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Timeline of Insane Asylums

By trinityjaggers
  • 918 BCE

    Baghdad

    Baghdad
    Although it is uncertain when mental institutions were first used, they can be traced back all the way to an ancient Arab city, Baghdad. The people that were put in the asylum were referred to as the "afflicted of Allah."
  • 1247

    St. Mary of Bethlem

    St. Mary of Bethlem
    Originally, the St. Mary of Bethlem in London was designed for refugees. However, it started to change it's focus to the mentally ill.

  • Friend's Asylum

    Friend's Asylum
    The Friend's Asylum in Philadelphia was established. Although this wasn't the first institution that offered moral treatment for the mentally ill, it was the first built specifically for it.

  • Dorothea Dix Volunteers at Cambridge Jail

    Dorothea Dix Volunteers at Cambridge Jail
    Dorothea Dix, while visiting England, volunteered at an east Cambridge jail. At the jail, she realized how poorly the inmates and mentally ill had been treated and began to advocate for moral treatment.

  • Bill Requesting Land for Mental Institutions

    Bill Requesting Land for Mental Institutions
    Dorothea Dix helped propose a bill that would give land for new and better mental institutions. Unfortunately, the bill was vetoed by the president. This did not stop people from advocating for the reform of mental asylums, however, and many people still supported Dix and her movement.

  • North Carolina Hospital for the Mentally Ill

    North Carolina Hospital for the Mentally Ill
    Dorothea Dix opened her first mental asylum called North Carolina Hospital for the Mentally Ill (now referred to as the Dorothea Dix hospital).

  • Nellie Bly Disguised as Insane Patient

    Nellie Bly Disguised as Insane Patient
    Nellie Bly faked mental illness to gain admission into one of the most famous insane asylums: Blackwell's Island Asylum.

  • Nellie Bly Travels Around the Globe

    Nellie Bly Travels Around the Globe
    Nellie Bly starts her journey to visit mental asylums around the world after getting inspiration from the book, "Around the World in Eighty Days."

  • The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

    The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
    To help better diagnose people suspected of mental illness, the DSM was written. It is a guide that contains descriptions and symptoms of all known mental illnesses/disorders. It's fifth revision was released in 2013 (DSM-V), and it's latest updated version was published in March of 2022 (DSM-V-TR).

  • First Use of Medicine as Mental Treatment

    First Use of Medicine as Mental Treatment
    The FDA approved the use of chlorpromazine, also known as thorazine. Chlorpromazine is an antipsychotic drug and it's use has led to the development of more medicines to treat people with mental illness.

  • Community Health Centers Construction Act

    Community Health Centers Construction Act
    The Community Health Centers Construction Act replaced traditional mental institutions with community-owned facilities. People in these facilities would live within their community, rather than living in an institutionalized place.

  • Medicaid

    Medicaid
    Due to Medicaid stating that the federal government could not pay for inpatient care in psychiatric hospitals anymore, outpatient care became more normalized.

  • Lanterman-Petris-Short Act

    Lanterman-Petris-Short Act
    The Lanterman-Petris-Short Act made it illegal to for people to be commited to psychiatric treatment involuntary (excluding certain circumstances).