West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum in Wakefield opened its doors in 1818 as a place to house “paupers” with mental illness in the UK. The asylum was exemplary for the time, built to house 1000 inmates and cure them of their manias. The following series of photos were taken circa 1869 of patients at the asylum, which later became the Stephen Royd Hospital, closing its doors in 1995. You’ll notice that “mania” is a common diagnosis for the patients, now called “manic disorder.” Some of the patients are diagnosed with “mono-mania,” or an obsession with one thing or idea despite being otherwise sane. Others are diagnosed with “mono-mania of pride” – believing themselves to be figures of historical importance – or “mania of suspicion” – paranoid – and all were kept in the “gaol-like buildings” of the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum. Pictures like this are a window into the history of the silenced, of society’s cast-offs, and they are haunting to look at…
Images via Wellcome Images CC
Further reading:
Jess Andrews
March 17, 2015 at 1:59 pm
Steve Jern-Jord Claxton
Jasin Fang
March 17, 2015 at 9:56 am
Brandi Beverly
Toni-Anne Deas
March 17, 2015 at 5:01 am
sad for sure, makes you wonder if we have moved away from that at all?
Rodney Perrin
March 17, 2015 at 4:56 am
Toni-Anne. I cried looking at these. The poor feckers.
Michael Simeon
March 17, 2015 at 1:55 am
Alessia Nutshell
Steve Ball
March 17, 2015 at 1:00 am
dead, d e a d, dead.