Straight Jacket

Up until the 1050’s the methods that were used to treat patients with mental disorders ranged from questionable to downright inhumane. Most of the time they did more to hurt these people than to help them. Some of the practices included ice baths for patients who were too excitable, electroshock therapy, insulin shock therapy, castration (for patients who were also sex offenders), and of course lobotomies. The lobotomies themselves could be something as simple as navigating an ice pick behind a persons eye and tapping it into their brain, to actually removing a pieces of skull and a piece of gray matter with it.

Most often, they were forced into a straight jacket and locked away in a room with padded walls so that they could not hurt themselves; and that is where the stereotypical Halloween costume for the ‘mental patient’ comes from. There are versions for both men and women should you decide to be a little crazy this holiday, and the come in several different varieties as well.

For women there is a ‘sexy straight jacket’ costume that features the jacket (of course) in pristine white; though unlike a normal straight jacket it features a scoop neck and an oval hole underneath to show a bit of cleavage, as well as some stylishly placed straps. It comes with a cute mini skirt and hat as well.

For the men there are straight jackets ranging from cotton fabrics to full-on authentic canvas jackets. They come in a variety of white and off white colors, as well as some in brown. There is a particular costume called the ‘straightjacket maniac’ that comes with a brown jacket and black straps, as well as a mask that looks like a maniac’s face and a cadge to go around your head. This costume has a more medieval feel to it and would definitely be fun to wear to a party. There are also straight jacket costumes associated with particular criminals, such as Hannibal Lector.

Being stricken with a mental illness or disorder is hard enough on a person, but some had the misfortune to be born in an age where medical understanding of the mind was not like it is today. Up until the 1960s the methods for trying to cure or improve the behaviors of the mentally ill were bordering on inhumane. The different types of mental illness weren’t understood, and the treatments were basically taking a stab in the dark. If there any improvement, (even if the improvement was putting a violent man into a vegetative state) that was reason enough to continue using these methods on people.

Straight Jacket

Of course there was the general treatment of putting a person in a straight jacket, and then in a padded room so that they could not injure themselves or others, but that didn’t do much towards ‘fixing’ the person. Some other methods of improvement included wrapping the individual in sheets that were wet thoroughly with water and then put in a freezer, or by submerging them up to their chin in an ice bath. This was supposed to calm them, but generally reeked havoc on their bodies. Other ways to cure included electroshock therapy, castration on sex offenders, insulin shock therapy, and the infamous lobotomy.

A lobotomy could be used to ‘treat’ anything from schizophrenia to depression, or (if it was closer to the 1930’s range of time) for ridding undesirable qualities people found in their children such as “youthful defiance” or “moodiness”. Could you imagine telling your parents that you ‘aren’t going to live by their rules anymore’ and their response would be to take you to the doctor to get part of your brain removed or destroyed? It seems terrifying, but it happened, quite often.
The techniques varied, sometimes it was as explained in that article; the surgeon would insert an ice pick behind your eye and squish it around against your brain. But other times it involved opening up the skull and removing parts of specific lobes, or drilling a small hole and pouring boiling water inside.

The mentally ill of this time were poor poor souls indeed. Be grateful that you were born without illness, or at the very least, born in a time where it could be treated properly.

May we reconvene under the blood red moon,
-Black Widow