Dorothea Dix

“If I am cold, they are cold; if I am weary, they are distressed; if I am alone, they are abandoned. ” – Dorothea Dix Dorothea L. Dix and the Establishment of the New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum Prior to the Industrial Revolution, traditional institutions like the family, church, and local communities were charged with the care of orphaned children, the elderly, the indigent, and the mentally ill. As the Revolution flourished it greatly evolved the economy, social structure, and political institutions of the cities of New Jersey into more complex urban societies.

However, as it demanded labor these institutions were no longer available to these populations. Hence, formal public establishments were born out of society’s needs. There functions were “vital to the welfare of the American people” (Hermann, F. M. , p. 5, Dorothea L. Dix and the Politics of Institutional Reform). One of the most important establishments developed from the results of the Industrial Revolution were insane asylums. During the 19th century, Dorothea Lynde Dix crusaded for the social justice of the growing number of impoverished mentally ill across the nation.

She campaigned for the proper care and institutional treatment for these often forgotten individuals of society. The purpose of this paper is to examine Dorothea L. Dix’s role in the establishment of New Jersey’s first insane asylum. Dorothea L. Dix Dorothea Lynde Dix is perhaps one of the most influential social reformers of the nineteenth century. She lobbied for the proper and institutional care for the mentally ill. Her efforts provided the nation with the establishment and expansion of over 30 mental hospitals (Hermann, F. M. , p. Dorothea L. Dix and the Politics of Institutional Reform). Dix was born in 1802 to John and Mary Dix, a poor couple living on the outskirts of Hempden, Massachusetts. John Dix was disowned by his wealthy family after marrying Mary Bigelow, an older and impoverished woman. He became a fanatical Methodist and forced his family into more financial distress spreading his religious ideology. By 1814, Dix grew tired of living with her father’s oddities and abandoned her parents. She turned to her grandmother, Madam Dix, and moved to Boston.

Under her grandmother’s supervision she acquired a hard work ethic and strong spiritual values. By the age of 14, she returned home and opened a school for small children. In 1819, she relocated back to Boston and established two new and very different schools serving the both the more fortunate and destitute populations. During this time, she also published several books that dealt with religious, romantic, and children’s subjects. She concluded her career as a teacher and author at the age of 34 after suffering a “nervous and physical collapse” (Hermann, F. M. , p. , Dorothea L.

Dix and the Politics of Institutional Reform). It was her grandmother’s death in 1837 that was the catalyst for Dix’s career as a psychiatric reformer. She accepted a position as a teacher in the women’s department of the East Cambridge House of Correction. During her employment, she found several neglected people who were confined to a “dreary, unsanitary, and unheated room” (Hermann, F. M. , p. , Dorothea L. Dix and the Politics of Institutional Reform). After inquiring, she discovered that these people were considered to be insane and were mistreated because of that.

From this point, she resolved to improve the standard of living for the prison’s mentally ill inmates. She recruited the assistance of the media and other humanitarians to bring public attention to the abhorrent conditions these inmates endured. Dix won her first of many battles fighting for the rights of the insane when a Massachusetts court mandated that the cold quarters housing the mentally ill of the East Cambridge House of Correction be heated. This ruling paved the way to her 2 year investigation that exposed the conditions the mentally ill were faced with at the state’s jails and poorhouses.

She reported her findings in the Memorial to the Legislature of Massachusetts and gained the support of many influential men. Together they convinced the state legislature to erect additional facilities to relieve and support the inundated Worcester State Lunatic Hospital. After achieving much success in Massachusetts, Dix turned her attention to campaigning for institutional care for the mentally ill nationwide. She triumphantly continued with neighboring states like New York and Rhode Island investigating and appealing to state legislatures to gain support.

However, this method proved ineffective in the state of New Jersey and forced to consign to a more aggressive approach. The State of New Jersey’s Mentally Ill New Jersey had become one of the most successful states during the Industrial Revolution. It developed into a wealthy urban-industrial economy that left little support for its citizens. In this state, as well as many others, there was no way of dealing with the results of industrialization. Traditional institutions were unable to compete with the demands of labor and caring for the growing population of the mentally distressed.

Moreover, the young state was coming off the heel of the American Revolution leaving it hesitant towards developing a powerful central government. By the 1830s poverty increased and the central government was forced to intervene and provided financial assistance to educate and care for the poor disabled, namely the deaf and blind. Unfortunately, this solution did not solve the issue of mental health. This is not to say the government neglected to identify the mentally ill population. One solution drawn upon the New Jersey legislature was to transport the mentally ill paupers to asylums in New York and Philadelphia.

However, this idea was deemed ineffective. Therefore, they were subjected to being treated like criminals and confined to the most horrendous environment in the state’s prisons and almshouses. During the late 1830’s, the city of Newark under the direction of Lyndon A. Smith finally resigned to addressing the quality of living for the mentally ill community in the entire state. A joint committee was established in 1839 to survey the state and determine the need for a state mental hospital. The committee founded that no county had ever provided any type of care for the mentally ill.

In fact, they reported those who suffered from malady were imprisoned because they either committed some public offense or posed a danger to society. They further stated that no provisions were made for these people due to the belief that insanity was incurable. Aimed to convince New Jersey legislature to erect a state mental hospital, the committee reported new scientific evidence that proved the mentally ill were able to recover when placed within a facility and receiving medical treatment. Furthermore, their report recommended that the governor create a new commission to confirm their findings.

A year later, in February of 1840, the governor’s committee comprising of members of the New Jersey Medical Society reported their findings in agreement with Smith’s committee. In 1841, another legislative committee agreed and even identified the economic advantages of a state mental hospital over the state’s current methods. The state continued to appoint committee after committee to explore the mentally ill population. As time passed, jails and poorhouses became overcrowded and the state had yet to break ground for an asylum.

The mentally ill were shipped off to hospitals in New York and Philadelphia; the very action the committees labored so hard to avoid. Four years would pass before attention was brought to the mentally ill again. Dorothea Dix’s Role in the Establishment of the New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum By 1814, Dix had become a well-respected person who had yet to discover defeat in her field. She approached New Jersey’s urgency for a state mental hospital with the same determination and ambition as she had in Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island.

She began her work by visiting every prison and poorhouse in the state. Dix addressed the legislature of New Jersey on January 23, 1845 in the Memorial Soliciting a State Hospital for the Insane. In her memorial she detailed her accounts at various county institutions that housed the insane in an attempt to appeal to the legislature’s humanity. For instance, she revisited an experience in Salem County where she encountered an older and once respected judge and member of the legislature who had fallen victim to his disease and pauper to its mercy.

He was quartered in the basement of the county jail and bonded in chains at one time in an effort to control his behavior. She further went into meticulous detail of the damage inflicted by chains on the inmates; in addition to the unbearable conditions of their living area. Dix suggested that New Jersey establish a government supported state mental hospital staffed with trained physicians and nurses in an effort to provide care and rehabilitation for the mentally ill.

However, as it had happened before, these suggestions fell upon deaf ears. At this point, Dix developed a new method to persuade the legislature’s members. First, she engaged smaller groups of men night after night in discussion revolving the benefits of a state mental hospital. She relentlessly argued until she was able to convince enough influential men to aid her cause. Furthermore, she utilized her own clout to appeal to the people of New Jersey by publishing several articles in local newspapers like the Trenton State Gazette.

And, she swayed her fellow peers to reach out to New Jersey via media. These efforts resulted in public outcry from New Jersey citizens to the government supporting her views on the care of the mentally ill. After months of hard work, Dorothea Dix’s dreams were realized in March of 1845 when the state passed a bill for the New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum. The hospital opened its doors on the 15th of May in 1848. The New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum would be the first of several hospitals that Dix would have founded.

Conclusion Almost a decade had passed since Lyndon A. Smith’s committee convened to survey the state of the mentally ill in New Jersey. The government acted only when insisted upon by a woman who obstinately battled them. Dorothea Dix spent her life devoted to the causes of the mentally ill population. She persevered to gain social justice for those whose voices would not be heard. Along with campaigning for individual state hospitals, she labored for federal support to allocate land for building these facilities.

And although a bill was passed, this dream died in the hands of President Franklin Pierce who vetoed the bill arguing that it was unconstitutional for the government to be charitable with land grants (Hermann, F. M. , p. , Dorothea L. Dix and the Politics of Institutional Reform). Without Dix, today’s psychiatric hospitals may have taken the backburner and may have never been developed. It was her dedication that brought identity to this need. Alternatively, New Jersey would have benefited much earlier than 1848 if the committees had taken the same aggression Ms. Dix employed in her fight to win over the state government.