Oh Dear God,
I am doomed!
Found to be lacking
in mental capacity.
Deemed unfit to live
in decent society.
Accused of heinous
deeds,
irresponsbilities
unforgiveable.
A scourge to be
banished
ne’er to breathe
freedom
I stand accused.
Asthma
Hysteria
Laziness
Novel reading
Medicine to prevent conception
Overaction of the mind
Uterine derangement
Women trouble
Superstition
Grief
Spinal irritation
Gathering in the head
Periodical fits
Dissolute habits
Overtaxing mental powers
Hereditary predisposition
Dropsy
Time
of
Life
F
E
M
A
L
E
D
I
S
E
A
S
E
Discard me!
Useless trash!
Unworthy trollop!
I shrivel
in the corner
dying a slow death
day by day
a
hundred
years
till
one day
I breathe no more.
At last
I am free!
Dedicated to all the lost souls who lived in such harsh times.
This is a list of reasons for admission to a lunatic asylum between 1864 – 1889
© Raili Tanska
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HORRIFIC!
I know 😦
I found some interesting “Reasons For Admission” Raili…….
Politics
Political excitement
Laziness
Egotism
Greediness
Feebleness of intellect
Then I started thinking, maybe all of our present day politicians would have been admitted to an asylum back those days 😉
You’re right, Ivor!
Yes !!, they’d have to build big asylums 😂😂
Um – the old parliament house perhaps ?!
What a grand idea. 😊
I thought as much but I didn’t like to say!
Seriously – it is an indictment of all concerned – though my wife says I am mad! But she is being subjective!
Using these criteria I am insane many times over !!
Fits al lot of the people I know.
I could fit myself into that list in a number of places !!
That is so shocking 😢
When I was still working, I recall one woman who had spent most of her life incarcerated (she was in her 90’s by then) because she had had a child out of wedlock. Over the years she ‘learnt’ to be mad 😦 Some things have changed for the better. But there is still a lot of room for improvement.
There’s a great book – Asylum by Erving Goffman who talks about the ‘career’ of a mental patient. It reflects what you’ve said here.
So many poor souls suffered these terrible institutions … My great grandfather was one who died in such a place.. When his ageing forgetfulness ‘Dementia’ annoyed the neighbours resulting him to being admitted.. He never came out… ❤
So many sad stories behind those walls 😦
Yes, he constantly said he was being beaten, but my Great Grandma didn’t believe such a thing.. Years later my own Grandmother told us the story and sadly, many were ill treated terribly .. My Grandmother I remember told the story with tears as she she her father was such a gentle soul…
And sadly it is still happening in some places 😦
OH MY STARS!!! I would qualify for a grand amount of those ‘reasons’.
It seems barely believable, to us, in this day and age, that this could have happened. Sadly we know it to be true. I read only a few days ago, about a woman who had been put into an asylum because she’d got pregnant with her much loved boyfriend, and she hadn’t been allowed out again. Just the thought of it chokes me Raili.
Quite honestly, I think we’d all be admitted if this was still the rules they went by.
Terrible. Heartbreaking. Dreadful …. soul destroying – for anyone, even those on the outside of the walls. It makes me ashamed to be a human.
Sending love to you Raili. ~ Cobs. xxx
It is all of that. Sad thing is that there are still institutions out there that are far from ideal – https://thestatehospital.wordpress.com/