Bedlam Asylum's Haunting History | The Dark Past of Mental Health Treatment
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- Опубліковано 27 лис 2023
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WHO AM I?
Hey there, I’m Cinzia DuBois. I’m a part-time, self-funded PhD student and UA-camr, Podcaster and writer. I’ve been creating videos for over thirteen years. On this channel, I talk about dark and ancient history, literature and folklore. I discuss productivity, personal development, PhD, academia, and mental well-being on my second channel.
❗️DISCLAIMER
I am just a random student on the internet who loves reading, especially about ancient history and classics. My videos aim to make classics and ancient history interesting and accessible to everyone. I am not a professional or qualified educator, “expert”, historian or classicist. However, I ensure that all the information I use in my video scripts has been collated from numerous credible sources. Additionally, I am dyslexic, and I will mispronounce words. This does not stem from willful ignorance, and I try to research how to pronounce words before filming, but I often misread my phonetic spelling. In light of this, please do not rely on my video for an authoritative or reliable source of how to pronounce certain words.
References:
Andrews, J. (1991). Bedlam revisited: A history of Bethlem hospital 1634-1770. [online] qmro.qmul.ac.uk. Available at: qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/....
Atkins, H. (2022). Bedlam: The Story of Britain’s Most Infamous Asylum. [online] History Hit. Available at: www.historyhit.com/bedlam-the....
Chambers, P. (2020). Bethlem Royal Hospital: why did the infamous Bedlam asylum have such a fearsome reputation? [online] HistoryExtra. Available at: www.historyextra.com/period/v....
Chambers, P. (2019). Bedlam: London’s hospital for the mad. Gloucestershire, Uk: History Press.
Historic England (2019). From Bethlehem to Bedlam - England’s First Mental Institution | Historic England. [online] Historicengland.org.uk. Available at: historicengland.org.uk/resear....
McMillan I. Insight into Bedlam: one hospital's history. J Psychosoc Nurs Ment Health Serv. 1997 Jun;35(6):28-34. doi: 10.3928/0279-3695-19970601-19. PMID: 9189848.
Norman, A. (2015). Bedlam: The Real Horror Story Of The Bethlem Royal Hospital. [online] All That’s Interesting. Available at: allthatsinteresting.com/bedlam.
one of those "who needs horror movies, when you can learn about history"
^^^^^
Really! So glad I wasn’t alive back then!
I want horror movies about history
Right on 👍
The history of mental health and Bedlam is always so haunting and tragic.
I've lived with a diagnosis of schizophrenia for over 20 years. I don't complain about being on psych meds or living on a disability pension very often because I know what someone with my mental health problems would have had to endure even 80 years ago. I'd rather be dead than live a day in a psych hospital circa 1940. At least with the meds and a small pension and subsidized apartment I can be somewhat left alone to pursue a life of study and mediation. In short, I guess I live very much like a digital monk. I rather enjoy the quiet life since the psych meds can keep the worst of the illness at bay. Makes me wonder what psych treatments will be like in another 80 years.
I appreciate testimonies like yours so much. I think it is really good when people humanize mental health issues by talking about what it means to live with them. As someone who thought of isolating in the past for crippling OCD, I am really grateful when others talk about what these experiences feel like. So thank you!
You could have just said you were a schizophrenic, it's part of you and makes you who you are for better or worse. It's like a diabetic trying to say they live with a diagnosis of diabetes, when the diabetes shapes who you are and the choices you make.
This was hard to listen to ,but the history needs to be told. Hopefully, mental patients in in patient care are treated so much better. Some of the treatments and philosophy behind it reeked of hubris and ignorance by the physicians of the time . Thank you for the content .
One of my favorite UA-camrs covering one of my own obsessions! I recently wrote a book for my family called Scrooge, After the Caroling, about Scrooge getting bundled off to Bedlam after his Christmas day conversion and two of his customers' rescue hijinks. I had to do a lot of research on Bedlam. I learned much more than I used in the story. And now you're educating me further. There is so much to learn about that place and all the asylums of the period.
Awesomeness ❣️
Your book sounds so interesting!
Does anyone else want a series about a group of magic wielding dames in the asylum called Beldams in Bedlam?
I worked at a haunted house after school when i was a teen and in 2010 they chose bedlam as the theme for the haunt for these precise reasons.
“Allow me to disturb you further” 😅
“trade in lunacy”
for lack of a better response….
word.
The museum on the grounds of the (still operating) Bethlem Hospital is apparently quite good
History isn't always an easy pill to swallow. There have always been times in our past that we don't want to address , but it occurred nonetheless. That's why history is so important . So we'll hopefully know better next time.
I've known about (some of) the horrors of the beginnings of psychiatric care, but I did not know just how far back in history it all started. I wonder how much of the malpractice was simply and truly ignorance. With current scientific knowledge, it seems obvious that torturing someone would make their conditions much worse.
It really puts into perspective how far we've come in the last 20-30 years!!
Unfortunately, I think theres still alot of progress to be made in the realm of psychiatric care, specifically the inpatient facilities. In southern US, many people do still feel like prisoners while in psychiatric hospitals. I had a short inpatient stay at a psychiatric hospital (for suicidal plans, I checked myself in) and personally did not feel like it helped at all. I was given medication I did not want or need. Any disagreement about your own care is usually taken as being 'difficult' instead of the staff actually listening to your individual needs, which results in a longer stay. Truthfully, the hospitals here are likely understaffed, underfunded, and current staff are likely way underpaid. But at least there's not legit freaking torture happening anymore!
I received much more compassionate care and help from regular outpatient therapy. Im so incredibly grateful that I found amazing therapists who I matched well with. Its improved my life 10 fold.
Never would have imagined that the trick kids pull by twisting the swing up as far as it will go, then letting go go and spinning was be at one time a medical treatment / torture method. 😮
This isn't normally my jam but i love this for whatever reason
I comment with praise, because while I don't know what to say, I would like to feed the demigods of the -tube pantheon and help this channel.
I remember singing a song in high school choir by Gustav Holst that had something to do with such a place
Thank you for this very interesting and informative video. What a truly horrendous place that must have been. As someone who is Autistic and has suffered with poor mental health, it is deeply saddening to see how people were treated.
funnily enough most of the things i know about bedlam actually come from the tv show "harlots" and listening to you i could pictures things with ease in my mind's eye, because honestly the show almost got everything right, the things you mentioned were also depicted there.. i remember being horrified when i was watching it
Such an amazing, insightful content. Your support for mental health is really admirable. From my xp, I just wanna add; to anyone who's ever been a victim of hate / violence because of their appearance, gender, orientation, race : DO NOT ever let a hateful notion 'there's something wrong with me' sink in. Trust me, it's a recipe for self hatred and compulsive anxieties later on. When we suffer and we need a break, it's only natural to think: maybe if I was as everybody else I would be accepted. No, haters will always find something else to prey upon. I've always had androgynous look, which was a real fuel for bullies when I was growing up. I embraced it, used it to my advantage in my acting / modeling career, I was almost the face of Leon in these new Resident Evil games :)
Great video, would definitely recommend the book: Bedlam by Paul Chambers if you haven’t already read it, interestingly there was also another establishment down the road in Hoxton that also was as awful as Bedlam just not as well known.
Much love to you and yours, Librarian
I didn't realize Bedlam hospital had been moved so many times. I can imagine it being in Moorfield and Liverpool Street areas in London. They still have that old peasant atmosphere like Jack the Ripper's Whitechapel area. It is now called "The Bethlem Royal Hospital" I have an appointment there next year for ASD. Your video made me remember to call them yesterday which I did. Its a shame that so many people suffered in these mental institutions in those days and homeless children in the street and children being overworked in factories. I think it wasn't until the mid 20th century that governments were able to form legislation and place it intact successfully to support the vulnerable in society after which things changed dramatically. Having said this we have to also acknowledge that such patients can also be dangerous. I say this from experience because I used to work in a mental hospital in 1997. The staff suffer badly. I agree not all patients are insane. Some even pretend to be so because they want to be there.
I would absolutely LOVE your take on the Langley documentary about Edward V & Richard of Shrewsbury.
Hello Cinzia, I hope you're doing splendidly.
I really enjoyed Mona Simpson’s [debut novel] Commitment last spring. There is a side plot talking about the design & architecture considerations in facilities. As I compose this comment I think one would also benefit from reading James McBride’s The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store.
This was absolutely fascinating, thank you for another great video!
Wonderful narration ❤ ty for another wonderful video. Mental health history is something truly horrifying
While it would be (easy) to try and rationalize that those treatments were a product of the little knowledge people had when it came to metal afflictions, it is extremely clear that many of those people knew exactly what they were doing. Most likely places like that, both back in those days and well as today, often sadly attract nasty people looking for opportunities to unleash their desires to be cruel to other human beings.
I was always obsessed with this place.
Malicious care is an oxymoron. These “treatments” could create mental illnesses in a mentally healthy individual. How did the workers in these institutions not end up with mental health issues of their own? These mentally ill people were severely abused and exploited, how were prisoners treated any worse?
Did these doctors do any data collection regarding their treatments? If they didn’t then how did they know that their “treatments” even worked? Who paid these doctors and staff?
Next time I visit London I plan on visiting the museum that talks about this because we learned about this place in university. Even mentally handicapped people were also sent to this Hell on Earth.
❤ the Lady of the Library
Good evening Cinzia
It is important to remember that 'electric shock therapy' or electric convulse therapy is still used today. In my professional life I have a number of very ill patient benefit greatly from this treatment. However due to poor public perception it is commonly misunderstood. Otherwise great video.
Read that you were struggling with motivation a bit. This definitely feels like it’d be your cup of tea, since you enjoy the macabre.
So glad you’re still giving us this awesome content ❤
Very excited for this one.
"London is full of buildings, tall and fair. Brave halls and hospitals, with some good air. For poor and lame, for maimed, and for sick. For mad and distracted, and for lunatick: These last in Bedlam you may see, and there some sing, some cry, and some do curse and swear. Some sit like stones, and some do pictures draw. And some, like beasts, lie down on beds of straw."
Extracted from "Spiritual Songs for Children, or Poems on Several Subjects and Occasions," by J. Wright, London, 1770
wow this got darker and darker and darker but the spinny chair? delightful in small doses (like on a swing)
Cinzia, this may feel like an odd video to comment on, but thank you so much for all of your content across your channels. I've been watching a lot of your Self Help Shelf videos recently because I feel like our personalities appear to be similar. I cannot express how much I appreciate them. I always learn something, change my perspective or feel like I'm not the only person like me in the world. So thank you so much! Rachel x
Everyone should read the book Rethinking Madness
Thank you for a very informative video. And for partnering with your mental health provider. It’s critical to get help and not suffer in silence ❤
We appreciate how well you've articulated your own insights. Keep working hard.
Really loving these- I always do! But , this latest batch has kept me especially engaged!
Appreciate all the work you put imto these videos!
I'm grateful for this video! I work on an event staff team that operates on a historical site that used to be a state school and hospital. A lot of people think it used to be an asylum. I'm trying to move into a tour guide position there. I'm not a historian, so studying the history and getting it right is new to me. Do you have any advice for someone in my position who's just getting started?
Always enjoy your videos, Your voice is so soothing even when dealing with such a dark subject as this... Thank you once again for such fascinating content
Good stuff.
Thanks for this fascinating Bedlam video Cinzia!
I love your videos snd your voice. In TikTok era we need voices like you.
I miss your videos ❤
This was not a fun presentation for me, but it is well worth viewing. Thank you.
I have a friend who's last name is Bedlam, his rather tongue in cheek nickname is Doc.
In Scotland there used to be this joke that the doctors in asylums were even crazier than the patients. If i had announced i was trans back in the 70's and 80's i would have immediately been put into an asylum in Scotland. Luckily the people i know who went into those were often released again after "treatment". Quite often they were used as a place to get some respite from a mental health issue such as alcoholism. You could sign yourself in to them or get your doctor to refer you. But often the patient would relapse after a while. I never needed to go into such a place thankfully. They do still exist to some degree. Places where you can be placed if you are "sectioned".
I love her ☺
As a male feminist I love the way you say known to us instead of man
Call me old fashioned , Ive always been a fan of a good Vomit
Whow❤
All I say is thank God I was born in the 20th century
Wow! Amazing! Love this! Keep up the great work!