Insane Asylum Research Paper

Abstract Asylums such as The McLean Asylum for the Insane located in Boston, The Worcester Lunatic Asylum, and The Northampton Lunatic Hospital have been around for many years. Since the 1800s through the 1950s asylums have drastically changed in appearance, treatment, diagnosis and many aspects of the asylum such as the food patients are given to eat, and what work the patients get to do while being treated. The grounds and buildings of asylums have made significant improvements. Treatment has become more moral and orderly as the decades progress. Each asylum has different forms of recreation and work that the patients are allowed to do while being treated in the early asylums.

Asylum Changes
For example for the Northampton Lunatic Hospital in 1910, the buildings were remodeled and many additions were made. The “Day Barn” had been remodeled to help accommodate 30 calves and the basement floor was mainly to house the 40 steers. Eight acres of land was cleared, plowed, and fenced for the farm. The infirmary building for women was only one story high. Passageways between the buildings on each floor were necessary. A sunroom on each floor was also being provided. Cement walks from the highway up until the entrance of the hospital have been laid making accessibility easier for patients. (Hurd, Drewry, Dewey, Pilgram, & Blumer,
It is a rule of the hospital that treatments consists of a generally quick reduction in the amount of alcohol or drugs used, depending mostly on the patient’s condition. Hydrotherapy is used when possible to improve the patient’s physical and mental health. The following are considered part of a patient’s routine everyday; regular habit, discipline, work, eating, recreation and visiting their physician. When a patient is admitted, they are received by a doctor, then bathed, fed and put to bed. Preliminary history is checked and presented within two weeks and diagnosis is then made. (Bragg, T. & Cohen, B, 2007). Many other examinations are done such as staining slides, bacteriological by culture, preparation of vaccines are all employed when indicated either in diagnosis or treatment.
At the McLean Asylum in 1880, chloral hydrate was given as one of the drugs as well as opium and morphine. Cannabis indica was given to some older patients who were suffering from distress or melancholia. There was also the use of hypnotics to treat