The Death of the Mental Asylum
The Death of the Mental Asylum
Dec. 27, 2000 -- When Lois, now 84, entered Northampton State Hospital in Northampton, Mass., in 1937, a concerned nurse noticed her distraught appearance and asked if she had killed someone. When Lois responded that, of course, she had not, the nurse said, "Well, then you've got nothing to worry about."
But Lois did have something to worry about. The 21-year-old had been raped, and the trauma left her unable to talk about the experience. "It was something no one spoke about then," she says. "When I entered Northampton, I didn't know if I would ever leave."
Today, Lois remembers Northampton as in the '30s as a "very nice" place where her trauma was treated by a young psychiatrist and aspiring psychoanalyst named Phillip Shapiro, who took her under his wing and entered her into psychotherapy. With the help of sodium amytal, Shapiro helped Lois speak about her ordeal and, eventually, move beyond it.
Years later, in 1970, after the sudden death of three loved ones, Lois sought help again. When she told her doctor she wanted to be readmitted to Northampton, the doctor said to her, "Oh, you don't want to go there."
But Lois was curious. And when she re-entered the hospital she discovered what her doctor meant. "It was just falling apart," she says.
Another former patient, "Steve" -- who asked that his real name not be used -- was in and out of Northampton between 1982-85, after suffering a breakdown in college. "It was confusing and chaotic and nightmarish," he recalls.
Lois and Steve's memories of Northampton, good and bad, reflect the varied emotions aroused by the place. They serve as memorials both to the noble intentions that inspired Northampton's founding in 1858 and to the wreckage of those intentions when Northampton -- like other state mental institutions around the country -- became burdened by too many patients, too few staff members, and too little funding.
The past decade or two have seen a nationwide move to take patients out of large mental asylums, such as Northampton, and to rehabilitate them back into the community, a process known as "deinstitutionalization." This move was accompanied by a reduction in funding to these large mental hospitals, and -- theoretically -- an increase in funding for community projects, funding that many feel has been inadequate.
The Death of the Mental Asylum
Dec. 27, 2000 -- When Lois, now 84, entered Northampton State Hospital in Northampton, Mass., in 1937, a concerned nurse noticed her distraught appearance and asked if she had killed someone. When Lois responded that, of course, she had not, the nurse said, "Well, then you've got nothing to worry about."
But Lois did have something to worry about. The 21-year-old had been raped, and the trauma left her unable to talk about the experience. "It was something no one spoke about then," she says. "When I entered Northampton, I didn't know if I would ever leave."
Today, Lois remembers Northampton as in the '30s as a "very nice" place where her trauma was treated by a young psychiatrist and aspiring psychoanalyst named Phillip Shapiro, who took her under his wing and entered her into psychotherapy. With the help of sodium amytal, Shapiro helped Lois speak about her ordeal and, eventually, move beyond it.
Years later, in 1970, after the sudden death of three loved ones, Lois sought help again. When she told her doctor she wanted to be readmitted to Northampton, the doctor said to her, "Oh, you don't want to go there."
But Lois was curious. And when she re-entered the hospital she discovered what her doctor meant. "It was just falling apart," she says.
Another former patient, "Steve" -- who asked that his real name not be used -- was in and out of Northampton between 1982-85, after suffering a breakdown in college. "It was confusing and chaotic and nightmarish," he recalls.
Lois and Steve's memories of Northampton, good and bad, reflect the varied emotions aroused by the place. They serve as memorials both to the noble intentions that inspired Northampton's founding in 1858 and to the wreckage of those intentions when Northampton -- like other state mental institutions around the country -- became burdened by too many patients, too few staff members, and too little funding.
The past decade or two have seen a nationwide move to take patients out of large mental asylums, such as Northampton, and to rehabilitate them back into the community, a process known as "deinstitutionalization." This move was accompanied by a reduction in funding to these large mental hospitals, and -- theoretically -- an increase in funding for community projects, funding that many feel has been inadequate.
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