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Accounts from the 19th and early 20th centuries reveal the appalling mistreatment of patients in mental asylums, conditions so dreadful they could unsettle even the most resilient individuals. Patients endured environments worse than those of neglected livestock.
Adding to the tragedy, asylums vehemently denied allegations, dismissing them by arguing that the testimonies of the mentally ill were unreliable. Media outlets were divided, with some exposing severe abuses while others dismissed the claims as baseless defamation. These institutions prioritized self-preservation over humanity, perpetuating suffering and, in numerous instances, causing deaths.
10. Confinement in Wooden Cages
In the 1800s, being poor and labeled as insane meant almost no chance of receiving dignified treatment or genuine assistance. In 1874, The Carbon Advocate, a Pennsylvania newspaper, highlighted the severe mistreatment of the impoverished mentally ill in certain county almshouses.
Sanitation was nonexistent, and those deemed insane were confined to wooden cages. One account described an agricultural laborer, dressed in tatters, who was peaceful and nonviolent yet imprisoned in a wooden cage for 18 months with straw scattered on the floor as bedding. Other inmates were barely clothed, and many were too feeble to move, having been forced into cramped positions for extended periods.
The reporter also detailed the plight of a 20-year-old woman confined to a small cage for six years. She was clad only in a piece of bedticking and was described as being so weakened from prolonged immobility that she could no longer move her limbs, stand, or walk.
9. Ice-Cold Showers
In 1903, the Omaha Daily Bee reported a disturbingly familiar tale. Patients at Kentucky’s Lakeland Insane Asylum were subjected to torture by attendants, prompting an investigation where victims began to testify about the abuses they endured.
Many patients admitted they were too terrified to disclose the full extent of the atrocities, fearing retaliation from the staff. Some revealed they were choked, struck with potato-filled socks, and subjected to cold showers as punitive measures. One account described patients being restrained while cold water was dripped onto them.
This practice, known as hydrotherapy, involved using both hot and cold water to alter patients’ behavior. Widely used in the early 1900s, cold spray showers with temperatures between 9°C (48°F) and 21°C (70°F) were intended to treat manic-depressive disorders by reducing mental and physical activity. However, this method was never meant to serve as a punishment.
8. Restraint in Chairs
The use of restraint chairs is not a modern concept, often depicted in crime TV shows. However, the chairs used over a century ago were shockingly different and far more brutal than those used today.
A newspaper article from 1886 recounted the story of a woman suffering from “nervous excitement” who was admitted to a state insane asylum. During her stay, she was deliberately tripped, injuring her left leg. When she attempted to rest on her bed to recover, she was unaware this violated asylum rules and was promptly seized by the staff.
The report continues:
[She was secured in a chair and bound] so tightly she couldn’t move. The waist strap was cinched to the point of cutting off circulation, leaving her in this agonizing position from 9:00 AM until 4:00 PM. When finally released, her injured leg had swollen to twice its normal size.
Additionally, she was gagged and had a significant amount of her hair forcibly pulled out by an attendant.
7. Simulated Drowning
In 1903, under the supervision of the head matron, staff at the Topeka Asylum for the Insane inflicted a torture method known as the “water cure” on female patients deemed “insane.” One attendant described the process as follows:
If a patient defied Miss Houston’s [head of staff] commands, attendants were instructed to cover her head with a sheet, force her to the ground, and hold her down. Miss Houston would then rapidly pour water from a pan onto the patient’s face, continuing until the patient complied with orders.
Testimonies revealed this was not an isolated incident. Simulated drowning was frequently used under the matron’s authority, prompting the formation of a committee to investigate the allegations of torture against her.
6. Starvation
Numerous reports from the late 19th and early 20th centuries detail cases of starvation in mental institutions. One account from Illinois revealed, “Men were subjected to fatal torture, merciless beatings, and in many cases, left to die from starvation.”
A testimony from Boston in 1883 described women and children perishing due to lack of food. Another report added further evidence to these harrowing conditions.
[In] one case, [a] woman was confined to a filthy attic cell, completely naked and nearly starved. Staff claimed she was violently insane and would destroy any clothing provided. She was fed only once a day by a mentally impaired girl tasked with her care. The woman later discovered the girl discarded the food and returned with an empty plate, falsely claiming the meal had been eaten.
5. Whipped While Restrained in a Straitjacket
As accounts of asylum mistreatment surfaced in the late 1800s, more individuals felt empowered to speak out about their or their loved ones’ experiences. In 1901, a woman came forward to expose the abuse her husband endured at Bellevue Hospital in 1898.
She was convinced her husband’s death resulted from the asylum’s brutal treatment. She recounted witnessing him in a straitjacket, forced to jog down a corridor while an attendant struck him with a metal-tipped strap.
Her husband was subsequently transferred to Manhattan State Hospital, where he was treated for multiple broken ribs. He endured another year and a half of asylum abuse before his tragic death. It’s incomprehensible how a supposedly trained physician believed that whipping someone in restraints could possibly aid in treating mental illness.
4. Fatal Scalding
Warm baths, typically between 33°C (92°F) and 36°C (97°F), were intended to help patients relax. While a soothing bath can be therapeutic, there were instances where this practice was horrifically misused.
Some patients were submerged in warm water for hours or even days. In more extreme cases, the water temperature was so high that it caused severe burns. In 1903, an investigation into a Kansas asylum revealed abuses, including one patient who “died from scalding during a bath.” His death was falsely recorded as ‘senility’ in the asylum’s records.
Based on the testimonies, it seems that asylum staff and employees were negligent in their duties. At the very least, they should have verified the water temperature before submerging a patient.
3. Bound and Stomped on the Face
There should have been greater public outrage over the treatment of asylum inmates. Many staff members either ignored the abuse or actively participated in the cruelty.
In 1889, The State Chronicle (North Carolina) published a brief article exposing the horrific abuse of patients under Dr. Grissom. While some officials claimed that chaining, dousing with water, or stomping on a patient’s face were necessary to restore rationality, others condemned these actions as unjust and barbaric.
By 1921, a heated debate arose among politicians and mental health professionals about whether it would be more humane to euthanize those deemed incurably insane. As reported in the Norwich Bulletin (Connecticut):
The issue was reignited during a meeting of the general assembly’s appropriations committee, where members were split on whether to enact legislation allowing the euthanasia of patients in state institutions who were considered hopelessly insane and enduring severe mental anguish.
Thankfully, no mass killings of those labeled incurable were carried out.
2. Submersion of the Head
In 1878, shocking accounts of abuse at the Columbus (Ohio) Insane Asylum surfaced in the press. An investigation was underway, revealing practices such as submerging patients in water. The asylum had hired Mrs. Brown to manage a ward housing nonviolent, incurable patients, believing her prior experience in Canadian mental hospitals made her ideal for the role.
Soon after her hiring, Mrs. Brown implemented a brutal system of punishment. When a patient caused trouble, the following would occur:
Mrs. Brown, tasked with caring for these vulnerable individuals, would drag the offending patient to the bathroom, strip them of their clothes, and force them into the water. She would hold the patient’s head underwater until they nearly suffocated, briefly allowing them to breathe before repeating the process. This continued until the patient, exhausted and nearly lifeless, agreed to comply with all demands.
As a final humiliation, the patient was coerced into promising silence about the ordeal. They were threatened with drowning if they ever revealed what had happened.
1. Physical Abuse for Refusing to Work
Certain mental institutions forced patients to labor similarly to how prisons compel inmates to work. The key distinction was that asylum residents were confined due to perceived mental illness rather than criminal behavior.
In 1910, an incident of abuse was reported by a railroad clerk who observed an attendant assaulting a patient. The clerk recounted:
While conducting my rounds near a boxcar, I noticed several asylum patients shoveling coal under an attendant’s supervision. The attendant, a man around 40, ordered one patient to keep working after he stopped. When the patient refused, the attendant struck him, knocked him to the ground, and kicked him repeatedly until the patient resumed work. Neither the other patients nor I intervened, as I felt it wasn’t my place.
