Our insane neighbor : his rights and ours.

  • Godding, W. W. (William Whitney), 1831-1899.
Date:
[1844?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Our insane neighbor : his rights and ours. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    a W. W. GODDING. little obtrusive as possible. We have improved on the old Egyptian method; long since the last skeleton, released from duty at his banquets, went to the same quiet repose which for centuries has wrapped the now mummied greatness for whose admonition that exhibition was intended. We, too, keep a skeleton in the house,'' but we do not thrust its loathsome anatomy upon our guests. Having no use for it in the dining- room, we lock it in a closet, throw away the key, and try to persuade ourselves that it has no existence. But, though unbidden, and not mentioned above a whisper, the spectre is never wanting at our feast; step by step, keeping pace with our ever advancing civilization, still stalks the growing shadow of brain decay, with its attendants, apoplexy and insanity. We lock up our insane man in the hospital, and think that we are rid of him; vain is our selfish hope; we cannot thus shake him off, for is he not our neighbor? nay, may he not be our brother ? worse yet, at the next turn, what shall prevent that this insanity may not happen even to ourselves ? and we shrink back at the prospect, as Lear, when he finds his brain going, exclaims— O let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven ! Since, then, this disagreeable neighbor has claims upon us which cannot safely be ignored, would it not be well to take time to consider what the rights of the insane man really are? and in the consideration of those rights not to be unmindful of our own ? In this introduction, which is designed merely as a prelimi- nary paper, I shall only indicate the outlines, as it were, of this inquiry. While all insane men have their rights, it by no means follows that they all have the same rights. Until the insane become a majority, society will continue to shut up its lunatics ; when the majority have lost their wits, it matters very little what becomes of society ; discussion will then be carried on with a shot-gun. I do not address my remarks to those times. It is idle to contend for the rights of a dangerous lunatic at large in the community; he has no right there; he belongs in some institution where he can be restrained from doing mischief to himself or others. Once within the walls of that institution, his rights begin. One natural division of our