In Search of My Asylum
…the story: Preservation,
rehabilitation, restoration, and reconstruction of the emotional life.
…the initiators: Dorothea
Dix and Dr. Thomas Kirkbride.
…the landscape: Sprawling
knolls, flower-lined fountains and orchards of plums.
…the construction:
Mid-1800’s – architectural havens of moral treatment for the mentally ill.
…the structure: Exquisite
and ornate estates; Romanesque and Gothic design of sweeping proportion.
…the inhabitants:
Sufferers of melancholy, hysteria, feeblemindedness, absent menses, civil war
trauma.
…the reality:
Overcapacity leading to pre-Kirkbride conditions – filth, neglect, abuse,
exploitation.
…the abandonment: A new
medical model of psychotropic treatment in the 1960’s empties the wards.
…the aftermath:
Collapsing foundations – people and structures exposed to the outer world.
…the reason: Agnes
Bernadette Thorn, my great grandmother; former patient.
…the architect of the
blog and manuscript: Michelle Fimon, survivor & poet with PTSD
…the legacy: Whispered
stories of a writer who, like an architect, learns to work with empty space.