Bizarre, peculiar, weird, and unusual, are all words that would be used to describe a person who suffered from mental health issues around the time of the 19th century. With technology not yet advanced, and people uneducated, there was only one viewpoint of these people and no reason to believe or dig any further into the question of why. Why are some people differ from others, and what could be done to help these people? Back in the 1970’s, patients in mental hospitals were treated more as criminals than they were patients. Charles E. Rosenberg reports on the atrocious conditions of mental hospitals in the 19th century in his article And Heal the Sick: The Hospital and the Patient in the 19th Century America along with at home treatments for these people as discussed by in the short story Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gillman, and in the article Historical Perspectives on the Care and Treatment of the Mentally Ill by Albert R. Roberts and Linda Farms Kurtz of Indiana University. In all three of these sources, it is clear how terribly patients who suffered from mental health problems were treated and how much our society has advanced in order to help these people succeed further in life.

Advances in mental health were nowhere in the near future during the time that the Yellow Wallpaper was written, In this short story, the narrator describes her terrible experiences dealing with mental health issues and getting treated at home by her very own husband during the 19th century. This story is a great example of what Charles E. Rosenberg’s article explained. As explained in his article, people with mental health issues were expected to oblige by the rules and regulations of the workers of the institutions in which they were put into. These types of places goals were not necessarily to help people; rather they were just looking to control their behaviors. Making sure that patients received the help that they needed was not the main priority as it should be. Due to the fact that people were very naive when it came to mental health issues, most people deemed these patients as “not normal” and therefore thought it was okay to treat them in a very inhumane way. Physical abuse was acceptable during this time as well and many patients were treated horribly and were abused by the doctors that were supposed to be treating them.  The narrator of the Yellow Wallpaper’s husband thought that she was crazy for feeling the way that she did. He took it upon himself to treat her and in a very inhume way did he do this.  She is ordered by him to become bed ridden for having some sort of mental health issue. He doesn’t allow her to do anything, due to her mental illness. Due to the fact that the narrator was treated like an animal from her husband who was also a doctor, she eventually did go crazy.  As stated in Charles E. Rosenberg’s article as well, this was one of the main reasons why people who had mental heath would just become way worse rather than get better. When treated like you are crazier than you actually are, one begins to actually believe it.  She thinks that she has to hide her journal from her husband as well because she is scared that he will think she is even crazier than he already believes she is. People of this time were just so unaware of what having a mental health issue entailed and came with and were so uneducated on how to treat people that in fact, patients were turned worse than they began. . Men were treated differently and would not be sent to be bed ridden. In this sense, there was also much sexism when it came to mental health issues as well. Advances in medical technology were not yet present. It was not accepted back in the 19th century to have a mental illness; people with mental illnesses were treated extremely unfairly.

In Historical Perspectives on the Care and Treatment of the Mentally Ill, it is described how the treatment of mentally unstable people is not as bad as it used to be back in the day.  Roberts writes, “This article begins by tracing the progress of treatment for the mentally ill from the early days of bloodletting and witch- hunts to long-term institutional confinement and punishment.” (Roberts 76). Due to the fact that doctors have so much more experience and information at their hands, patients are given very good care for whatever they might have. As stated in this article, “The general public and advocacy groups, comprised primarily of families of the mentally ill, have become more involved in the plight of the mentally ill” (Roberts 75). Technology and knowledge has become improved. Back during this time, rich people were the only ones who were able to afford medical help when it came to mental conditions. Even if the poor were to somehow get access into a mental hospital, they would be treated increasingly worse than the rich. Along with economic status, people were also judged based off their cultural background and ethnicity, and sex. Sexism in relation to mental health was also a huge issue back in the day. While woman were told to be bedridden, men were sent out west to do manual labor (Roberts 78).  At home treatment was just as bad as the actual institutions. People were very uneducated and did not know how to treat friends or family that suffered from these problems. Usually patients were just sent to stay in bed at all times. Similar to the narrator of the Yellow Wallpaper, being treated this way was the direct cause of being crazier. With no real way to find out what the best treatment and care was, there was no treatment nor care. It was due to this, that people were not getting better and more and more people were just dying at an earlier age. Education was in need to so many people and many people sought this education out to make this world better in the future.

As seen through both articles, along with the short story, at home care was not much different than actual mental institutions during the 19th century. The treatment and care was not much of a treatment or care whatsoever. Knowledge and education was not as prevalent as it is in today’s society.  Women, people of lower class, and minorities were all treated even worse than the terrible treatment to begin with. Throughout all of these sources, it is extremely emphasized on that the treatment and care that occurs in the present has advanced so much. We as a society have learned so much about people who have mental health issues and we now know that they are not crazy for feeling the way they do or being this way. It is a great thing that we have advanced so much in the world and that we now accept that these people are human, they are just less fortunate than most. There are now many procedures that are followed and ways that people with mental health issues can live a long happy life. Advances in technology and education occur every day. Our society as a whole has a main goal of improving day by day.
