Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1921-03-07
Answer to the Insane
Ozark Age Idea"

should the hopeleSsly insane, suf-
fering from extreme mental agony,
be put to a painless and merciful
| death? This has been the subject to
which the newspapers have recently
been devoting considerable space and
which the Sunday supplements have
taken up using entire sheets with
glaring captions and lurid cuts of
what an insane man does not look
like. To those engaged in psychiat-
rical work this undoubtedly seems
too inane for discussion or contro-
versy, but to the public in general
and particularly to the fathers, moth
ers, sons and daughters of patients
mentally diseased this appears in an
altogether different light; especially
when the origin of the theme is at
tributed to a medical man in charge
of hospital for eighteen hundred or
more insane patients. Being such an
important social unit in the COM
munity as he is and welding such
tremendous power over the daily ac-
tivities of his charges as he does,
such publicity laid at the door of a
hospital superintendent assumes an
extremely serious and dangerous as
pect Although it may have been
mere conjecture on his part never
theless, to be held sponsor for such
| theories places the hospitals for the
insane the country over into an UNI
happy position in the public mind.
fYiU hn dc Of ot,,;<,
hospitals have during the past quar-
ter of century or more to bring
them up to their present high stand
ards such puerile presentations to
the public produces more destructive
ness in a minute than years of con-
structive work. For years each hos
pital has strenuously endeavored to
destroy that "bugaboo" in the minds
of the people in it's community, for
example, such an idea of a mental
hospital as depicted by Hogarth in
his sketch of Bedlam. This por-
trayal of the grotesque pastures Of
his stark, staring mad is as much
like the picture presented by the
state hospital of today as a street
riot in Dublin is like a peaceful scene
in any Maine community. After all
these years of building we see an in
dividual in authority allowing himself
to become responsible for the advo-
cacy of such theories as were not
even dreamed Of in the Dark Ages
But to get down to the psychotic
individual himself. Barring the sui
cidal patient who constitutes an ex-
tremely small percentage Of the in
sane, the will to live remains intact
in the great majority and the desire
for self preservation is maintained to
the last.
Let us look at those cases which
fall within the category Of chronic
ity-those who might be put to a
painless and merciful death. will
take UP each group in that classifi-
cation authorized by the American
Medico- Psychological Association.
First let us consider the desirable
ity for destruction of that great group
of patients which make up the ma
jority of chronics in any state hos
pital, for example, the cases of De-
mentia Praecox. 1t Is true that am
bition, joy love, pride, ETC., do not
well up within the dementia praecox
patient as it does in the normal per-
son. 1t is also true that his capacity
for fear, anxiety or any other mental
pain is greatly lessened. In other
words his emotional tone is greatly
flattened or dulled. He is no doubt
liability to his relatives, and an
unproductive social factor. but he
certainly does not suffer the tortures
of the damned. Under hospital su-
pervision the majority. of his type can
be trained to do some useful work.
Why should his ashes be scattered to
the four winds?
Let us take a peep at the paranoid
individual, popularity known as the
paranoiac. He has his ideas of
greatness or persecution. You sell
dom if ever see him go raving and
ranting about, although his mind is
forever taken up with his fixed ideas
in which he oftentimes rejoices He
will under proper direction perform