Insane children were an epidemic in the 1920s. Of course, any type of poor behavior or emotional outbursts were considered signs of insanity back then. Sick children, children who suffered from abuse, and children who had mental health issues were all lumped in together under the umbrella of insanity.
Child Acted Strange
A mother visited the county humane agent in Oklahoma back in 1920 to report her child for insanity. It appeared as though her son, aged 4, “acted strange and wanted to hurt every one it came in contact with.”
A doctor was called in immediately and the little boy was diagnosed with violent insanity. The child had been diagnosed with epilepsy previous to his violent episodes and his mother, not knowing what to do, was left alone to care for him. It was only after she found the little boy holding an ax over his baby sister that she decided that it was time to seek help.
The child was placed in an insane asylum where he probably spent the rest of his life. [1]
Sudden Insanity
What was most alarming was that people were led to believe that their children could just suddenly become insane out of the blue. Take, for instance, a situation that happened back in 1897. A 14-year-old boy suddenly became insane one day. His parents chose to care for him themselves and refused to have him admitted to an insane asylum. Shortly afterwards, when the mother was attempting to control her son, “he bit quite a large piece of flesh from one arm.”
The doctors were naturally alarmed by this and went on to speculate that this behavior was due to blood poisoning, but again, they felt that the best place for the child was in the asylum. [2]
A Case of Domestic Abuse
Mary’s husband was the rough sort of person. Back in 1896, he was a wanted man for blowing up the house of a local foreman for a mine, but before skipping town he beat his wife to a pulp. Worse yet, their young daughter must have witnessed the abuse countless times in her short life because by the age of four, she had stopped talking altogether.
Little Annie was diagnosed as insane due to “hereditary disease.” No effort was made to counsel the 4-year-old. Instead, the doctors declared her mother unfit to raise her daughter and threw little Annie into an insane asylum for life. [3]
Parental “Neglect”
An 1872 newspaper called it a “most revolting instance of parental neglect and cruelty.” Michael Bessert of Cincinnati was found to have his twelve-year-old daughter chained in his back yard like a dog. Her only shelter was a filthy, dirt cellar. The newspaper reported that the child had “become like a wild hyena in her habits, wallowing in filth and feeding on rats or any putrid thing” she could get her hands on.
The child was described as being insane and the authorities were working on getting the girl removed from her father’s home and place in an insane asylum. [4] [5]
