Societys Unhappy Camper

Amber Elizabeth Moffett

Humanities 11
Mr. Barclay and Ms. Hou
May 23, 2014

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Throughout the course of history there has been much conversation about the mind and
the illnesses that could go on inside of it. Mental illness such as insanity did not exist in America
in the 17th century as it did in Mother England, but as the settlers came to America it was said
that they did bring along with them several amounts of people who were known to be mentally
abnormal (Fuller Torrey, M.D. and Miller 193). However, what made one to be considered
mentally abnormal or mentally insane was not a diagnosis by a psychiatrist, but was decided by
society and their values/beliefs at the time. A majority of people were diagnosed with absurd
diseases. As humanity progressed in the nineteenth century some choices of diagnosis were old
maids insanity (being delusional), erotomania (excessive sexual desire and or hyper sexuality),
masturbatory psychosis (excessive masturbation), pauperism insanity, and chronic delusional
disorder (Whitaker 165). In the twentieth century women could have been thrown into asylums
during time of war, simply for grieving the loss of their child for a long time period, but most
women were placed into mental institutes for being too promiscuous. One can assume that
people were being placed into mental institutions with persons of real mental illnesses, because
they (society) saw that the way the person was, as wrong, and that they needed to obtain help to
be changed. Therefore, it was society and its values at the time that not only defined whether or
not one was mentally ill/insane, but the way they were to be treated as well.
In the early days of America around 1600-1700 there was a rise of the mentally insane in
the new founded British American colonies. In the pursuit of moving from home to the new
frontier several mentally ill people moved along as well. However, those who clearly showed
signs of being mentally unsound were left behind in during the Atlantic passage, because nobody
wanted to deal with the people who showed symptoms of being extremely crazy (Fuller Torrey
M.D. and Miller 193). After America gained its independence from Great Britain, society was

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mainly controlled by the church only, in which the priests [would be] the ones who usually
diagnosed one to be considered crazy, insane by the persons behavior (Fuller Torrey M.D. and
Miller 195). Essentially, societys opinions were all developed around and somewhat controlled
by their beliefs (Christianity) at the time. For example in 1702 the rise of insanity started to
increase with the hysteria of the Salem women due to the witch trials. [Citizens became
concerned] and made the suggestion that there were more satanic, disturbed, witches, and insane
women uprising (Fuller Torrey M.D. and Miller 195). During the Salem witch trials it was the
pastor who sent the women to their death, and it was also the pastor who stated that insanity
was caused by sin and that the individuals were therefore agents of the devil, [and that the]
mentally unstable woman who had violent outbursts were considered to be possessed by
demons (Fuller Torrey M.D. and Miller 195). Soon after the Salem witch trials ended the
pastors and the heads of the church began to give themselves to their fears and decided to
diagnose other women with hysteria and said they were too servants of the devil, like the witches
were, and that they were to be put to death as well (Fuller Torrey M.D. and Miller 193,195). For
the sake of it being the head of the church, the people decided that the other (innocent) women
were also witches. Then churches of the country proclaimed that it to be fit for them to be burned
at the state, hung, and stoned as the witches were. However, as the colonies evolved society
chose to do something more sensible with the mentally unstable people of the country. In 1727
the first insane Asylum was built called the workhouse as the number of disorderly persons in
[the colonies increased] it was decided to build a colony workhouse whose residents would
include persons under distraction and unfit to go at large, [or] whose friends do not take care for
their safe confinement (Fuller Torrey M.D. and Miller 195).

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In 1699 Connecticut passed a law Act of revealing Idiots and Distracted persons
(Fuller Torrey M.D. and Miller 194) and other colonies followed after so that everyone who was
considered an idiot or easily distracted could be placed in a funny farm (Whitman). However,
in this era there were numerous characteristics that could have considered one to be labeled as
mentally insane. During this era the discretion of how one can tell the insane from the normal
was, because it was said that the mentally unstable exemplified strange behaviors and
characteristics, for instance laughing wildly, not sleeping, easily distracted, town idiots, bitter
and weak minded (which only applied to women), and people who were not firm (Fuller Torrey
M.D. and Miller 194,196). The people who had similar characteristics as the ones that were
previously listed where placed in confinement rooms that were seven by five feet near a
relatives house. Although, if one was needed to be placed in confinement, but had no family
members around to take them in, the church would send the said person from house to house so
they could be taken care of by the congregation. However as time progressed they were placed in
institutions with people who had real mental illnesses.
During the late 1700s to the mid-1800s insanity was most frequent among upper class
[and] the rich endowed minds (Fuller Torrey M.D. and Miller 197). In the 1780s insane
patients occupied half of the hospitals beds and one-quarter of the admissions, because there
was such an increase in the mentally insane population most of the beds in the Pennsylvania
Hospital [one of the first asylums made] were reserved for the most dangerous and disruptive
patients; [for a couple of examples] a woman who murdered her infant and a farmer who burned
down his barn to rid of rats, (Fuller Torrey M.D. and Miller 197) another example that one
occurred thirty years earlier was a woman [who was] listed under insane in the [state of
Connecticuts] records for wondering place to place naked (Fuller Torrey M.D. and Miller 196).

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However, at the time there was no such hard and vast way to pin-point psychosis; nothing was
particularly known about the way different peoples brain mechanisms and the biological bases
of psychosis (Whitman 12). At this time there were about 300,000 people contained in total of
324 state and county mental institutions which does not seem as much of a verity as one would
think, but in fact it was a plethora of insane peoples for that time period, because most of the
people who were considered mentally ill were not mentally disturbed, but just showed extremely
odd behavior (Whitman 1). If that was how people were considered to be crazy now everyone
would be placed into therapeutic community because all people are peculiar depending on
ones perspective (Whitman 1). Based off perspectives a group of researchers [reviewed] the
cases of the eighteenth century Massachusetts and Connecticut, [and two major] aspects [stood]
out [the first was that] a large amount of cases, the persons insanity was [determined by their]
character, second persons who were from an educated (e.g. Harvard College) and/or an upper
socioeconomic (e.g. clergyman) background filled the asylums enrollment list among the
crucially insane (Fuller Torrey M.D. and Miller 197). With the evidence provided one could see
that as time progressed the reasoning for being considered mentally insane evolved about fifty
years before the 18th century came to an end. The new forms of therapeutic communities were
only operated by self-perpetuating bureaucratic hierarchy of the mental health professionals, the
institutes served as giant waste baskets for societys rejects and inmates [who were] generally
poor, friendless, [or were in lower classes] (Whitman 1). The persons in charge of running the
newfound therapeutic communities had no care for the patients that resided there one was aware
of this, because once committed the patient [was] robbed of virtually every shred of human
dignity the commitment procedures [were] lax, diagnosis [was] informal, [and] the supreme
judges [were] lackadaisical shrinks to their aids (Whitman 12). It was a common technique of

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behavior modification programs to take away the privileges of the patient, these privileges
consisted of food, a place to sleep, freedom of movement, clothing, and cigarettes, you name it
when acting right the privileges [could have been] restored when the patients [started] to show
normal behavior which [was] dictated by the staff (Whitman 12). It is inevitable that are the
time period that most mental hospitals do not pretend to offer more than custodial care for the
patients that were to be admitted (Whitman 12). The way that the mentally ill were treated inside
and outside of the institutions was called the public indignation, [and was useful for] exposure
and correction (Whitman 12). The treatment of the mentally unstable got so terrible that it
exceeded the hospital scandals [and/or] matches the abasement in the nursing homes in the
twentieth to the twenty-first century (Whitman 12). One would have thought at humans evolved
things would become more settle and that the people would have been treated with more
sympathy, but this was not the case.
When the United States started to progress further into the late 1800s going into the mid1900s society took the back seat in diagnosing the mentally ill in the moment and simply left it
up to the psychiatrists, due to the fact that health started to become a more highly respected job
especially in this sense. The mental institutions that existed were only around for those who had
true illnesses. However, the government gave a very vague definition to how the inmates were
to be treated (Whitman 12). In this period of time close to all peoples only were diagnosed with
schizophrenia. However, schizophrenia was a used as an umbrella diagnosis: meaning that not
everyone who was diagnosed with the disorder had it, but could have had expressed similar
symptoms as someone with schizophrenia. In the mental institutions all the patients that
expressed these symptoms were given the same neuroleptic drugs as the people who truly had
schizophrenia which caused their brains to have terrible reactions (Whitaker 165). Due to all

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people given the same drug to treat different diagnosis, because all the people where enlisted
under schizophrenia, shows how reckless and uncaring the mental institutions/hospitals were
toward their patients. The neuroleptic drugs given to the people were known for achieving great
effects, but not by normalizing brain chemistry but by hindering brain function which caused
patients to not be able to access certain areas of their brain, due to the lack of dopamine receptors
being active [discovered]in 1963 [by a] Swedish pharmacologist, Arvid Carlsson(Whitaker
162). Initially the said person would eventually no longer be able to control their emotions for
themselves or others, had damaged or non-working nervous systems, and lost close to all contact
with the world (Whitaker 163). The neuroleptics that were given to all patients enabled patients
to communicate and interact with people. The state that the doctors put the patients in were the
same exact state of a lobotomy (Whitaker 163,164). The mindset that patients were placed into
by the doctors/medicines caused life trauma and discrimination done by others toward al
mentally ill persons. With all of the information about the mentally insane people and the
hospitals/institutions provided by newspapers and other media allowed the Hollywood film
industries to take the known characteristics or any mentally ill person, call them schizophrenic
and influence society based off what was being presented in the media being shown.
When media became more used on the later years of the twentieth century one became
aware that the way that the neuroleptics made the schizophrenics act was what set the
stereotypes of schizophrenias in their normal state with the jerking arm movements, lack of
facial expressions, insomnia, and lack of emotion due to the neuroleptics used (Whitaker 164) of
which was exemplified and exaggerated by Hollywood when making 72 percent of mentally ill
characters on the television [to be] portrayed as violent, and films such as in The Maniac Cook
film in 1909 [that] featured a prototypic psychiatrically ill homicidal character [soon after] many

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more [false stereotypical films] emerged from Hollywood portraying the same thing in films
such as Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Silence of the Lambs, and
Psycho (Fuller Torrey M.D. 57, 59). With these films the media single handedly linked
violence with the mentally ill and struck the fear in societys eyes that all mentally insane
peoples were homicidal, jittery, sociopathic human beings. However, the homicides and suicides
committed and showed by the media were by the mentally insane (Fuller Torrey M.D. 33). Data
that was collected in New York State jails between 1977 and 1982 showed that half of all
inmates who committed suicide had been previously hospitalized for treatment of a mental
disorder and across the cost a similar survey [was taken in] Los Angeles County Jails [and
showed that] 71 percent had histories of [inmates who] had been examined by the jail mental
health workers just before the killed themselves, most of these inmates were diagnosed with
delusional disorders and more than half were experiencing hallucinations and or delusions at the
time of attempting suicide however, the only recorded suicides and homicides are the ones that
occurred in a jail or other government buildings (Fuller Torrey M.D. 33). However it was not
such a coincidence that most of the suicides occurred in jails by mentally ill people, because
juries [would] send the mentally ill defendants to prison with fixed sentences (Fuller Torrey
M.D. 34). Research proves that it occurred so often and that most of the recorded suicides were
attempted by the mentally unstable society decided to link the two together. If one was diagnosed
with any mental illness while being incarcerated, the mentally ill persons were usually
discriminated against; in ways that if they were raped, hurt, their needs were not being met, and
or they became sick with a physical [illness similar to] AIDS or Tuberculosis in some cases could
not describe their physical symptoms to the guards and the ones who could were usually ignored
and died from the illness which resulted in the mentally ill inmates not being heard or treated as

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people (Fuller Torrey M.D.34). Consequently, the increase of stereotypes and discrimination
started to rise when media suggestively publicized news about homicides that were committed
by mentally insane persons. More than a few celebrities were murdered by the so called mentally
insane for instance in the early 1980 [there was] the shooting of John Lennon by Mark
Chapman, President Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley, were extensively publicized, and the
murders were later diagnosed with schizophrenia as well (Fuller Torrey M.D. 57) in some cases
the news would tell about murders, rapes and robberies that were not done to celebrities, but
usually consisted of the mentally unstable people committing them. Just about three decades
following World War II the most highly publicized cases were the 13 murders committed by, [the
schizophrenic], Howard Unruh in Camden, New Jersey, [the] thirteen murders committed by
Herbert Mullin in San Francisco Bay area in 1972 [who was also schizophrenic], and in 1974 the
rapes robberies and murders by Joseph Kallinger The Shoemaker in Philadelphia area [ who
was also diagnosed with schizophrenia] influencing the people of the United States to see all
mentally ill as violent and homicidal (Fuller Torrey M.D. 57). It was all types of used media at
the time to be the main source of influencing citizens to hate the mentally insane. Therefore,
because of the medias actions, discrimination increased, which made the mentally ill citizens in
the country (in mentally ill institutions or not) have harder times finding jobs, by homes, or even
welcome in certain places. As the people of America progressed into new times of technology
and medicine situations grew worse for those who were proclaimed to be mentally unstable.
In the later years of the twentieth century the mentally ill had been warehoused in bleak
asylums and subjected to such medical treatments as insulin coma, metrazol convulsive therapy,
forced electric shock, and lobotomy (Whitaker 161). The upcoming and new forms of
stabilization were said to be used to get the patient to learn how to move on from whatever it was

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said to be disturbing them. However, from the patients view it was just used to keep patients in
line and to keep their mouths shut for telling others about the way that they were being treated.
Patient Judi Chamberlin describes her experience as the drugs [she had] taken for so many
months now affected every part of [her] body, walking around in a constant haze [was] supposed
to be tranquility, [and] I was successfully tranquilized (Whitaker 161). It was found that the new
treatment such as electric shock therapy and the new stronger neuroleptics were used to
tranquilize people not to put them in a state of relaxation, various numbers of the new forms of
therapy were also used as punishment. It was found to be very peculiar that the new ways that
were meant to help people where used as punishment for acting out as well. By the time 1955
came around it was said that the essence was for the country to rediscover the moral precepts,
the Quakers in York develop a national program of care consistent with their humane
conceptions of the insane however what they saw as morally right at the time was not as
morally right as they thought (Whitaker 162). Without there ever being a period of having correct
morals and having a humane way to correct the mentally insane the asylums, therapeutic
communities, and/or mental institutions came to an end as the 1900s did.
As the 1900s came to a close, so did the mental institutions around the country. In 1973
California was considered the standard-bearer for American psychiatry, California was known
for having the best of the best psychiatry and mental institutions in the country (Fuller Torrey
41). It has been said that when Governor Ronal Regan came into power he announced that
California would be the first state to close down all of its psychiatric hospitals except for the 2
used for the criminally insane (Fuller Torrey 41). However the motive to deinstitutionalize
began under Governor Goodwin Knight in1953-59 when he enabled The Lanterman-PertisShort act, used to help expedite the process of downsizing the number of patients in hospitals

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and this continued under [the governor] Edmund Pat Brown from 1959-67, and then the
institutions began to close officially when Roland Reagan became governor (Fuller Torrey 42).
Due to the mental institutions closing, a couple of the major consequences that came about were
the mass invasion of mental patients, copious amounts of mentally ill people roaming the streets
due to being homeless, and more than a few were discharged to downtown, because the boarding
houses were being closed. Therefore it was inevitable that the number of mentally ill persons in
jail doubled, because that was the only place one could get help for being mentally unstable was
to be [incarcerated] in jails and prisons, [because outside there] where little to no mental health
treatment is provided (Fuller Torrey 41). Since California was truly the leader in the
deinstitutionalization movement (and the) disaster that followed as they came crashing down it
became easier and easier for the others to follow as well. Due to the fact that the mentally insane
persons were not treated well while being held in mental institutions, one would assume that it
was a positive thing that they were let out to be free. Except now not only the non-harmful one
were let to roam out but the small percent of the mentally ill [that] become violent were out to
roam the streets as well (Fuller Torrey M.D. 56). Since the LPS made it virtually impossible to
get relapsed or newly ill psychiatric patients into the people of the communities suffered from
violent outbursts by certain mentally disturbed people (Fuller Torrey 42). An example of the
would be the Frazier case, where a man named Frazier brutally murdered a prominent [eye
surgeon], along with his wife, secretary, and two young sons... later he told the police his
reasoning for killing them was, because voices from God [told] him to seek vengeance on
those who rape the environment (Fuller Torrey 43). The irony in this example is that Fraziers
wife and mother [desperately attempted] to obtain psychiatric treatment for him, but could not
find a place that would take him in, due to the fact that he was a newly ill person and had not

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demonstrated dangerous behavior yet. A plethora of cases such as Fraziers started to appear soon
after more institutions closed down. Although, after these fiascos occurred one would have
thought that Governor Roland Reagan would have considered the thought that the violently
mentally ill people could have caused havoc, but he did not at the time being, because he was a
part of [the] Southern Carolinas conservative anti-mental health culture [group] (Fuller Torrey
41). Which helped people come to the conclusion that this was the reason on why it was even
more ironic that he was the person who was a part of the governments chairs while the
institutions began to shut down simply, because an organization, that he was an important part of,
figured that nothing was truly wrong with any of the people who were held in the institutions.
Due to the past of mental institutions it has brought a broader view of mental illness into the
United States. Now that the mental health institutions all closed around the country almost all
existing mentally ill persons were discriminated against, and still were not accepted by society.
Before, the mentally ill population were able to live somewhat peaceful lives inside of the
institution, because they were not treated any differently from one another, due to the fact that
people saw crazy as crazy so they were all the same. Although, it would be a false statement to
say that the peoples who were placed into mentally unstable institutions were perfectly fine,
because, all craziness varied by perspective and from one person to the next.
In the modern twenty-first century society does not play such an essential role in the
debate whether one was mental ill or not. In modern society the mentally ill peoples make up the
most of the percentages of homeless people just as it did in the twentieth century. Except now
society does not necessarily fear the mentally ill or their disease, but most people do not feel
sympathetic towards them and their condition. However, there are still a various amount of
people who do not care for them and choose to make their lives hard on purpose, such as kicking

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them out of places or busses, acting violently towards them, and things as simple as making fun
of them. Although, there are not any real mental health institutions there are more than a few
places one could go to receive help such as a rehabilitation center or something that provides free
therapy for the less fortunate mentally ill persons. For diagnosis in this time period you can only
get diagnosed with a disease by a therapist or psychiatrist and one can only obtain medicine to
help for ones dilemma from a licensed psychiatrist (Jeannine Soto). Within the twenty-first
century mental health has been studied frequently and more solutions have become provided to
fit ones needs. Now there are laws so that no person could be mistreated by their therapist,
psychiatrist, or guardian as well. However, mentally ill persons still make up most of the inmates
in jail/prison, but the people with violent outbursts are confined in different sections than the
others. In modern society mental illness has not been cured or all the way understood, however,
it was not that when "more things change, the more they are the same" (Smoyak 1). For instance
over the course of history people have been taught how to keep their thoughts and actions under
control with the help of medicine prescribed for the individual.
One could clearly see that throughout the course of history it was inevitable that it was
society and the values of the people not only defined whether or not one was mentally ill,
unstable, or insane, but dictated the way that they were to be treated as well. It has been a hard to
pin point when exactly the change occurred in history. Although, as the humans growth of
knowledge came to part, not just anyone could diagnose a person with any type of disease,
pragmatic or irrational, but one would need to have a degree in psychiatry in order to diagnose
others. However, the diagnosis would now be on the way their brain works, the analyzing of the
said person, as well as what the person says and experiences. It has been proven that all peoples
of any race are mentally disturbed, unwell, and even insane to some aspect. In the lessons of

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history one could tell that all the accusations made were due to ones perspective. Basing a
diagnosis off ones perspective was why it was society, people, public norms, and the beliefs of
the people, in religion, etc. in that time period that changed what, was to be considered be crazy
and how the mentally ill were to be treated as well. It was all because of the perspective of some
person that people started to change periodically as well. However people could continue to
evolve and in the future modern accusations might become proven wrong as well.

Works Cited

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Miller, Judy and E. Fuller Torrey, M.D. The Invisible Plague: The Rise of Mental Illness from
1750 to the Present. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2001. Print.
Torrey, E. Fuller. Out of the Shadows: Confronting Americas Mental Illness Crisis. New York:
Wiley, 1997. Print.
Torrey, E. Fuller. The Insanity Offense: How Americas Failure to Treat the Seriously Mentally
Ill Endangers its Citizens. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 2008. Print.
Smoyak, Shirley. Journal of Psychosocial Nursing & Mental Health Services. Thorofare: Slack
Incorporated, 2000. Print.

Soto, Jeanine (therapist)

Whitaker, Robert. Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment
of the Mentally Ill. Cambridge: Perseus Publishing, 2002. Print.
Whitman, Alden. The Madness of the Mental Institution. Los Angeles: Los Angeles Times,
1975. Print.