Essay on the Classification of the Insane

by M. Allen

Fair Mead House, Leopard’s Hill Lodge, and Springfield, with appendages to each, constitute my present establishment at High Beach; and I wish to have it most distinctly and most fully understood, that they are simply for classification, of a more general or more specific nature; and consequently, besides the advantages derived from having three houses, I have (as far as I could) made arrangements in each for this purpose. Leopard’s Hill Lodge, where I have more especially made arrangements for the purpose of classification, consists of a front, or what may be called the family portion of the house, and galleries behind, with appropriate rooms for patients requiring more restraint.

To show that these houses are merely for the purposes of classification, I may mention, that there is no sort of difference in the three houses, excepting that in the one generally and latterly inhabited by ourselves, we prefer having those to whom our individual and more immediate attention may be useful. The same patients are even sometimes at one house, and sometimes at another, according to their state; and sometimes for the mere purpose of change. In fact, the greater part of our first class of patients have been occasionally at Leopard’s Hill, and this with the knowledge and approval of their friends.

As I have published some hints on this point, and addressed them to the Commissioners in Lunacy, I may be permitted, in order to show I have long entertained the same views, to quote two or three passages.

I there state, “that two establishments on the same grounds should be allowed and encouraged for the purpose of Classification. My reason for this alteration, in the Act relative to such places, is, that large and crowded houses are decidedly objectionable, from the greater chance of noise and disturbance, from their being less healthy, and from their assuming more of a prison-like appearance, than of a family mansion. With two, we can adopt a better and more complete method of classification; and it is a consideration of very great importance, that in one of them the proprietor and his family should reside, and devote themselves to recent, partial, slight, or convalescent cases.”

As I conceive this plan of two establishments for the purposes of classification, to be of the highest importance, and essential to the moral regulation, as well as to the cure of the insane, so far from avoiding any investigation of either the principle of their adoption, or their mode of management, I wish the most exact knowledge to be obtained of the one, and invite the fullest scrutiny of the other.

I would have not only two establishments in the same grounds, but these sufficiently separated so as to prevent annoyance; and, not only this separation, but I would have one to consist of a male and female part, sufficiently separated from each other. This arrangement I have at my own establishments, which consist of Fair Mead House, and of Leopard’s Hill Lodge, for males, and Springfield for females, with appendages, and separate cottages; and more especially, I would have each house divided into a front and back part, and this front part so contrived, that in appearance it should be sufficiently distinct from the other, so that patients might feel, on recovery, that removal to this part withdrew them from the more painful associations of their past state, and afforded them solace and encouragement; thus might their recovery be expedited, and the chances of relapse lessened. In the domestic part of the establishment, the proprietor and his family should reside.

In many cases, an entirely separate house is required. I have known cases, the cure of which would have been apparently blighted and blasted for ever, if they could not have been wholly removed from, not merely the real, but the apparent, association of former scenes and circumstances, and this without any change in their servants and medical treatment and attendance, which is also essential. Yet it is perfectly true, that in other cases this association is not so injurious as most people would imagine; the dawnings of the light of the understanding are, for the most part, so gradual, and the mists of delusion so gently steal away, that there would be a greater shock given by a sudden transfer to rational scenes and real life, than by their continuance in the place where they might be at the time.

I have often, with feelings of wonder and admiration, had occasion to observe these occurrences. I have seen a convalescent patient very much attracted by, and perfectly delighted with, the strange remarks, speeches, and conduct of another inmate, sometimes fancying it was meant purposely for his amusement and diversion; and on whom, refined wit would have been lost, while the incongruous combinations of unguided thought, which no wit or ingenuity can equal, appears, and is the very essence of wit to him. Notwithstanding the truth of all this, there are other cases,—cases of more sudden convalescence, where all this would shock and horrify, and produce a revulsion of feeling, most dangerous to them in their delicate and fragile state, and perhaps permanently fatal to their recovery. This is more particularly the danger in the incipient stage of convalescence in some violent cases of mania, [5] and where I am quite certain delicate and judicious attention have been essential; and where first, perhaps, removal to the family part of the house, then removal altogether to our own house, was apparently their salvation.

No. 106, admitted April 11th, 1820, aged 65.

This was one of the cases apparently saved by such timely attention, and which I intend hereafter to describe more particularly, for the purpose of illustrating both the medical and moral treatment of many similar cases of insanity. I shall, however, state so much of the case now, as will be sufficient to show, that there is not only a critical period of the disease, when judicious medical and intellectual attention arrests and prevents its transition into another and equally dangerous form of over-excitation, so dangerous, that if allowed to take its course, it not unfrequently ends in dementia, but also, and more especially to show, that in all cases our moral treatment must have in view the nature of the existing causes, in order that we may be able to adopt the most suitable methods of counteracting their effects,—a part of treatment which has hitherto been either wholly overlooked, or else exercised without much knowledge and discretion; although I am certain it is of great importance in the treatment of all curable cases of insanity, and in many cases so important, that by such methods we may ultimately succeed in removing these causes altogether; and removing them, remove also the fear of their again (at any future time) being allowed to have any baneful operation.