To say that it took very little to be declared insane during the early 1900s is an understatement. Anyone could be declared insane by alienists and doctors seeking to make an extra dollar at trials and in their institutions.
Who exactly were the crazy ones? They were everyone. From the normal housewife to the reckless teenager. Men were not immune to the charges of insanity and many criminals sought insanity charges for fear of facing the noose.
The Whites of Their Eyes
In an interesting article published in 1916, the eyes of two men were compared to each other. Both men were murderers and both were pleading insanity.
According to the report, “Alienists generally agree that in insane persons more of the whites of the eyes are visible than in those of normal mind.” In other words, looks of fear or panic could get a person labelled as insane. [1]
Fondness for Privacy and Pets
In 1916, an article was published in an attempt to weed out who was crazy and who simply had a disordered mind. For example, if a person became agitated because someone would burst into his room, he was considered to be semi-insane. Never mind that people who are working in their rooms tend to become naturally agitated when their work is interrupted.
As for people who had an “abnormal fondness for domestic pets,” they were also considered semi-insane. It turns out that dog lovers and cat lovers who adored their pets were exhibiting signs of mental illness. [2]
Having a Drunk for a Dad
If your dad was a drunk back in 1913, chances are you were doomed, at least according to one report: “One out of every four children of drunken fathers is feeble minded. One out of every five children of drunken fathers is insane.”
The only remedy for this national problem was to end the sale of alcohol or, at the very least, allow mothers to escape their drunken husbands because “mothers of the poor do not want any more insane, idiotic and sub-normal children.” [3]
Disregard for Perspective in Art
In one strange article published in 1918, Dr. Hamilton, an alienist, declared that the insane show a blatant disregard for proper perspective in their art:
“Dr. Hamilton shows clearly from specimens of drawings by undoubted lunatics that their work reveals many of the characteristics of the drawings of the ‘cubists,’ ‘futurists,’ ‘vorticists,’ and other artists of the fantastic new schools. The noted alienist further demonstrates that the work of these artists must in many cases be inspired by mental disease, unless a base commercial motive lies behind the eccentricity.”
In other words, if the artist is not making the paintings for monetary purposes and he happens to paint pictures with skewed perspectives, he is insane. [4]
Having Property
Any person who owned property could be betrayed and declared insane, especially if that person did not have immediate family to defend her or him.
In 1915, there was a case where two doctors tried to have a woman declared insane. Mrs. Susie Fowler was fortunate enough to have seen the petition to have her declared insane and she immediately took the petition to the state attorney.
The attorney had the two doctors arrested and it was later discovered that the doctors were attempting to gain control of Mrs. Fowler’s property. [5]
Looking Like a Famous Person
John Armstrong Chaloner was proud of his looks. After all, it was thought he was the spitting image of Napoleon. But when the man joked that he was the reincarnation of Napoleon, his relatives stripped him of his millions and had him committed to an insane asylum.
Chaloner managed to escape the asylum in New York and made his way to Virginia. There, he was declared sane by the courts and, with a lawyer, had to fight the state of New York to regain control of his money and property. [6]
Expressing Grief
The sinking of the Titanic was a tragedy that can still be felt today, but imagine if you had a husband, a son, two brothers, and four cousins who were members of the crew.
As this poor woman waited at the offices of the White Star line in England to receive word if any of her family members survived the Titanic’s sinking, she broke down in grief. When she finally fell to the ground, shrieking in frustration and sadness, an ambulance was called and she was taken away, out of sight, to an asylum. Newspapers were quick to report that the grieving woman would probably never recover. [7]
Bad Parenting
It sounds unbelievable, but in 1900 the parents of a four-year-old had their child diagnosed as insane and had him committed to an asylum for the rest of his life.
According to a page long newspaper report, when Montee Ledderhos was only a few months old he fell out of a hammock that had been set up above a creek. It was believed that the fall injured the base of his brain and so up until the age of four, he was being visited by a physician fairly regularly.
Too bad his own parents could not be bothered to watch the child, let alone discipline him. By the time he reached four, his parents claimed that all he did was tackle his little sister and fight with her.
Supposedly fearing for the younger child’s life, the parents called in more doctors and had them label the child insane, which they gladly did for their fee. After it was ruled that the child was crazy, he was taken away from his home and dumped in an asylum. [8]
Messing With a Ouija Board
While the ouija board was originally marketed as a children’s game, women quickly took to the board game as a way to communicate with loved ones lost during the Great War that ended in 1918. However, it was just as easy to be pronounced insane as it was for the witch hunters of the previous centuries to pronounce someone a witch.
In 1920, headlines hit the newspapers across the U.S. that three women went on a twenty-four hour ouija binge and, upon being discovered, were pronounced insane. The California courts sent all three women to state hospitals for their treatment. [9]
Giving Birth to “Defective” Children
While it was fairly common for husbands to get their unwanted wives sent to the asylums, women who had what the courts deemed “defective children” were also highly likely to be sent away to rot in some filthy cell.
During one legal session back in 1914, Chicago, the courts sent several women to the insane asylums simply because they gave birth to somehow disappointing children. Furthermore, “The women of the jury unofficially expressed the opinion that these women should be sterilized.” [10]
Everyone is a Nut
Everyone is insane, from the impulsive Johnny Appleseed to the average person who thinks he might somehow be special. And, according to a Harvard doctor back in 1914, every action a person made could be evaluated and labelled as abnormal behavior:
“Dr. Taylor… believes that the man who will destroy a ten-dollar hat at a ball game is abnormal, to say the least. He believes there is something wrong with the mind of the man who whistles at work when his whistling annoys others. The man is afflicted mentally or he would know how he was inconveniencing others, says the doctor.”
In fact, anyone who experienced nervousness, deep grief over the loss of a life, was self conscious of his actions or appearance, or anyone of high intelligence or low intelligence had some form of insanity.
There simply was no escaping the fact that all people were nuts and could, at any time, be held against their will in one of the many profitable asylums that dotted the landscape in the previous century. [11]
