J&H when treated by H&H

     In my last post, I said that I'd see you all in 100 years, and I seemed to have fibbed a bit. The next section of readings brought me right at the edge of the 18th century and turn of the 19th century. Here we find two noteworthy persons, John Haslam and William Saunders Hallaran. Luckily for Jekyll, however unlucky for many real people living in the early 19th century, Haslam and Hallaran did not believe what was called melancholia to be a curable form of insanity. Jekyll, as we know, was highly polarized from any description of melancholia, however, and so his mania would be considered treatable in the current time period.

     As for how they would even decide that he was manic, well our diagnoses don't go much farther than how it was visibly seen in the 18th century. His quick impatiences and vindictiveness would quickly define him as manic, but one interesting note is that Haslam noted that the untrained eye might think that a manic person was inebriated, and while "inebriated" was not specifically a word used to describe Dr. Jekyll, his odd mannerisms and physical appearance were often noted, and so a connection can be drawn there.

     As for what caused his mental illness, Haslam wrote that what he called "moral" changes could occur. As Dr. Jekyll was constantly busying himself with his work, and coming upon failures, we could view this stress as the onset of his symptoms. because of this and his rapid-onset paroxysms, as they would call them, his treatments would include evacuation of the bowels (a big one for mania back then), isolation and strict regiment as to control him and help avoid any excitation.

     The 19th century has definitely come more to terms with potential psychological factors that can cause an onset of symptoms, but at this point in time, the mentally ill are still not considered patients, and many of them are used as test subjects for different treatments. Luckily for the present time period, many advancements have occured in the way we treat and handle patients (We don't seem to be nearly as fixated on "evacuations"). As for what changes and how they took place? We'll have to continue on our path in time. What will the 20th century hold for us?