Mental Illness in the 19th Century

The article I chose to read was Mental Illness in the 19th Century. This piece summarized what ideas and attitudes people had toward the mentally diseased. In the 19th century colonists blamed witchcraft and demonic possession to be the cause of the illness and as ideas progressed many thought that weak family genes were the roots of a person's mental illness. Even family vices were thought to be a cause of the mentally ill, such as alcoholism and masturbation. The central point of the article was that the mentally retarded were being kept under poor conditions while imprisoned and a Sunday-school volunteer who witnessed this habitat wanted to change it. Her name was Dorothea Dix and she became an activist in trying to improve their environments. Her efforts became crucial to the treatment that the ill received. This played a huge role in the "moral treatment". The "moral treatment" stated that the ill should have a clean, and healthy living environment where they could exercise, work, receive education, and practice religion. Dix became a prominent promoter of the "moral treatment" by going against unjust legislatures and asylums. As a result,toward the end of the 19th century people started to turn against asylums, as well, and new medical standards were incorporated into these shelters. This article has aided me in learning more about asylums for the mentally ill and I know it will help me better understand the novel which we are about to begin. This writing piece kept me interested in many ways because of the ideas and beliefs people had about the illness and it made me realize how long mental illness has been in existence for. I predict that mental illness will play the main focus of the story and now that I have read this article I will be able to already know some facts about it. This piece will help me develop ideas as I read through the story and it  will become a great contributor to my knowledge on this topic.