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Bittersweet Memories: A History of the Peoria State Hospital
This book seeks to understand what really happened at the Peoria State Hospital during its fascinating history and to do so as accurately as possible. In the end, the individual reader will be allowed to draw his or her own conclusions regarding the hospital and those who call it their home.
326 pages, Paperback
First published August 3, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 13, 2010
Lately I've been thinking about my uncle George - my mother's uncle, actually. Uncle George was Dr. George Anthony Zeller, whose name appears on almost every page of this book.
Dr. Zeller took charge of the newly-opened "Illinois Asylum for the Incurable Insane" in 1902 and proceeded to turn it into the most innovative mental-health care facility in the country. It was the first hospital to abolish all forms of physical restraint of patients. The straitjackets and such-like were hung on the wall, with a promise never to use them again. Later administrations wouldn't keep that promise. The bars were removed from the windows and all the doors left unlocked.
Without straps and locks to keep the patients out of trouble, the staff had no choice but to actually pay attention to the patients. Such extra vigilance was facilitated by another innovation, the eight-hour day. Previously it had been customary for a shift to last as long as 18 hours.
The book is well-researched and well written, but Mr. Lisman neglects to mention something about my uncle I consider very important. I quote from his autobiography:
"...I informed the staff that I would spend three days and nights on the wards as an inmate, sharing the lot of the patients in every particular, that no favors were to be shown me and no embarrassment be felt by the physicians or the attendants because of my presence on the wards in the role of a newly admitted patient, the only exception being that my name be omitted from the ward register...
"Accordingly I entered the receiving cottage, was weighed, measured, stripped and examined for bruises, marks of identification, or skin lesions. Then I was placed in the continuous bath, where I remained for two hours and of all times George Fitch, author of the famous Siwash stories and Rev. B.G.Carpenter, leading Universalist, came out to visit the institution and they sent them down to the ward to call on me, just when I didn't want visitors. Here I was, stark naked floating in tepid water, my head resting upon a canvas sling stretched across the end of the tub and a sheet forming a canopy to hide my nakedness.
"I told Fitch that I had furnished him many a scoop for his news column but that he must respect the defenselessness of an unarmed man without a stitch of clothing on his person. And he did..."
Imagine, if you can, one of today's psychiatrists allowing himself to be dosed with the powerful antipsychotics he routinely prescribes.
Dr. Zeller took charge of the newly-opened "Illinois Asylum for the Incurable Insane" in 1902 and proceeded to turn it into the most innovative mental-health care facility in the country. It was the first hospital to abolish all forms of physical restraint of patients. The straitjackets and such-like were hung on the wall, with a promise never to use them again. Later administrations wouldn't keep that promise. The bars were removed from the windows and all the doors left unlocked.
Without straps and locks to keep the patients out of trouble, the staff had no choice but to actually pay attention to the patients. Such extra vigilance was facilitated by another innovation, the eight-hour day. Previously it had been customary for a shift to last as long as 18 hours.
The book is well-researched and well written, but Mr. Lisman neglects to mention something about my uncle I consider very important. I quote from his autobiography:
"...I informed the staff that I would spend three days and nights on the wards as an inmate, sharing the lot of the patients in every particular, that no favors were to be shown me and no embarrassment be felt by the physicians or the attendants because of my presence on the wards in the role of a newly admitted patient, the only exception being that my name be omitted from the ward register...
"Accordingly I entered the receiving cottage, was weighed, measured, stripped and examined for bruises, marks of identification, or skin lesions. Then I was placed in the continuous bath, where I remained for two hours and of all times George Fitch, author of the famous Siwash stories and Rev. B.G.Carpenter, leading Universalist, came out to visit the institution and they sent them down to the ward to call on me, just when I didn't want visitors. Here I was, stark naked floating in tepid water, my head resting upon a canvas sling stretched across the end of the tub and a sheet forming a canopy to hide my nakedness.
"I told Fitch that I had furnished him many a scoop for his news column but that he must respect the defenselessness of an unarmed man without a stitch of clothing on his person. And he did..."
Imagine, if you can, one of today's psychiatrists allowing himself to be dosed with the powerful antipsychotics he routinely prescribes.
July 4, 2009
Interesting facts, but a little too textbook for me.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews