471E4--Week 6 Questions/Comments--Tuesday

If minstrel shows in the asylum were used to reinforce racial boundaries along with other correct behaviors, does that mean that some people were placed in the asylum for having relationships with black people that were deemed improper?-Joanna Jourdan

Reiss establishes that asylum superintendents used Shakespeare to inform their practice, but I'm having a difficult time understanding how. He says that they relied on Shakespeare's perception of mental illness as relevant. Then the doctors themselves interpret what that means to their practice. If Shakespeare is showing mental illness exactly as it is, and the doctors are interpreting it as they want, how could they have benefited from reading Shakespeare when they were already surrounded by mentally ill people? -Joanna Jourdan

Its interesting how Reiss discusses the use of Shakespeare in asylums. I just can't comprehend why using "The Bard" is helpful or informative. Did he believe that his characters exhibited features of mental patients. How is the concept of moral treatment related? Weren't the superintendents knowledgeable enough medically to not need centuries old theatre literature for guidance. ~ Emily Barry

I really enjoy Reiss’ set up of his book and how he tells the story of the theatrical structure of insane asylums. His use of The Opal as a reference is very helpful in understanding the different ways in which patients could express themselves. I also like the fact that he took the time to explain why The Opal is both a useful and biased way of looking at patient’s expression in asylums. The patient’s writings tend to reveal a lot about asylums however even if they were not intended to do so. - Morgan H.

In chapter three, I enjoyed Reiss’ discussion about Shakespeare being used as a precursor for asylum doctors is very interesting and something we have not read about before. I also enjoyed the fact that the patients began using Shakespeare’s writing as a way to help themselves instead of letting the doctors use it against them. It is amazing how groups of people can use the same things for totally different purposes. - Morgan H.

If the asylums were trying to reform patients to mainstream culture, why is it that they often kept popular novels and newspapers "out of asylum libraries because they were 'a prolific source of cerebral disorder' (55)?" Is there a certain kind of culture that they're trying to reform them to, one without pop culture? --Carly W.

Carly, he ise focusing on culture of the upper class in the first chapter. The Opal is a creative cultural outlet for the elite patients who are paying for their care. The minstrel shows are form of middling class cultural outlet. In the introduction Reiss talks about a case-by-case method of introducting and prohibiting culture (using the Bible as his example). Overall, certain books were introduced to certain people in order to recreate social norms - Kasey Moore

Typed the first comment before I finished completely--I find it interesting that Reiss terms it "the reformation of popular culture--or the disculturation of patients." I wonder how were patients who were released reacted to pop culture once they realized they were presented with a skewed view of aspects of culture within the asylum. --Carly W.

Reiss brings up many aspects we have not discussed in class, but seems to share some of the same ideals as Foucault. However, I don’t believe he used his sources wisely enough to convey his point. I wish there were more references from the Opal to make a valid argument. His methods were off and he was not necessarily specific to a time range, location, or asylum either. Though I do appreciate the topic he discusses and the historiographic text he places in his work. Did the author’s methods and sources make his work weak or did they validate his argument? –Jack Hylan

Like Ms. Jourdan's assessment, how did the superintendents apply Shakespeare when his body of work is open to varying interpretations? Was there a standard definition in relation to whether parameters were set? Also, is there any real way to effectively, quantitatively, measure how effective minstrelsy was in reinforcing racial boundaries within these institutions? ~Alex Young

I thought the Shakespeare discussion was interesting but at times, I found myself being a bit skeptical of it. The most interesting discussion to me was the struggle for authors to remain anonymous yet still contribute quality work. Pg. 39 discusses the authenticity of journals and how there was always a looming wonder about whether or not the journal entries were authentic. This seems so applicable to our conversations week after week as we often question certain accounts. I never thought of it in term's of the patients need to remain anonymous. I thought a good point raised was how patients didn't want to embarrass their families which indicts that ties between families and patients were important for asylum patients. - Maggie Nunn

On page 42 Reiss notes how superintendents blamed “the forces of market capitalism” for encouraging supposedly cured and released patients to “strain. . . their mental powers” attempting success in the public literary market. Therefore, any former patient’s negative expose of the asylum was due to being only “partially restored” to sanity. I found this odd because such a claim directly undermines the superintendents perceived ability to cure by reintroducing patients to an outside society that was centered on capitalism. –Scott Campbell

I agree, Scott. I was puzzled by the double standard of how patients had turned insane because of the "progress" that was rapidly developing, mainly capitalist industrialization, and yet the superintendents wanted to reform the patients so that they would fit right back into the very society that led to their insanity? How could this possibly be productive? --Chelsea Chin

Reiss briefly explores, though admits lack of evidence, the idea of a mixed-gender printing workshop where both sexes could interact. He mentions earlier that it was rare the sexes ever saw each other except possibly in such unique positions. In chapter two when discussing the patients’ black face troupe he leaves out if they were mixed-gender as well. I would be curious to know, as this would show the lower classes having similar access to interaction. –Scott Campbell

Reiss argues that portraying blacks on stage gave patients given a negative example of behavior and compare them to it. My question is if these are the examples of how not to behave then why weren’t all blacks institutionalized? - Katie Tryon

How can “Hamlet’s Test” prove that the new will was invalid if they were changing the will in the first place? The borrowing of Shakespeare really surprised me in this book! - Katie Tryon

In chapter three the author gives some attention to Shakespeare and the Bible. I found if surprising that Shakespeare slowly began to replace the Bible. Was this an exaggeration made by the author or was it a distraction from religious mania? Obviously it probably caused tensions with the superintendents because many of them were very religious.-Courtney Collier

I can definitely see how art, literature, and creativity can be therapeutic for an insane asylum patient. Especially plays gave patients a role and a character to work towards which also gave them an escape from their lives behind the asylum. However, the black minstrel shows were obviously very problematic. I assume that African Americans were chosen because they were ranked on the same level as insane patients if not lower. While they were teaching the patients the social roles of the time, the minstrels also could have promoted violence and anger within the patients. –Courtney Collier

I like how Reiss puts asylums in the same circle as schools. The function of public institutions is to serve the public good, in both cases that good is democratization of the populous. I love Reiss inversion of Foucault; taking the self-serving elitist invention of asylums and flipping it so that the motives can be pure, but still be dominating. –Kasey Moore

I am curious as to how the writings of Opal can be studied as recreating masculinity or femininity in the respective sexes when they are written anonymously. – Kasey Moore

I appreciate Reiss’ contextualization of the causes and treatment of insanity in that he attributes the rise of moral treatment and usage of cultural diversion to the increasing specialization of the market economy which causes the mind to become singularly obsessed. – Kasey Moore

I definitely appreciated seeing this alternate side of the asylums, though as others have already commented, there seems to be a lack of credibility for some of Reiss' sources. However, he does, as Kasey and Scott have pointed out, bring up the role of the market economy, democracy, and traditional family values on more than one occasion. While we have addressed aspects of nineteenth-century society in class, we have only glossed over the roll of industrialization. Was insanity really the result of "progress" as some of the superintendents surmised, or did the superintendents themselves reflect their own worries of a changing society upon their patients? --Chelsea Chin