A Crossborder Comparison of the Mental Asylum on the American and Canadian Frontier
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INTO THE VOID: A CROSSBORDER COMPARISON OF THE MENTAL ASYLUM ON THE AMERICAN AND CANADIAN FRONTIER A Thesis Submitted to the College of Graduate Studies and Research In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of PhD In the Department of History University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon By BLAINE WICKHAM Copyright Blaine Wickham, July, 2016. All rights reserved. PERMISSION TO USE In presenting this thesis/dissertation in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Postgraduate degree from the University of Saskatchewan, I agree that the Libraries of this University may make it freely available for inspection. I further agree that permission for copying of this thesis/dissertation in any manner, in whole or in part, for scholarly purposes may be granted by the professor or professors who supervised my thesis/dissertation work or, in their absence, by the Head of the Department or the Dean of the College in which my thesis work was done. It is understood that any copying or publication or use of this thesis/dissertation or parts thereof for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. It is also understood that due recognition shall be given to me and to the University of Saskatchewan in any scholarly use which may be made of any material in my thesis/dissertation. Requests for permission to copy or to make other uses of materials in this thesis/dissertation in whole or part should be addressed to: Head of the Department of History 9 Campus Drive University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5A5, Canada OR Dean College of Graduate Studies and Research University of Saskatchewan 107 Administration Place Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5A2 Canada i ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the history of the mental asylum in comparative context. It presents a cross-border study that analyzes an institution in Washington State (Western Washington Hospital) with one in the Province of Saskatchewan (Saskatchewan Hospital, North Battleford) in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Scholars and others close to the asylum have described it as a symbol of modernity, a policing institution, and a medical structure. To make these claims they have looked almost exclusively at institutions in eastern Canada and the United States. This work traces those ideas as they moved west. It shows that the superintendents of these regions borrowed established eastern asylum principles in an effort to assert their own modernity and medical authority with appreciation to the civilizing missions of the respective nation states. They merged the political goals of the institution and their government with social and medical realities and presented a system of asylum-based care that helped them medicalize the understanding of insanity in their respective hospitals. This study also addresses how superintendents unconsciously let regional social ideals of assimilation, the closing of the frontier, statehood, beliefs of what constituted a proper society, urban expansion, and the ideal of citizenship influence their treatment of people with mental disorders. Despite external influences, physicians in the western asylum strove to implement innovative asylum-based therapies. These practices allowed them to move past much of the stigma that had developed against the asylum and their patients. The result was that they showed insanity was ostensibly a curative condition and a fraction of people judged insane were able to resume normal functioning, however fraught, and return to their communities. Using a lens of local and transnational ideas about deviance and madness, this study ultimately argues that the asylum offers an additional gauge to interpret societies as they established their identities; it is a ii microcosm of the society it serves. The examination of these institutions presents a better understanding of the regions in which they are situated. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work has benefited from the help of many individuals over the past six years. Foremost, I would like to recognize the constant and helpful guidance I received from Erika Dyck, who is an inspiration to me. Her knowledge and enthusiasm for the topic helped me shape my own understanding of the subject matter and kept me motivated. I am grateful to her for showing what could only be described as an infinite amount of patience as I constantly flooded her with questions and written drafts. Her assistance, support, and what can only be described as boundless energy was deeply invaluable to me and my family while I worked on this. I would also like to Matthew Neufeld whose helpful analysis pushed me to think more critical about my ideas and theories. Patrick Chassé who listened to my thoughts and asked questions that helped clarify my own concepts and arguments. Rosa Wickham who read and re-read my chapters, and provided her helpful opinion on how to improve my writing. I would also like to acknowledge and thank all the archivists at the Washington and Saskatchewan archives who helped me to track down and gain access to files, boxes, and articles. Their assistance was indispensable during the research phase. Specifically I want to thank Lupita Lopez at the Washington State Archives, and Bonnie Dahl and Christine Charmbury at the Saskatchewan Provincial Archives, Saskatoon regional branch. iv DEDICATION I dedicate this work to Austintasia, Oliver, and most especially Rosa. Your support and enthusiasm kept me on course and helped me to always move forward. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PERMISSION TO USE .................................................................................................................. i ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iv DEDICATION ................................................................................................................................ v TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................... vi LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................... vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ...................................................................................................... viii INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER ONE: Echoes of the East: The Western Asylum Building ........................................ 28 CHAPTER TWO: The Persistence of Moral Treatment in Washington Territory ...................... 78 CHAPTER THREE: The North Battleford Hospital and Public Opinion in Saskatchewan ...... 127 CHAPTER FOUR: What is and What Never Should Be: Patient Labor in Washington ........... 170 CHAPTER FIVE: Wearing and Tearing: MacNeill Showed Patients Could Still be “of some value” .......................................................................................................................................... 210 CONCLUSION: What the Western Asylum Tells Us ................................................................ 252 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................... 265 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure Number Page 1-1. Hospital for the Insane of the Territory of Washington, Fort Steilacoom, circa 1870s.…46 1-2. Hospital for the Insane of the Territory of Washington, 1886.…………………………..60 1-3. Hospital for the Insane, Battleford, circa 1912..…………………………………………71 1-4. Hospital for the Insane, Battleford, circa 1914..…………………………………………75 vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AMPA – American Medico-Psychological Association AMSAII – Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane CNCMH – Canadian National Committee for Mental Hygiene MMSWT – Members of the Medical Society of Washington Territory WWH – Western Washington Hospital for the Insane viii Introduction In the fall of 1887 Dr. John W. Waughop, the superintendent of the Hospital for the Insane in Washington Territory, was in a congratulatory mood. For the past sixteen years the hospital consisted of an assortment of decommissioned army buildings. The situation was about to change as after more than a year of planning and construction efforts, the government was about to open a new purpose-built institution that was replacing the old dilapidated military structures. In Waughop’s words the new hospital was “the most approved plan,” complete “with all modern improvements and conveniences.” It was, he continued, “fine looking and substantial, without useless ornamentation, and well adapted to the end for which it was built.”1 Superintendent Waughop was not the only person excited about the new building, the hospital’s Board of Trustees also saw it as cause to celebrate. According to the Board, the completion of the new structure marked “the dawning of a new era in the history of our territory” – an era that they believed would be teeming with increased public support for the people receiving help in the institution and for the government.2 They remarked that the new hospital was “one of the finest permanent public buildings erected.”3 When the asylum was nearing completion, Waughop sent a written description and a photograph of the new building to a colleague