Mad House
Ronnie Franco
Professor Aiken
Miami Dade College
Psy2012
12:40-1:55 Tu, Thu
Due: 4/25/13

My biggest fear, being declared mentally insane. You might think ghost are spooky or spiders are scary, but none can prepare you for what’s to come when becoming misdiagnosed with a mental illness. Your word becomes nothing and the world around becomes a fairytale. Movies like Shutter Island with Leonardo DiCaprio and the television show American Horror Story Asylum depict the worst case scenario of being wrongfully imprisoned and declared mentally ill. The question is “Is it possible to be declared mental ill accidently? and To be put into an asylum wrongfully?” First lest talk about being diagnosed mentally ill. What is it and how can you be diagnosed mentally ill? In the book Being Mentally Ill, 3rd Edition: A Sociological Theory (1999) it is said that in the last five decades there have been a vast number of studies in the area of “functional mental disorder” but there is still no substantial, verified body of knowledge in this area, they do concur that “The causes of mental illness are mainly biological”. A social study with little and watery information sounds a bit vague so how do they even diagnose people with insanity? Well in the article Diagnosing Mental Illness (2012) it says that “A mental health diagnosis involves many steps beginning with an evaluation by a doctor or other mental health professional if symptoms of mental illness are present.” If nothing is found though the next step is to “be referred to a psychiatrist or psychologist, mental health professionals who are specially trained to diagnose and treat mental illnesses.” Now it is also said that when checking for Mental Illness “The standard manual used by experts for the diagnosis of recognized mental illness in the U.S. is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DSM), which is compiled by the American Psychiatric Association.” So basically nowadays it is hard to be sent an asylum accidentally. But I do not think the case is closed yet, I think it may be possible to be sent to the mad house wrongfully to be kept quiet. Let us take a look at The Danvers State Insane Asylum, it was a psychiatric hospital located in Danvers, Massachusetts opened in 1878. Reports were made that various, and inhumane shock therapies, lobotomies, drugs, and straitjackets were being used to keep the crowded hospital under control. Back then between the 1850s-1950s it was possible to be misdiagnosed. In the article Mental Illness in the 19th Century (2007) it is said that “concerned about the rise of the spiritualist movement, many superintendents resorted to physical restraints. By the middle part of the century, heredity also was considered a root cause of mental illness. Many in the field believed that weak family and vices, like alcoholism and masturbation, could lead to madness.” Not only in places like The Danvers State Insane Asylum could you have been misdiagnosed but especially in places like The Athens Lunatic Asylum you could have been put in and forgotten. This place was a mental hospital operated in Athens, Ohio from 1874 until 1993.It is said that the most shocking information within the employee records is the evidence and documentation of hydrotherapy, electroshock, lobotomy, and psychotropic drugs, some of which have been discredited today as extremely inhumane ways of treating a patient. Patients Anthens were being diagnosed mentally ill with common ailments faced today such as epilepsy, menopause, alcohol addiction and tuberculosis. Also the leading cause of insanity among the male patients was masturbation, according to the annual report of 1876. Eighty-one men and one woman were diagnosed as having their insanity caused by masturbation and were cause for enrollment in the hospital. Now of all the things masturbation is not an illness. Homosexuality is another “illness” that you could have been diagnosed with and is