Those of us old enough to remember medieval times and the Renaissance are aware of a shift in the attitudes towards madness by those who counted themselves "normal". The dawn of the age of reason has been said to be a catastrophe for the living metaphors of unreason ( that's us). This may be a little excessive, but the changes wrought in society at this time have indeed made it both more difficult and easier in certain ways to break down the walls of the sedentary mindset that has become so widespread.
It was in these times that the insane were first secluded in asylums; put out of the sight of the general populace. This reduced the impact on citizens of the more mundane sort. Where once the mad were seen in the street, or the woods or wherever they felt like being, now they were hidden away, chained, brutalised and treated as inhuman monsters because they would not or could not conform. With money becoming an increasingly necessary factor and authorities becoming more civic minded, madmen were seen as one more blight to be healed or removed.
Although a very personal thing, madness is one of the most socially affecting outlooks a person may have. In us, others may see some aspects of themselves, but distorted or purified to such a degree that it might actually force them to think. The age of reason began the rule of those who even more so than previously wanted control over the ways of thought and outlook in humanity. Therefore we had to be denied. However, political pressure is of little use against the insane in a figurative sense, therefore the bailiffs and sanitoriums. Mostly, though, the family was involved a great deal. Bethlem Hospital (from whence came the term Bedlam) was the only institution of its kind until the latter half of the seventeenth century, when private institutions began to spring up. Other municipal asylums were not built for another century.
The variety of insanities led to a broad range of terms to describe them - ranging from "Laughs" and "Melancholy" to "Mad and Lunatic". Also varied were the ways in which disorders were treated.
At which desperate madness of mine it seemed to me that all were astonished; and I fancied that every step I stepped afterwards, I was making a progress into the depths of hell . . . Whatever noises I heard as I passed by, my fancy gave them hellish interpretations. For I was now persuaded that I was no longer upon earth, but in the regions of hell. When we came to the town, I thought I was in the midst of hell: every house that we passed by was as it were a mansion in hell; . . . and as we went forward, methought, their torments increased; and I fancied I heard some say, as they stood at their doors with great wonder, and somewhat of pity, "What, must he go yet farther into hell? O fearful! O dreadful!" and the like.
This episode from the life of George Trosse highlights the way in which the insane and their observers were affected by the popular religious beliefs of the day.
Healing through exorcism:
Behold, I God's most unworthy minister and servant, I do charge and command thee, thou cruel beast, with all thy associates and all other malignant spirits in case that any of you have your being in the body of this creature, Mr. E. Francklin, and have distempered his brain with melancholy and have also derived his body and limbs of their natural use, I charge and command you speedily to depart from this creature and servant of God, Mr. E. Francklin, regenerated by the layer of the holy baptism and redeemed by the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, I charge you to depart from him and every part of his body, really, personally. - early 1600's shrink.
Many believed that amulets and exorcisms were effective remedies for "mental torment".
Then again, sometimes insanity was seen as a judgement from God :
Susan Frith was moved to tell him, That if he continued on in this persecuting of the innocent the Lord would execute his plagues upon him. Soon after which, this Justice, whose name was Clark, fell distracted and was bound with ropes; but he gnawed the ropes in pieces and had like to have spoiled his maid; for he fell upon her and bit her, so that they were fain to put an iron instrument in his mouth to wrest his teeth out of her flesh: and afterwards he died distracted.
A therapy designed to force a mentally disturbed patient to behave normally (1600's) :
If you find him inclining to a scottish humour, put an armour upon him and beat a drum before him. And let one attire himself like a captain, and put on his gorget and a plume of feathers in his hat and a truncheon in his hand and make him march and exercise his arms, or else set him upon a bounding horse and trot the ring and run a career. And in these martial exercises let the captain command him as a soldier and if he finds him peevish and forward, give him a good knock on his helmet, and if he finds him willing and tractable, then to commend him and praise him.
A well known form of similar treatment was the practice of flogging. Men who whipped lunatics to bring them to their senses were exempted from legal punishment, similarly to those who more recently administered electroshock therapy. Village authorities went in for this ( whipping, not EST) on occasion, but it was not common until the eighteenth century, as the asylum system spread.
Then again, is it really any better now? Despite so called advances in psychological medicine and understanding, the insane are still treated as outcasts. Then again, some of us prefer it that way.
_________________________________________________________________________
