Observations on the expediency of abolishing mechanical restraint in the treatment of the insane in lunatic asylums : a probationary essay / by John Crawford.
- Crawford, John.
- Date:
- 1842
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Observations on the expediency of abolishing mechanical restraint in the treatment of the insane in lunatic asylums : a probationary essay / by John Crawford. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.
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![“ It was impossible to view these things [the evils arising from restraint], almost daily occurring, without resolving to endeavour to prevent them. Occasionally, peace was restored by the sudden and unexpected removal of the restraint; and at other times, restraints were allowed to remain on until the patient became quiet or sullen. In the first case, good was sometimes done; in the second, none ever resulted. By degrees it was found that by refraining from restraint, although it was still alluded to, the patient felt that an obligation had been conferred, and would promise good behaviour, and for a short time maintain it. But it was not until restraints had for many months ceased to be seen in the wards, that tranquil conduct of any duration was observed in these patients (i. e. in the old and inveterate cases). Some of them have now proved capable of removal to the quieter parts of the asylum, after having been considered the most hopeless patients in the house. Their malady is incurable; but it appears to have lost some aggravations resulting from years of mis- management,—for some of these patients who are now middle-aged, became insane in the prime of life, and were sent here after being in many lunatic asylums.” * In my own experience, I have, fortunately, never had occasion to witness such extreme and horrible instances of the abuse of restraint, as have been described by others; but I have seen enough to convince me of its injurious effects, in aggravating the excitement under which the unhappy patients labour. I have repeatedly seen patients brought to the Asylum hand-cuffed, restrained by the strait waistcoat, and even bound hand and foot with cords so tightly applied as to produce severe excoriations of the limbs, and who, notwithstanding all these precautions, were so violent, that, in their transport to the establish- ment, they required the united strength of several men to keep them down,—become perfectly quiet and submissive, and even voluntarily engage in some occupation, when, on their admission, they were freed from their restraints and the presence of their guards, and calmly and kindly spoken to. Such results have often astonished, in no small degree, the friends or relatives under whose care they had been brought to the Institution; and who, though sincerely and affectionately attached to them, had been induced by fear for then- own safety to have recourse to such restraint. They have often ex- pressed their surprise, that in a place which in their minds had been associated with ideas of severity and coercion, the patients should be treated with so much more mildness than their own families could venture upon. The same sentiments I have heard expressed by such patients themselves when convalescent, and have known them bear testimony to the beneficial effects produced upon their minds, when, after being excited by protracted and violent struggles, and irritated by the imposition of restraints, which they considered at the time to](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24921579_0014.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
