Una Historia de Los Locos y Comó Fueron Tratados
The first notable portrayal this work examines is Hieronymus Bosch’s “The Ship of Fools”. This painting was completed at the end of the 15th century and displays one of many injustices done to the insane. “Deviant” members of communities who displayed a variety of psychopathic disorders were recognized as overly dependent and underproductive. Occasionally, community members would opt to ship them away in boats filled with other people who had met the same fate. These boats would sail from port to port, picking up new passengers, and abandoning others. People eager to see the human cargo aboard the ship would even pay to see the strange people.
Shortly thereafter, in 1547, the Bedlam Insane Asylum was established in the City of London by Henry VIII to care for the mentally ill. Over the next 3 centuries, this institution would build a reputation for neglect and abuse of the patients. Early on, such “treatments” for psychopaths included beating, blood-letting, starvation, induced vomiting, and ice baths. Asylumees were often chained in small rooms for so long that the metal cut into their flesh. One example of this is the case of James Morris. Morris was an American sailor, incarcerated in Bedlam in 1800 for an unnamed lunacy, one which caused him to attack the staff. As a result of this, he was chained in Bedlam for nearly a decade. This was only discovered by reformist Edward Wakefield, writer William Hone, and architect James Bevans. This gathered the attention of the press, who soon discovered several more accounts of mistreatment in the asylum. It was not until 1828 that laws were created that required licensure by the Royal College of Physicians.
As this medical mistreatment occurred, there were several depictions of psychopathy within the asylums. Francisco Goya captures the essence of insane people’s social image in multiple works, namely Yard with Lunatics (1794) and The Madhouse (1812).
Goya’s childhood inspired Yard with Lunatics and The Madhouse through scenes of mental institutions he had witnessed as a child in Zarazoga. Goya was concerned his mental health was deteriorating and used his artwork as an outlet to quell his anxiety. In both works, Goya paints the insane as suffering humans, free from the inhibitions that separate man from animals. In this way, they are dehumanized, incarcerated in a prison unfit for the sane, with little light, surrounded by chaos. The parallels between these works depict the despair Goya had for ‘crazy’ populations and humanity as a whole. In both paintings, prisoners wore cloth garments, often carelessly, to represent their animalistic nature. Figures of power may have represented the detachment of the insane from reality, or a depiction of Goya’s clientele as a commissioned artist.New facilities continued to open in the nineteenth century, sanctioned by the US government as a response to their role in ameliorating societal issues. Lunatic asylums, as they were called became more centered on the rehabilitation of those with mental disorders. Conversely, there were less humane methods developed for treating those stricken with mental illness. A somewhat popular treatment was lobotomy. This involved partial removal of the frontal lobe, severing its connection to the thalamus. While it aided some patients, others were left with an inability to experience intense emotion, often described as hollow shells of their past selves. One institution that was popular for the performance of this procedure was the Athens Lunatic Asylum. While being “rehabilitated” patients would be responsible for maintenance in livestock, farm fields and gardens, an orchard, greenhouses, a dairy, a physical plant to generate steam heat, and even a carriage shop. Breakthroughs occurred in the 1950s which led to the creation of medicine that drastically reduced the need for such institutions. A gradual push for deinstitutionalization led to the closing of the Athens Lunatic Asylum.
Today, stigmas still surround mental health. More effective treatments have been developed, but the injustices done to people with mental disorders, and their social image have been well documented through both photography and art.
