Physical Treatment Of The Mentally Ill In Our Town By Thorton Wilder

Over the course of the past two decades, the public discussion of mental health has steadily gained precedence, attention, and support, allowing greater amounts of research and technology to receive funding. The shift in attention greatly juxtaposes the torturous methods used in the past. Just a century ago, in the early 1900s, horrible excruciating “therapy” methods were in regulation, and additionally mental health was often socially neglected or treated as devil possession or witchcraft. In Our Town, Thorton Wilder criticizes the social and physical mistreatment of mental illness of the early 1900s, and invites the reader to produce the improved mental health awareness and treatments that are present today.
Throughout Our Town, Wilder depicts

Along with the isolation and neglect of individuals experiencing mental illness, the use of harsh medicines and torturous inhumane methods were present in the 1900s. One of these methods was shock therapy, “insulin shock therapy injected high levels of insulin into patients to cause convulsions and a coma,” (Fabian and Catchings). It was believed that once the patient were revived from this induced coma they would be cured of their “madness” (Fabian and Catchings). In the institutions, which were created with the intent to assist the mentally ill were instead torturing the patients psychologically, often causing more paranoia and insanity. Another treatment used in asylums were lobotomies. Lobotomies were first introduced as a way to “fix” a mentally ill individual’s brain, by “damaging neural connections in the prefrontal cortex area of the brain through to have” caused the illness (Fabian and Catchings). This treatment would achieve the exact opposite of its intent, causing damage to the patient's personalities and memories. Around 50,000 lobotomies had been preformed by the late 1900s, and would terribly impact the minds and insanity of all of those people. Shock therapies and Lobotomies were only two treatments among numerous barbaric physical procedures preformed on patients in asylums; other treatments included, electroconvulsive therapy, psychiatric medications, etc.

While mental institutions which hold the mentally ill continue to exist, they have greatly improved from the treatments administered in asylums. In modern times, there is increased amounts of accessibility to safe supportive treatments, like therapy, counseling, medication, etc. Modern mental institutions provide support and boarding for struggling individuals for differing periods of time, for a variety of disorders. The effectivity of mental institutions varies, “leading some historians…to wonder if ‘asylums,’ in the true sense of the word, might be still needed for the most vulnerable individuals who need supportive living” (“History of Psychiatric Hospitals • Nursing, History, and Health Care • Penn Nursing”). Asylum is defined as an institution which provides protections, shelter, and support to a group of individuals. The University of Pennsylvania suggests that there is still a demand for asylums among the severe mentally ill. However, the medical and mental practices of these facilities show reflect the factual definition of asylum, and provide safety and aid to each patient. Mental institutions may allow for mentally ill individuals to avoid discrimination and isolation from society due to their condition. Although conditions for those affected by mental illness as improved, mental health is still shaded by dated stereotypes and outlooks on the topic, and this