Mental Illness in the Elizabethan Era

Mental Illness in the Elizabethan Era

• During the Elizabethan era, mental illness was referred to as "madness".
• The era was distinct from the Medieval era in terms of public treatment of the mentally ill.

Causes of Insanity

• Situational factors, such as the death of loved ones, were common causes of madness.

Treatments for Madness

• Treatments were often extreme and resembled torture.
• Examples of treatments include:
  • Water boarding/douching: pouring water over a patient's head with infrequent stops for breathing.
  • Swing chairs: strapping patients to a chair suspended from the ceiling and swinging them constantly.
  • Extreme drug therapies: intended to induce vomiting.
  • Vomiting: used to exhaust patients and correct their behavior.
  • Blister therapies: creating blisters on the patient's body as a means of "deflection".

Bedlam Asylum

• Bedlam was a well-known treatment facility for the mentally ill in England.
• It started as a regular hospital in 1357 AD and became the first hospital to only treat the mentally ill in 1660.
• The hospital's exterior was ornate, but the interior was chaotic and inhumane.
• The mentally ill were not allowed on the front lawn, indicating that the facility was designed for the benefit of the families, not the patients.
• In the 1750s, Bedlam opened its doors to the public, selling tickets for people to view the "treatment" of the mentally ill as entertainment.