The Bethlehem mental hospital was introduced in the early 14th century as housing for people struggling for madness that needed care to help them return to a stable mental state. However in Shakespeare's time, this mental hospital, now nicknamed Bedlam, became known for is cruel and inhumane treatments of its patients. A patient that stayed at the mental hospital wrote in his journal that he would see some of the patients being chained upright, so that they could not lie down to sleep (Walsh). A few years later, that mental hospital found a way to profit off of its mentally ill patients. For a fee of one penny, the general public could go into the hospital and see the mental patients, like they were animals to be observed (Walsh). The patients at the hospital were also subject to intensive treatments to try and bring the people to a healthy state of mind. Patients were reportedly beaten, or left in tight spaces while chained up. One patient died after their intestines exploded from being chained in a tight space for too long (Waller).
Mental hospitals were built as a place for patients that were considered "mad" could go for hope in restoring their sanity. However, in the Elizabethan era the hospitals became prisons, and trapped the patients within its walls, without much hope of ever getting out.
This is clearly a failed treatment for madness during the time period because the hospitals no longer served as medical buildings to regain a patients mental health, but a place to drive them even crazier.
Mental hospitals were built as a place for patients that were considered "mad" could go for hope in restoring their sanity. However, in the Elizabethan era the hospitals became prisons, and trapped the patients within its walls, without much hope of ever getting out.
This is clearly a failed treatment for madness during the time period because the hospitals no longer served as medical buildings to regain a patients mental health, but a place to drive them even crazier.