Dorothea Dix

Dorothea Dix

     Dorothea Dix (April 4, 1802 – July 17, 1887) was an American activist who fought against the oppression of the insane. Barely known as a schoolteacher and sometime author of religious books, she submitted a petition to the Massachusetts General Court which claimed to expose the appalling condition of pauper lunatics throughout the state, county by county, town by town. She opened this petition with the words, "I proceed, Gentlemen," she announced, "briefly to call your attention to the present state of Insane Persons confined within this Commonwealth, in cages, closets, stalls, pens! Chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience!" (Gollaher).
   She personalized the plight of the insane, and never hesitated to expose the ineptitude or corruption of the officials in charge. Almost from the day her pamphlet appeared, it shocked the collective conscience, promoting a revolution in the perception and treatment of insanity. "The Memorial is a work of great force--a stirring call on behalf of the pauper insane to stop the abuses of the state's haphazard community-based approach to social welfare. Eloquent and impassioned, it defined the moral basis of lunacy reform for the rest of the nineteenth century" (Gollaher).
    She had good reason to want this reform. Upon closer inspection, Miss Dix had years before collapsed from depression and exhaustion. Traveling to England, not knowing a soul, collapsing again, the Rathbone family offered her a retreat in which to recuperate. "This was the turning point in her life. For the circumstances of her recovery furnish clues that not only help explain her personal interest in insanity and its cure, but also clarify both the form and meaning of the Massachusetts Memorial and her strongest convictions about social welfare" (Gollaher). Her own journey back to normalcy became her personal frame of reference for the process of curing mental disorders. She found a means to save her sanity, a way that was a model for others.
     News that her grandmother had died in Boston brought her reluctantly back to America. She had by then almost fully recovered her health, though in times of stress some of her old symptoms, including depression, would later resurface. It took her three years to compile her experiences and findings into something she could use to create change. She had embraced a radically new way of thinking about social problems and obligations. In her heartwrenching Memorial submitted to the Massachussetts Court, she described the conditions of people she had seen personally in these prisons, who were languishing away with no hope of recovery. The response was immediate and explosive.
     "Dorothea Dix played an instrumental role in the founding or expansion of more than 30 hospitals for the treatment of the mentally ill. She was a leading figure in those national and international movements that challenged the idea that people with mental disturbances could not be cured or helped. She also was a staunch critic of cruel and neglectful practices toward the mentally ill, such as caging, incarceration without clothing, and painful physical restraint" (Parry).

Works Cited:

Gollaher, David L. "Dorothea Dix And The English Origins Of The American Asylum Movement." Canadian Review Of American Studies 23.3 (1993): 149. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Mar. 2012.

Parry, Manon S. "Dorethea Dix (1802-1887)." American Journal of Public Health Apr. 2006: 624+. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Mar. 2012.

Stephanie Robertson