Anna Brown’s Reviews > Lunatic: The Rise and Fall of an American Asylum > Status Update

Civil War made Weston a popular place. Booming with coal and a road. Admittance to asylum was for many good and strange reasons. Masturbation being the most brutally “cure”. Speculations of abuse started very early on and continued until the closing.

Benjamin Rush Father of Psychiatry. Oldest son shot someone, was committed and never recovered, died in the hospital.
Dorothea Dix first woman to force humane treatment of insane people. Committed herself because of emotional breakdowns. Died in hospital.
Thomas Kirkbridge created the Kirkbridge plan a long side Dorothea Dix. Was shot by a patient. Married and had a family with another patient. Died of pneumonia.