Annual report of the Royal Edinburgh Asylum for the insane. 1882.

  • Royal Edinburgh Asylum.
Date:
[1883]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Royal Edinburgh Asylum for the insane. 1882. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    replied “ Oh, this is paradise compared with home ; my neighbours make ten times this noise.” If one wants to see how much more intense the impression made on human nature by imaginary things than by real ones may be, one has merely to go into a lunatic asylum or a nursery. Those who have to portray strong emo¬ tions, such as frenzied grief, or blank despair, or horrible remorse, have often now-a-days to go into an Asylum for their models, where the causes of these emotions are entirely imaginary, but yet the feelings themselves, and their outward expressions, are seen in the greatest possible intensity. I have a patient now who believes she has done fearful crimes and is a demon, and who portrays, in expression and action, so vividly the emotions of grief and remorse, that any actress who could imitate her would certainly make a better impersonation of Lady Macbeth than any that I have ever seen or heard of. Other patients on admission realise their position only too keenly, and suffer from the popular misapprehension of what an asylum is. They fear the association with insane persons far more than there is any occasion for, and they share the popular belief that such association will necessarily be injurious to them. To such it is especially necessary to make first impressions as pleasant as possible, so as to dispel their prejudices and gain their confidence. It is wonderful how a bright, pleasant-looking ward, the absence of any unpleasant suggestions of restraint, a few reassuring kindly words from an open-mannered honest-looking attendant, and a chat with the Doctor while he is making his medical examination and writing down his report beside the patient, will calm such a person and dispel imaginary fears. As a matter of fact and experience, the placing of a person afflicted in mind into an Asylum tends to make him exercise more self-control than he has done at home in most cases. In the cases of those whose thoughts have been centred on themselves and perhaps their imaginary ailments, it has a wholesome influence, through the distraction of their attention from such things to outside matters. A man whose mind is affected is usually the worst company for himself, and his own thoughts are least helpful to him. There are some cases, the great minority fortunately, where the actual effect of being sent to the Asylum is, for the