W
hen researching Victorian insane asylums – specifically Bethlem Royal Hospital (better known as Bedlam) for
The Memory Collector – I didn’t expect to be reminded of my childhood.
And yet, there I was.
Take a look at this Bedlam Hospital report from 1885:
By that year, Bedlam was considered progressive. A far cry from the shitty old days when patients were shackled to walls and hosed down for stinking too much or for simply existing.
But...
☠️
The report lists 297 patients under their care in 1885. Twenty-six of them died.
Reading the full report gave me the creeps. The guy writing it sounded proud. Whether he was proud that he sat at the top of the asylum's food chain, or proud that more patients were cured (aka made quiet and compliant) than died, we'll never know.
Imagine this report set in 2025, celebrating that "only" 10% of their patients died. Wouldn't that be a huge scandal and result in lengthy legal investigations, not applause?
Yep, it would.
Yeah, but that was 140 years ago, so...we're good now, aren't we?
Nope. We aren't.
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