“This Could Be Heaven Or This Could Be Hell”: a History of the Camarillo State Hospital
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“THIS COULD BE HEAVEN OR THIS COULD BE HELL”: A HISTORY OF THE CAMARILLO STATE HOSPITAL by Tatum Louise Koval A thesis submitted to the History Department, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History Chair of Committee: Dr. Nancy Beck Young, Ph.D. Committee Member: Dr. Leandra Zarnow, Ph.D. Committee Member: Dr. James Schafer, Ph.D. University of Houston May 2020 Copyright 2020 Tatum Louise Koval DEDICATION To my parents El Jefe and Mama, for your unconditional support and teaching me “there is no such word as ‘can’t.’” To my siblings and Jack, for inspiring me to work hard every day and your outstanding ability to make me smile. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I have been able to work with many amazing academics, archivists, and mentors throughout the entirety of this project. I want to thank Dr. Nancy Beck Young for her frequent brainstorming sessions, helpful editing eyes, and constant support. She has taught me how to push myself to work harder, question more, and never accept mediocracy. I could not have completed this project without the support of my committee, their helpful comments, and their valuable experience. I want to thank the many archivists I have worked with, especially Evelyn Taylor with the California State University Channel Islands Archive in Camarillo, California. Lastly, I want to thank members of hometown of Camarillo for their willingness to help with my project and desire to preserve the narratives of those often forgotten. iv ABSTRACT The Camarillo State Hospital was a southern California mental asylum that operated in Camarillo between 1936 and 1997. Camarillo is a small farming town that is tucked into the rolling Santa Monica mountains that adjoin the sparkling Pacific Ocean. The California Department of Institutions built the hospital for state-building and as refuge for local hospitals during a period of overcrowding, poor living conditions, and limited federal funding. This thesis tells the hospital’s history. The paper introduces the architects that designed the building, follows the administrators that organized the hospital’s creation, describes the medical professionals research designed for daily treatments and therapies. The paper follows a patient’s experience as it traces the role gender, class, and race played in early twentieth century psychological diagnoses. Though the hospital emulated that of most California state hospitals at the time, it engaged in experimental therapies and procedures that had profound and sometimes severely adverse effects on those most susceptible to its influence. Boosterism and coercion were implemental to the longevity of the hospital, as malnourishment, mistreatment, and neglect were common on the campus throughout the twentieth century. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication ............................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................. iv Abstract .................................................................................................................................... v Introduction: Mental Hospital Historiography and Chapter Summaries ........................ 1 I. The Historiography of Treatment in American Mental Hospitals ..................................... 4 III. Chapter Summaries ....................................................................................................... 18 Chapter 1: Vagrancy, Boosterism, and Opening the Camarillo State Hospital ............. 22 I. Vagrancy, Coercion, and Legislative Discrimination ..................................................... 25 II. State Mental Hospitals and the So-called Deviant Populations .................................... 31 III. The Camarillo State Hospital Project ........................................................................... 45 IV. The Opening of the New, Self-Sufficient Camarillo State Hospital .............................. 51 V. A Rude Awakening .......................................................................................................... 58 Chapter 2: Eugenics, Coercive Works Therapy Programs, and Gender at the Camarillo State Hospital ........................................................................................................................ 60 I. Eugenics and Involuntary Sterilization in California ...................................................... 63 II. Social Class, Gender, and Patient Control .................................................................... 69 III. Early Life of Hollywood Sociality Wilma Carnes Wilson ............................................. 72 IV. Wilma Carnes Wilson Admitted to the Camarillo State Hospital ................................. 81 V. Masking the Malnourishment and Mistreatment ............................................................ 85 VI. The Coercive Works Therapy Program ........................................................................ 91 VII. Looking Toward the Future ......................................................................................... 96 Epilogue: Downsizing, Deinstitutionalization, and the Camarillo State Hospital .......... 99 I. The Move from State Hospitals to Community Aid ....................................................... 102 II. Impersonal Treatment Plans in Remaining State Asylums .......................................... 108 III. The Camarillo State Hospital During Deinstitutionalization ..................................... 112 IV. Providing for Future Generations .............................................................................. 120 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................ 121 vi INTRODUCTION: MENTAL HOSPITAL HISTORIOGRAPHY AND CHAPTER SUMMARIES In 1976, The Eagles, a popular American rock band, released their record setting album titled “Hotel California.” The Asylum Record album sold more than 16 million copies, won a best-record Grammy, and continues to be regarded by numerous rock critics as “one of the best albums ever.”1 The title track “Hotel California” became known throughout households as a staple song for the generation. The lyrics entranced listeners as they grimly follow a wanderer’s experience at a mysterious location that walked a fine line between heaven and hell. 2 There are many theories as to the ominous location for this hotel California. The dark descriptions of the hotel appear to illustrate different images from satanic practices to the dark reality behind the music industry. However, one of the most prominent theories, and arguably the most likely, is that it represents a patient’s experience as he was admitted to the Camarillo State Hospital, a southern California mental asylum. The mentioned “tiffany-twisted” woman, or a person obsessed with money and power, the “mission-bell’s ring,” and the wanderer’s inability to voluntarily leave all indicate the song’s connection to the hospital. The twentieth century hospital, recognized for its experimental treatments on patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and alcoholism, was located an hour north of downtown Los Angeles. Its proximity made it home to many famous Hollywood actors, musicians, and socialites throughout the twentieth century, along with transferred inmates and people suffering from many different mental illnesses. The wanderer refers to the 1 Report titled Origins: Hotel California by Barbara Mikkelson in file 37, box 7 at the California State University Channel Islands Archives in Camarillo, California. 2 The Eagles, “Hotel California,” February 22, 1977, track number 1 on Hotel California Single, Asylum Records, 7-inch record. 1 hospital as a “lovely place,” one that shines in the distance and echoes with the ringing of the mission-bell, a staple to the Spanish-mission style architecture prominent on the Camarillo State Hospital campus.3 This thesis is a history of the real Hotel California, the Camarillo State Hospital. In the first half of the twentieth century California state institutions suffered with poor living conditions, limited funding, and severe overcrowding. Anti-vagrancy laws, Black Codes, Jim Crow segregation, and Chinese Exclusion Acts all legalized the incarceration of and exploitation of specific populations. The discriminatory legislation criminalized skin color, socio-economic status, and even promiscuity. The state prisons and mental hospitals were inundated and appealed to the California State Department of Institutions to construct a new hospital to aid in the overflow of inmates and patients. Multiple factors drew attention to Camarillo as a likely location for the new facility: the prosperity in farmland, quick access to large mental hospitals, and the affordability of land. This thesis shows the early community efforts in Ventura County to attract the hospital, alongside the extensive research and planning for a modern hospital that would help salvage the other local hospitals. In 1921, canvasing and research began for the future Camarillo State Hospital, and fifteen years later the California State Department of Institutions hosted an opening ceremony for the Camarillo State Hospital. The hospital was built with the intention serve as an aid to neighboring hospitals during a period of weak and failing institutions. Boosterism, from the project’s