Dorothea Dix Accomplishments

Dorothea Lynde Dix

Dorothea Dix once said, “In a world where there is so much to be done. I felt strongly impressed that there must be something for me to do.”- Dorothea Dix. She was a very inspiring person who never stopped doing the right thing. Today will touch on three main points, Dorothea’s childhood, her struggles in life that she overcame, and finally her accomplishments and why she was such a great, admirable person, so let's begin. Dorothea’s childhood was a very important part of her life, it somewhat shaped who she was overall as a person. Dorothea was born in Hampden Maine on April 4th 1802. Both of her parents suffered from depression and her father was an alcoholic who was hardly ever around. However when he rarely was around he began to teach Dorothea how to read and write. She soon realized that she had a passion for learning. Dorothea being the oldest of three children ran her household at a every young age. She also began to teach some of her siblings how to read and write. When she was just 12 years old Dorothea ran away from home to her wealthy grandmother’s house in Boston and then soon after moved to her aunts home in Worcester Massachusetts.(Encyclopedia Britannica).

Dorothea quickly realized the horrible treatment the prisoners received especially those with mental illness whose cells had no heat. She quickly went to court and soon assured to provide heat for the prisoners along with other improvements. Dorothea founded more than 30 hospitals for the mentally ill.(Bio.com.) She changed the idea that mentally ill people cannot be helped or cured to that with treatment their mental state will become normal. She also was a committed critic of cruel and neglectful practices toward the mentally ill such as caging, incarceration without clothing, physical and sexual abuse from their keepers, and painful physical restraint such as chains.(Biography