The Theater of Madness: America's Time-Travel
About 350 hundred years ago, an institution named "Bethlem Royal Hospital", established in 1247 in the Bishopsgate district of London as a kind of general-purpose charity to collect alms and provide care for "the poor and needy", was moved to Moorfields, where it could expand, and focus specifically on hospital care for the destitute. While Bethlem always provided some medical assistance (of whatever sort was available) to the poor, it won its fame, and a new name, by focusing more specifically on caring for those afflicted with mental illness. It was a madhouse.
And it became known as "Bedlam".
In the 17th and 18th centuries, it was also a tourist attraction.
An entertainment venue.
Guidebooks to London urged visitors not to miss this stop among the metropolis' points of interest. Admission was free, but for a fee, visitors could take a conducted tour to view the denizens in their cells, and shudder or mock the sufferers, who were encouraged to "perform" for them. Donations were solicited, monetizing the misery of the inmates.
It was to a patient's benefit to exhibit the more extreme symptoms of their illnesses, as those who attracted the most attention might be provided with somewhat better conditions and care, and occasionally earned tips which could buy them small comforts - if those were not stolen and sold by the keepers.
And so the inmates gibbered, and cursed, and strutted, and spoke the inner scripts of their despair and rage, or cowered and whimpered, pointing at what only they could see. Some exchanged mocking or rageful banter with the tourists - those were very popular. The ones who threw their own feces, visitors were warned to stand back from, to avoid the splatter.
Even locals, non-tourists, regarded a visit to Bedlam as a form of entertainment on a par with attending a public hanging or a bull-baiting. Fun city. Suffering and cruelty on display for the amusement of the more fortunate.
And an occasional moral lesson, of course, but those were mere window-dressing. Or "explanations" for the suffering - the "wages of sin" coming justly home to punish the guilty. That was nice, for the spectators, who could luxuriate in the evidence of their own virtue and superiority.
As the 18th century progressed, the "Age of Enlightenment" began shifting some social and cultural perspectives. Attempts were made to address the pain and suffering of the unfortunate from the humanist perspective and "there but for the grace of God" was even occasionally heard. Humankind was attempting to evolve past the bestial Social Darwinism that provided so much entertainment for so many.
Attempts were made to evolve more compassionate care and treatment for the mentally ill. In some private "madhouses" the regimen was surprisingly enlightened, in those pre-pharmaceutical, pre-EST days. "Fresh air and quiet" was a popular regimen, with "natural surroundings" and gardens featured as amenities in the better sort of asylum.
The leering, pointing, shuddering visitors were a thing of the past by the mid-19th century, although standards of care for the destitute afflicted with mental illness hadn't significantly improved. By the end of the Victorian era and the coming of the 20th century the social imperative for dealing with acute mental illness aspired to regard them with compassion and provide custodial care in privacy wherever possible.
That seems to have been a peak, from which we've abruptly descended.
Now, those afflicted with mental illness are monetized by the media, who provide them with platforms that offer a modern version of the cells of Bedlam, attracting clicks and shares, likes and comments and advertising revenue. The most popular performers are co-opted and even normalized by those seeking the support and sanction of the growing number of Americans suffering from the effects of decades of dark propagandizing, economic insecurity, and their own xenophobias.
I don't know who set America's Tardis for the mid-seventeenth century. I just hope that a new Age of Enlightenment helps us recover before our democracy, our economy, and the ability of our planet to sustain life have been obliterated by the obscene pleasures of madness-watching.
sadly,
Bright
