1890

In 1890 the state hospital at Brattleboro was feeling the pressure of a rise in insanity in Vermont. The hospital could comfortably hold 400 patients, but for at least 10 years it had been above capacity. To make room for new patients, the hospital released 109 of the chronically insane, but harmless residents. The trustees were unhappy with the decision to release these patients because they were the patients who were considered fit for “dorm life,” meaning that they were quiet and easily controlled. They were also patients of the state, which allowed the hospital to collect revenues just by keeping them there. The patients that Brattleboro maintained after dismissing these 109 were transient or criminally insane, and no private revenue or state funding was received for them.

The trustee’s anger at releasing patients led to the decision to build a new state hospital in Waterbury. In 1889 the decision was made to erect the Vermont State Hospital for the Insane at Waterbury; this hospital would house the criminally insane and the insane poor, in turn opening Brattleboro up for private and state-funded patients. In the supervisors report for 1889, there was a recommendation that the poor insane of Vermont (state-funded patients) should take the place of the 21 convicts and 104 transient insane currently being kept at Brattleboro; this led to the assumption that money was the driving force behind the push for a new state hospital at Waterbury.

In 1890 the state hospital at Brattleboro was feeling the pressure of a rise in insanity in Vermont. The hospital could comfortably hold 400 patients, but for at least 10 years it had been above capacity. To make room for new patients, the hospital released 109 of the chronically insane, but harmless residents. The trustees were unhappy with the decision to release these patients because they were the patients who were considered fit for “dorm life,” meaning that they were quiet and easily controlled. They were also patients of the state, which allowed the hospital to collect revenues just by keeping them there. The patients that Brattleboro maintained after dismissing these 109 were transient or criminally insane, and no private revenue or state funding was received for them. The trustee’s anger at releasing patients led to the decision to build a new state hospital in Waterbury. In 1889 the decision was made to erect the Vermont State Hospital for the Insane at Waterbury; this hospital would house the criminally insane and the insane poor, in turn opening Brattleboro up for private and state-funded patients. In the supervisors report for 1889, there was a recommendation that the poor insane of Vermont (state-funded patients) should take the place of the 21 convicts and 104 transient insane currently being kept at Brattleboro; this led to the assumption that money was the driving force behind the push for a new state hospital at Waterbury.
Based on the 1890 superintendent’s report, it is clear that concepts of mental health then were very different from those we hold today. According to the report, the summer months made insanity worse, such that the maniacal acted more maniacally and the depressed more depressed. Definitions of insanity were also interesting, given the reports on causes. While it was acknowledged that hereditary factors existed in mental illness, doctors of the time also believed that 63 out of the 484 cases being treated at the hospital were due to “pernicious habits and harmful indulgences.” 30 cases were “diseases peculiar to women,” and an additional 30 or more were attributed to “sexual excess in men.” Clearly, not only the causes, but insanity itself was defined very differently than it is today.	Principal Psychoses 1890 [click image to enlarge]
The most common patient response to admission was denial of insanity, and as we know from today’s medical community and the Kubler-Ross model, denial is the first step in grief. At the time, however, denial didn’t seem to develop into any of the other stages. A report from a Vermont native who was at an asylum in New York wrote that she was lucid and intelligent enough to play games on the doctors and cause trouble for them, because she knew she wasn’t insane; the doctors didn’t believe her. Typical treatment for insanity in Vermont around 1890 was a steady dose of activity; the superintendent wrote that the worst thing one could do for an insane person was to confine him or her with nothing to do. The State Hospital at Brattleboro had a farm, a park, a summer cottage, a gymnasium and gardens, each of which was used to divert the patients’ attentions away from their afflictions. In an effort to improve treatment for the insane, instructional courses for Brattleboro employees were initiated in 1890.
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