Seven: The Madhouse
One of my many areas of research for Dracula was the actual conditions in Victorian mental asylums. In the novel, the treatment of Renfield bordered on abuse, not least surgically opening a hole in his skull!
But then Van Helsing gave Lucy a blood transfusion, even though doctors had known there was always a good chance the patient would die from such for decades.
Anyway, I learned these places could be far worse and far better than I feared. Virtually everything depended on the class or wealth of the patient, coupled with the specific ethics of individual staff members. Especially the former!
Women in the 1880s and 1890s committed to a sanitorium might find it rather pleasant, with peaceful exercises and simple activities intended to calm the nerves. If in fact (as was often the case) the women were simply recovering from trauma or exhaustion or the like, this could do them good. Those who disturbed the peace might find themselves isolated from the others, but again this did not necessarily involve any kind of abuse. It was no guarantee against any, either.
Far too many women patients were locked up for "hysteria" a kind of catch-all phrase for everything from post-partum psychosis to not obeying one's husband or father. Any physical resistance often resulted in brutal restraints, while if the asylum in question was not rather posh, the living conditions resembled a medieval dungeon.
In a Steampunk world, I would expect this both worse and better. In the wake of the massive Franco-German War, with its horrific casualities, women would have earned a larger place in the workforce. Quite possibly women's suffrage might be in sight.
At the same time, it is difficult to believe alienists would not have been all the more willing to conduct experiments on their charges--up to and including electric shock, for example. Keep in mind such treatment--electro-convulsive therapy--has its supporters to this day, including some patients who reported truly radical improvements in mood and energy. However, modern doctors make sure patients are sedated and give very minor shocks, i.e. low voltage.
For the record, I see Miss Renfield as a young woman cursed (as she and society sees it) with hallucinations--which are in fact psychic visions.
To be continued
But then Van Helsing gave Lucy a blood transfusion, even though doctors had known there was always a good chance the patient would die from such for decades.
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| Victorian female mental patient |
Far too many women patients were locked up for "hysteria" a kind of catch-all phrase for everything from post-partum psychosis to not obeying one's husband or father. Any physical resistance often resulted in brutal restraints, while if the asylum in question was not rather posh, the living conditions resembled a medieval dungeon.
In a Steampunk world, I would expect this both worse and better. In the wake of the massive Franco-German War, with its horrific casualities, women would have earned a larger place in the workforce. Quite possibly women's suffrage might be in sight.
At the same time, it is difficult to believe alienists would not have been all the more willing to conduct experiments on their charges--up to and including electric shock, for example. Keep in mind such treatment--electro-convulsive therapy--has its supporters to this day, including some patients who reported truly radical improvements in mood and energy. However, modern doctors make sure patients are sedated and give very minor shocks, i.e. low voltage.
For the record, I see Miss Renfield as a young woman cursed (as she and society sees it) with hallucinations--which are in fact psychic visions.
To be continued
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