Gothic Asylum... ♰

I have found an article online that intrigued me... It talks about and shows portrait from an asylum in the 1800's. Photographs were taken at West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum by chief neurologist Sir James Crichton-Browne.

These kind of stills from the past make me feel like I understand more about the atmosphere of gothic horror as it really does give me chills. It is shocking how far we have come when it comes to technology invented and types of medicines and therapies used. Forced into a head brace, bound and held up by police officers, or sitting down with their eyes rolled back in their heads - these are the harrowing faces of mental illness in the Victorian era.

"Diagnosed with conditions such as ‘imbecility,’ ‘simple mania,’ and ‘acute melancholia’, all of them were patients at the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum, Yorkshire, in 1869.

But while some of their treatment may appear barbaric by modern standards, this asylum, its founder William Tuke, and chief neurologist Sir James Crichton-Browne, actually paved the way for ethical treatment of the mentally ill.

   

Pictures included in this article, taken in 1869 at the West Riding Pauper Launatic Asylum near Wakefield, Yorkshire, show some of the patients interred there. While some of the treatment looks barbaric to modern eyes, in fact the centre pioneered the way for ethical treatment of the mentally ill.

                                 
     

The photographs are part of a 5,000-strong collection of detailed documents on patients taken by Sir James Crichton-Browne, the chief neurologist at West Riding, who helped lead the way in medical treatment of mental disorders.

The West Riding Asylum, based near Wakefield, was the first institution of its kind in the UK to take those with mental conditions out of the way of regular society to a place of relative protection. To that end, the hospital-come-boarding house was entirely self-sufficient, housing its own bakery, butchery, dairy, shop and laundry.

Previously those with mental disorders were exhibited in bedlams, such as the famous one in London, imprisoned in cells, or chained to walls in workhouses. This new, relatively compassionate approach was driven by the asylum's founder, William Turk, a Quaker who believed in the sanctity of life and of behaving kindly and morally to all of humanity.

Sir Crichton-Browne (pictured right) also used the security of the asylum to begin his groundbreaking research into mental illness, investigating whether there was a biological cause behind the conditions he help to diagnose.

He helped to take some of these portraits of patients, meticulously labelled with notes on the patient’s appearance and ailments, and three years later collaborated with Charles Darwin on his book ‘The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals.’

Crichton-Browne pioneered a medical approach to the treatment of mental disorders at West Riding, banning the use of restraints unless necessary, keeping sedation to a minimum, and allowing patients to indulge in leisure activities and take up jobs as part of their healing process.

He also published in-depth journals from his time at West Riding containing observations from himself and his team on mental illness, treatments with various drugs known to affect brain function such as cannabis, nicotine, alcohol, and nitrous oxide.

The records kept at West Riding were so detailed and extensive that they are now recognised as being of huge historic and medical importance, and are protected by UNESCO.

The collection includes over 5000 photographs of patients from the late 1860s onwards, putting a face to thousands of the patient numbers. One patient was Mary Manning, a Bradford domestic servant, who was admitted in 1880. She claimed to be the 'Queen of heaven, possessed of great wealth and had been crowned'.

Sir Crichton- Browne reminds me of a character from the Asylum season of American Horror Story- Timothy Howard. However, his intentions were a lot different and not positive in any way."

Maybe this story is what inspired Ryan Murphy (the producer of AHS) to create the Asylum version of the show?

Pleasance, C. (2015). Portraits from an asylum: Harrowing 19th-century photos show patients at notorious institution kept in SHACKLES and visibly distressed. Available: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3000407/Portraits-asylum-Harrowing-19th-century-photos-patients-notorious-institution-kept-SHACKLES-visibly-distressed.html. Last accessed 18th Mar 2015.