Tragic Twisted and True:
The Horrific History of Asylums
It’s October, and Haunted Houses are opening to scare those ‘brave enough to enter.’ Enter one and you’ll see many themes from the early movies dealing with the “insane” and “mentally ill.”
The hands reaching from behind bars, lunging ‘patients’ barbarous ‘treatment’ and mass murder.
Many of these themes were based on some reality of the early Asylums. So, let’s look at the tragic history of Asylums.
Historical Asylums
Bedlam, a word synonymous with confusion, madness and insanity. Its history stretches back to the infamous asylum, Bethlem Royal Hospital in Beckingham.
Much like Bedlam, the word Lunatic has a link to early western civilation before the causes of these aliments were fully understood. Luna of course meaning ‘moon’ and ‘atic’ being the root of the word and meaning the prefix is the problem.
There for the problem for these people was the influence of the moon. Which explains the ‘treatments’ the mentally ill suffered at Asylums.
