The enjoyment of their personal liberty sufficiently explains why so few try to escape from Gheel. Most of the patients have found there a deliverance from previous constraint; yet, to provide against all casualties, the administration, as soon as advised of the disappearance of a patient from his guardian's premises, sets in movement an effective police corps. Before this was instituted, the spontaneous intervention of the neighbors sufficed; for it was understood, for many leagues round, that any individual whose demeanor awakened suspicions of his sanity, should be conducted to Gheel as to his legal residence. The restorer of a runaway was also entitled to mileage for his trouble. When it is known that a certain lunatic is beset with the idea of escaping, which may take possession of the insane like any other, it is customary, after obtaining a permit therefor from the physician in charge, to fasten two rings or bracelets, covered with sheep-skin, upon the legs, with a covered chain, about a foot in length, connecting them. By this means the lunatic, without being confined, has his movements obstructed, while attention is directed to him. How preferable this is to the mortal ennui, to the sullen despair of confinement in an asylum! What matters it to the patient that his limbs are free, if before him is the barrier of bolts and bars—of massive doors, and impassable walls!
The morale of the insane cannot be otherwise than favorably affected by association with persons who protect him with solicitude, while they appeal to his good sense and good will, admitting him on a footing of equality to their hearths, their tables, and their work: such a welcome banishes from his mind the idea of humiliation and oppression, which everywhere else is connected with that of sequestration. Instead of being a pariah shaken off by society, he now belongs to humanity; his dignity as a man is safe, for it is respected in its chief privilege—liberty.
In the name of this liberty, he is trusted—he is constituted, in a measure, the arbiter of his own lot. If he do[es] not abuse it, supervision of him is relaxed. If his freedom be sometimes limited, the least remaining gleam of reason suffices to render him conscious that the restrictions imposed are not hostile in their spirit, but are simply precautions which he may disarm by a rational conduct.
Such sentiments sustain or awaken within him the life of the soul; they influence his manners and bearing. He does not lose the habit of society, and if he one day return home, it may be without shame or embarrassment; his absence will have been a journey, and not a humiliating sequestration.
Translated from political into psychologic language, liberty is spontaneity; and if we analyze it more profoundly, we find this term applicable to those actions only which employ the limbs, the senses, and the intellectual faculties as ministers of our inmost affections of will. For all spontaneous action, the head, the hands, and the heart are in union—the conflict between the spirit and the flesh is reconciled.
This supreme harmony implies the unison of man with himself, with his fellow-creatures, and with his spirit-fountain life. Express it as you will, its conception is the basis of the Christian therapeutics of insanity. All must be obtained of the lunatic by gentleness, and not by intimidation or violence; nothing ought to oppress the individuality of the patient. The mission of the guardians is to render inoffensive, amiable, and useful, a person imperfectly conscious of his acts. It is by one of the noblest powers of the spirit that they say to him virtually, Be free, and understand the sympathies that animate us. Alexander of Macedon accepted the beverage of his physician Philip before mentioning that Philip had been accused of intending to poison him. Now the insane are, in the immense majority of cases, no more guilty of ill intentions than the Acarnanian doctor, and our Alexanders of Belgium are poor peasants.
These Gheelois have faith in their providential mission, faith in the ancient miracles which have predestined their country to the cure of insanity, faith in their own power. Esquirol one day expressed to a peasant of this place his apprehensions about paroxysms of mania. The countryman laughed at his fears, and said: "You do not understand these folks; I am not strong, and yet the most furious of them is nothing for me." This is the way they all talk. The sentiment of an unlimited and privileged power is insinuated from childhood into the soul of the Gheelois by example and tradition. This power grows with his muscular force and experience; it imposes upon the insane, who feels himself feeble and disarmed before a master, and usually submits without resistance. Any desired help can be had, moreover, at a moment's warning, from the neighbors. The exigencies of family life with the insane invite the inhabitants of Gheel to respect their inoffensive fantasies, and to study in all its aspects the difficult art of directing their erring wills, of redressing their false ideas when they threaten mischief, of taking advantage of a lingering sentiment of sociality or a last gleam of reason, to secure themselves against violence and surprises. On the other hand, as they can have recourse to material constraint only in accidental cases, as they can reckon but exceptionally on the intelligent obedience of patients, it is especially by the evolution of sympathies, those quick rays of the soul which usually survive the intellect, and are often extinguished only with life, that the Gheelois have understood the tactics of social government. That women should excel in this diplomacy is not surprising. On them devolves the most delicate and important part of a system based on managing by gentleness the most whimsical characters. Simple, ignorant, laborious, without the vanities of fashionable life, but kind by nature, religious by education, and guided by her heart, the woman of Gheel accomplishes marvels of devotion and sagacity. By her cares, which no disgust repels, she is the visible Providence of the poor madman. By her ingenious expedients, she averts stormy crises, and never shows herself afraid. Without title or costume, she is a true sister of charity. To maintain her power over her fantastic subjects, she studies their intimate thoughts, observes their least gestures, divines their secret projects, and learns to read souls the most dissembling. To subdue the most savage, the young girl does not shrink from the manoeuvres of an innocent coquetry. At other times, it is the imperious magnetism of the look, of the attitude, of the voice, that lays its spell upon the spirit and dissipates fury. It is not rare to see maniacs of herculean frame obeying little women bowed and emaciated by age, and whose only arms are a few words spoken with authority. The husbands and fathers are not backward in these arts of management. Besides their innate turn for it, the peace of their household and their interests lead them to it. All idleness is a loss, and the boarder losing his time and making others lose theirs, if he remained a non-value, would soon become a burden. Compulsion to labor is out of the question. It is necessary to humor the lunatic, to entice him by rendering the work attractive. Is he restive? They are patient. Is he awkward? They make fun of his blunders without humiliating him; he will do better next time. As soon as he succeeds a little, he is flattered and encouraged; he soon comes to like the job. Gradually he is tamed and trained. Behold him, then, an active and a useful member of the family, proud of himself, a friend and child of the house, rising at the same hour as his companions and sharing their toils. Fallen as he may be from man's estate, does he not still afford greater capacities of sociability than those of wild beasts? To succeed in the education of the insane, the inhabitants of Gheel have displayed a persevering and intelligent energy, the power of which is enhanced by the natural sympathy of man for man. Much charity in the heart, gentleness upon the lips, friendly actions, reasoning even, at an opportune moment, exert a sovereign empire over characters whose susceptibility is exalted by disease. Patience is the first of virtues necessary in this community, and it has always risen to the height of the aberrations it has had to meet. No eccentricity provokes either surprise or anger. For twenty years Daniel Peter has been boarding with a Gheelois. This maniac covers the walls of his chamber with the most original caricatures; never does he mingle with the members of the family; he likes only one of the children, Joseph; but he loves him to the point of abdicating his own personality. He nicknames all around him, persons and beasts, even the matron, whom he calls the "tambour major." When she asks him through the door whether he wishes to eat, he replies: Joseph would like it; or else, Joseph will have none. The only way of getting anything from him is to compare him with some tall object, calling him a tree, a mast, a tower, etc. On Sunday only he will eat no meat, and takes flight at sight of a woman or of a horse. Notwithstanding all these whims, he is beloved by all the family, and remains inoffensive, because he is well treated. He returns to his lodgings regularly every evening after having wandered in the woods and over the heath. From this exchange of kind offices, which is the general tone, the most solid attachments spring. "You must have seen the afflicted family of der Phleger around the sick-bed of die Phlegling, you must have witnessed the touching scenes when the latter goes forth cured from the establishment, in order to get a clear idea of the means which constitute the basis of the treatment and the proper employment of which assure the success of the colony. These testimonies of gratitude and of mutual affection, these tears of happiness and of regret, these promises to see each other again, are the sincerest homage that can be rendered to the solicitude of the guardians." [Footnote 229]
[Footnote 229: Bulckeus. Report of 1856, pp. 34, 33.]
[Transcriber's note: This line is blurred.]
Nothing better proves how deeply these feelings have penetrated, not merely into individual souls, but into the blood and race, than the conduct of the children of Gheel toward the insane. Elsewhere generally, and even at Horenthals, in the neighborhood, we have seen the unfortunate persecuted and derided. Childhood, especially, is without pity for them. Nothing like this at Gheel. There the Zott is, even for children, an amusing companion, without wickedness, often a comrade of their games, sometimes a protector. It seems that between beings who have not yet quite attained their reason, and those who have lost it, some alliance is formed. Dr. Parigot relates his first visit as inspector to a farm near Gheel. "It was a cold, snowy spell in the winter. The family were pressing round the hearth beneath the vast chimney-place, and the best seat was occupied by a lunatic. The unexpected appearance of a stranger on the threshold of this poor house, troubled the quiet inhabitants a little. The frightened children took refuge, with little cries, between the legs of the maniac. This poor man's affection for the children was vividly depicted in his countenance, as he protected them with a gesture. This affection was, perhaps, the only tie that attached him to society, but this tie of love protected himself, by deserving the regard of his hosts." We have been gently touched by seeing in the streets of Gheel an old man bearing two children in his arms, while two others followed his steps. The intellectual focus was extinct, or projected but a feeble and vacillating light, but the affectional focus still revealed by its glow the moral grandeur of man even in his saddest miseries.
A woman of Gheel was in company with a maniac, when suddenly he was seized with a paroxysm of excitement. The danger was great, her presence of mind was still greater. She took the young child that she was bearing in her arms, and whom the madman loved, placed it in his arms, and availed herself of this diversion to slip out by the door; then, concealed behind the window, she followed with eye and heart the movements of the lunatic. Marvellous calculation! the child had at once and completely calmed the madman, who, having caressed him and set him upon the floor, was now playing with him. A few minutes afterward, the mother could reenter, the crisis was passed. No one at Gheel blamed this conduct in the mother, who had estimated justly the fascination of infancy.