his shoes and
stockings…this morning a man fetched him home having found him in a midden
[compost] heap…he has torn up his clothes…and has set fire to articles of
value.
(CACC,
Reception Orders 1887, THOS 4/1/29).
Thus,
her husband’s destructive and unmanageable behaviour had become too much for
Ann to bear. The added worry that he had wandered off into the community and
had to be returned by a stranger would also have been a great concern as his
insanity was visible to the surrounding neighbourhood, which had a deep stigma
attached.
Family as
Causing Insanity
In
this specific chapter of my PhD I will also explore a relatively un-researched
aspect of insanity and its causes in this period. Some of the cases I have come
across in the records in the nineteenth century are clearly caused by a
disruptive home life, and directly by the family itself.
One
example is that of Dinah L. She was admitted in June 1899
suffering from melancholia caused by ‘domestic trouble’ and ‘unpleasantness at
home’. Four days before her admission, for reasons unstated in her admission
records, she left home due to her inability to cope in the domestic setting and
was found wandering barefoot in a friends garden by a neighbour. At the time,
Dinah was living with her husband Thomas, and several of her ten children. Her
last child, Edith, had been born in 1892 when she was 45. It was stated in her
case notes that she had been feeling melancholic and frequently felt suicidal
for the seven years since Edith’s birth. We cannot know for certain the exact
trigger for Dinah leaving home which led to her admission, but in her notes she
was described as having two black eyes and several bruises on her limbs. Along
with the description of ‘unpleasantness at home’ and her injuries, we are led
to assume that Dinah suffered some form of domestic abuse from either her
husband or her children. Whatever the case, we can see from her asylum record
that she was anxious to leave her home and in July 1899 in her Garlands case
notes she was described as saying ‘she is very happy in the asylum…and has no
desire to leave’.[1]
She had been married to Thomas for 29 years, and since 1871 had given birth to
11 children, of whom 10 survived. Therefore it is reasonable to assume that the
demands of what was clearly a hectic domestic life had taken their toll on
Dinah. After receiving treatment in the asylum for some months, Dinah’s health
improved and her suicidal thoughts subsided enough for her want to return home
to her family. She was discharged recovered on 19 October 1899, and remained
living with her husband in Kendal until her death in 1911, never returning to
the Garlands with any further problems. Thus, the respite offered to her during
those months in 1899 was enough to return her to her usual physical and mental
health which had become so weak due to her domestic situation.
One
additional example of the family causing insanity is that of Ruth A, who was
admitted on 18 November 1891. Ruth’s insanity was caused by the death of her
five month old baby. However, what is interesting about this case is that the
passing of her child was caused by her administering a lethal dose of laudanum
to the infant. To us in the twenty-first century this seems shocking, but in
the 1890s laudanum, and various other derivatives of opium, were dispensed freely
by pharmacists as a remedy to soothe a variety of illnesses in children, and also
in adults. Riddled with the guilt that she had been the cause of her child’s
death only one week previous to her admission, Ruth was described as being ‘a
pale, depressed looking woman’. She had become very inattentive and neglectful
of her other children as a result of her condition, and due to this depression,
her husband, Robert thought it necessary to admit her to the Garlands for
specialist treatment. Whilst in the asylum, Ruth told the doctors she thought
she would be safer here because she was so afraid of herself. After three
months of treatment, Ruth was deemed well enough to be returned home on 16 February
1892. Although, this did not last; and she was readmitted to Garlands on 8
April 1892, suffering from melancholia due to the ‘worry about the poisoning of
her child’. Ruth’s mental health had clearly deteriorated, so much so that she
felt suicidal and believed she would never be forgiven for the death of her
youngest child. It seems that Ruth herself instigated her own readmission to
Garlands as she did not trust herself and could not stay at home. I think that
in her own mind, Ruth came to see the asylum as a place of refuge, similar to
the previous case of Dinah L. In being incarcerated in Garlands she believed
she was protected from being able to access the drugs she had once used
recreationally and which had killed her child. Ruth remained in the asylum for
three years, and was finally discharged as recovered on 17 December 1895.
These
are just a small number of cases which I have come across in my PhD research
into the Garlands Lunatic Asylum, Carlisle. My PhD aims to tell as many stories
of the patients who underwent treatment at the Garlands during the latter half
of the nineteenth-century. Please feel free to contact me
(caradobbing@gmail.com) if you require assistance in finding your ancestors who
were in the Garlands during this period, or if you have any interesting family
tales.
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