Reasons to be admitted to an insane asylum

I worked briefly as an assistant nurse in Friern Barnet hospital, during a student vacation. Must have been 1958. I was on 2 wards, one for old ladies and the other for younger women. One of the younger ones gave me a hug one day and one of the other nurses shouted "don't let her hug you - she's got syphilis!"
Many of the others used to have insulin coma therapy, or were given largactil - horrible taste and smell. To calm them I suppose.
Also a lot of Jews, survivors from the Holocaust.

Quite a large proportion of patients were detained in psychiatric hospitals as they were in the tertiary stage of syphilis. It was then called General Paralysis of the Insane or GPI. So many people had untreated syphilis following the war. The end results are dreadful.

Masturbation is a reason but so is suppressing masturbation. A case of being damned if you do and damned if you don't

I have a soft spot for the Salvation Army but all that drum and tambourine banging is bound to have an effect on some eventually! As for Excitement as Officer, in my case it was Excitement by Non Commissioned Officer that did it, and he is still driving me mad! It's definitely the uniform ?!
Before DH retired from the Army he had to visit a former soldier in a large institution in our city, to take a Christmas present from the regiment. They did it every year, and DH volunteered to do it because he was going to be spending the weekend at home. He did not go in uniform, but when DH told the poor chap, who had been there since being shell shocked in the first war, why he had come to see him, all he could say was "Don't take me back! I don't want to go back". He did settle down and they managed a little chat before he drifted off into himself, but it upset us both that he had been there for so long and would probably remain there until he died.

Jalima It's the uniforms - drives 'em mad with lust.

Elegran I know the feeling

In the 1970s I too worked with old ladies who had been placed in 'mental asylums' (as they were at the time) by family members because they had become pregnant outside marriage Christine. They were not all from affluent families - quite the reverse. There was also a lady in her 60s who clearly had a slight learning disability and had been placed there by her family (not affluent) because of this - it was doubtful she had ever had any mental health problems but had just been put away out of sight and was too institutionalised to ever cope in the outside world.

It was possible in the early years of the 20th century for family members (usually the male 'head of the family') to 'commit' their relative with the agreement of one doctor. Of course this was open to abuse; hence the introduction of the Approved Social Worker role (now Approved Mental Health Professional) to lend some professional objectivity to the process (along with 2, not 1 medical recommendations except in an emergency).

The stories in there were heartbreaking - not only of the reasons people had been incarcerated, but also of the treatment they had received as patients. I have never forgotten this experience, and it had a decisive effect on the career path I chose although it has taken quite a few turns along the way.

The one the previous GN Book Club book The Ballroom was based on was a Pauper Lunatic Asylum. It was big enough to warrant having its own railway station.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Royds_Hospital

If girls were put in mental hospitals when pregnant they were usually from affluent families, if not it was the workhouse

Thanks for starting my day with a

Although Christine's post is

When I began my mental health nurse training in the 60s there were still women in large psychiatric hospitals who had been admitted and detained for most of their lives because they had a child out of wedlock. Sadly most had become so institutionalised they could not move into the community.

My goodness, so you could be "sectioned" (or the equivalent) if you had been abused by your husband!

And as for having a w .... followed by a ciggie, well, a good portion of the population could face incarceration on that score.

When it says ' Masterbation for30years' does that mean constantly?

Female disease must be the dreaded hysteria, caused by having a wandering womb. (from the Greek word hystera = womb)

That must explain the Salvation Army too.

Jalima It's the uniforms - drives 'em mad with lust.

Oh!!!

It's American
No comment.
Except to say perhaps they could re-introduce it for Certain People.

It's Excitement by Officer that is intriguing me

Political Excitement would scoop a few GNers up.

I wonder why Salvation Army's on the list? A penchant for distinctive headgear, or excessive tambourine use?

Bloody flux is diarrhoea with blood!
AKA Dysentery.

Just the thing to introduce to all the other inmates - that will reduce the numbers.

What is 'Excitement by Officer'?
Or 'Female Disease'?

Should we add posting on GN to the list?

I think you would have to be dead to avoid admission to that asylum!

That just about covers us all ?

Love tobacco and masterbation!! presumably at the same time.

Egotism, how many politicians will that take care of?

How come Jealousy and Religion stand together?