Gheel.
A Colony Of The Insane,
Living In Families And At Liberty.
The Belgian Kempen Land is a vast stretch of sandy plains in the provinces of Anvers, Brabant, and Limburg. Its chief parish, Gheel, has a population of some 12,000, about one fifteenth of which are lunatics in family treatment, and many of them occupied in the usual routine of domestic, field, and garden work. This custom has prevailed there for a thousand years. In the seventh century, a chapel was built and dedicated to Saint Martin, the apostle of the Gauls. Some cells of pious hermits surrounded it and formed the principal nucleus of Gheel. Here the young daughter of a pagan king of Ireland sought a refuge from his incestuous love, accompanied by Gerrebert, the priest who had converted herself and her mother to Christianity. Her father, discovering her traces, pursued her, caused Gerrebert to be put to death, and his servants refusing to execute his sanguinary orders against his daughter, he cut off her head with his own hands, thus avenging, by the most horrible crime, the defeat of his guilty passion. Certain lunatics who witnessed this terrible martyrdom, and others whom piety led to the grave of the victims, as the legend runs, were cured. Gratitude and faith attributed the merit of these cures to the holy young virgin, henceforth honored as the patroness of the insane. Attracted by hopes of a miracle, other families brought their afflicted to the foot of the memorial cross and double bier. The visitors, on their departure, confided their patients to the charity of the residents. This custom became an institution. Little by little, a village was formed here, animated by work as well as prayer, and which became, at last, an important burgh. A large and beautiful church, built in honor of Saint Dymphna, replaced Saint Martin's chapel, early in the twelfth century, and was consecrated on its completion in 1340, by the Bishop of Cambrai. The popular devotion there was approved by a brief of Pope Eugene IV., in 1400. A vicariate composed of nine priests and a director was instituted in 1538, and in 1562 changed into a chapter consisting of nine canons and a deacon.
From these times up to our own day, a current of pilgrimage has been sustained by the malady and by faith.
This fountain of prayer in the desert, these pious cares solicited and granted, have become a source of industry and liberty for the insane, and of prosperity for the district. This is readily explained. The barren soil of the Kempen renders it difficult to live there, hospitality was more onerous there than elsewhere, and economy as well as religious charity counselled the host to have but one board with his guest. To keep him apart would have been losing the time of those occupied in taking care of him. Left at liberty, he would naturally accompany them to the fields, and there, before the soil which solicited arms, another step of progress was accomplished. So, without any constraint, by the attractions of social labor and of gentle influences, many of the insane became useful members of the family. The first inspirations of religion, reenforced by considerations of economy, came to be organized in a secular practice of humble virtues by the habit of affectionate cares. Thus, in the rude middle ages, the Gheel folk, without the light of science, but in that of a religious faith made fruitful by the heart and sustained by their interest, practised a treatment of insanity based on the liberty of movement, on rural and domestic industry, and on the sympathy of an adoptive family, far from all that might recall a sinister past.
The arbitrary discipline founded on geometrical and military ideas in modern times has not spared Gheel; yet, whatever abuses ten centuries had introduced and habit protected there, as well as its good services, were ascertained by a most thorough inquest. The new regulations for Gheel in 1851-'52-'57 and '58 secure, as far as written laws can go, the well-being of the insane.
The insane are admitted at Gheel without distinction as to nation, religion, age, sex, or fortune. Every one is welcomed with sincere sympathy, and receives the same hygienic and medical care, though nothing prevents the rich from enjoying their fortune, or whatever, in the way of luxuries, their relatives may provide for them. One English gentleman, for instance, consumes in festive entertainments the income of a large estate. Of late years, the Belgian administration has excluded from Gheel certain dangerous forms of lunacy, such as homicidal and incendiary monomanias, and those who are constantly bent upon escaping from any place to which they may have been taken, or whose affections are of such a nature as to disturb public decency. It does not appear, however, that this recent transfer of 250 patients had been called for by any disasters. It was rather a concession to administrative routine, and Mr. Parigot, the inspector at that time, regrets that the colony should thus have lost a class of patients the control of whom best attested its moral power. Both the patients and their guardians felt aggrieved by this arbitrary measure.
No distinctive dress is worn by the insane; their garments are such as are worn by the country folk in general, so that nothing calls public attention to them, nor reminds them of their peculiar situation.
Liberty under all its forms is the good genius which has inspired, protects, and preserves this colony: especially the liberty to come and go, to sleep or get up, to work or to rest, to read or write or talk at pleasure, to receive one's friends or correspond with them without any restriction. The supreme science of government consists in not contradicting the insane, but humoring their innocent fantasies, or imposing nothing by force, but obtaining all by persuasion. Unless some evident and particular inconvenience prevents it, they enter public places, smoke a pipe at the café, play a hand of cards, read the papers, or drink a glass of beer with the neighbors. The tavern-keepers are not allowed to sell wine or distilled liquors.
If liberty, equality, and fraternity are not political terms there, they are the realities of common life. The lunatic is a man, and is treated as such by the same right as all his brothers in God.