Treating Madness

[justawench]

Bethleham Hospital (Bedlam) is the first thing that comes to my mind when thinking of the treatment of lunacy in the 18th century. Unfortunately, there wasn't much "treatment" involved until late in the century. Per wikipedia:

In the 18th century people used to go there to see the lunatics. For a penny one could peer into their cells, view the

Comments

[p0wdermonkey]

Want mad!Jack fic. Now!!

[justawench]

Jack helps those who help themselves. ;)

If I could, though, I would do it for you.

[dharma_slut]

I am diverted by the blog itself, which says it is meant to promote discussion about psychotherapy, but really only wants to talk about its failures. I'm bookmarking it, there's a lot of great material there!

Back in the day, as you well know, there was no recognition of the subtler forms of insanity, such as psychotic disattachment. Those people were considered to be perfectly sane, but very unpleasant. Lethally unpleasant in many cases...

[justawench]

Hm, I didn't actually read the blog.

I imagine most "treatment" consisted of a slap to the head and an order to shape up. Only, you know, with chains and other tortuous devices.