Dorthea Dix was born in Maine in April of 1802. Her childhood was miserable; in later years she never wished to discuss it. Although it is probable that she survived her childhood because of the deeply held qualities of determination and compassion that she held within her.
Her father came from a well-to-do Massachusetts family, and while a student at Harvard he ran away and married a woman 20 years his senior. Their marriage was not a happy one. Eventually, Joseph Dix became an itenerant preacher after the family failed at farming. With this new life the family, which now included Dorthea and her two brothers, would live in poverty and filth.
When she was 12 she ran away to live with her father's parents in Boston. Dorthea's grandfather loved her and welcomed her into his home, however, her grandmother thought that she needed to be remade, and they had a clash of wills. After two years Dorthea was sent to live with her great aunt in Worcester. Here she finally began to overcome the "shadows" in her life caused by privation, loneliness, and lack of love. At fourteen she began to make plans for her future, which at that time included marriage or teaching.
In those days teachers needed few qualifications. She found a vacant store, furnished it, and dressed herself as a proper teacher. Her school became very popular in a short time, but after only three years she bacame aware of how little she knew. So she closed the school and returned to her grandparent's to study. Shortly she opened a new school. She got up at 4 in the morning to read her bible, then taught, then spent all evening preparing for the next day's lessons. She worked herself to exhaustion. She befriended a clergyman, Dr. William Ellery Channing, from Boston, who was to become one of the most influential people in her life. He taught her the preachings of mercy, love, and compassion. Much different than her father's words of wrath and hopelessness.
She traveled to Europe on the advice of friends and family to help her recover from her exhaustion. While there, she met the Rathbones . They were friends of Dr. Channings and they were vitally concerned with the probablems of all people...the sick, the poor, the insane. A few enlightened doctors of the time were trying to envelope the concept of compassion into their methods of care, one of which was Dr. Samuel Tuke. It was the meeting of these people, in conjunction with the life that Dorthea had already lived that molded her future. She would learn from Dr. Tuke that in an environment of compassion and genuine care, mental disease could be more effectively treated.
Throughout the remainder of Dorthea's life she became devoted to the rights of the sick and insame. She traveled extensively over the United States time and time again to visit the same hospitals repeatedly to document the current conditions and treatment of patients. Because of her status of being female, her word alone was not enough to prompt action. She needed the help of many powerful men, and she needed to have the strenght and courage of more. She collected volumes upon volumes of notes from her travels. And in 1843 Samual Gridley Howe, a member of the Massachusetts legislature, presented her report. Personal attacks on Dorthea soon came to the front as did matters of libel. Countermemorandus and the belief that the insane were being punished by God were all thrown at Dorthea without halt. But she carried on. By 1847 she had traveled over 3000 miles...her goal to awaken every state in the union. Eventually her "first child" was born. A state hospital was erected in New Jersey that was the result of the money of a millionaire and the compassion of a state. In 1848 she attacked the federal government. She made an appeal for 5 million acres to be approbated for use by the insane, the deaf, and the dumb. In February of 1851 the bill went to the Senate and was passed by a large majority. However, Congress ajourned before the House could act, so the whole procedure had to be gone through again. The next time around, after being passed by congress by a large majority, it was vetoed by President Franklin Pierce.
Dorthea was told that every human weakness would try to take advantage of a bill such as this. She was told that all of her work was done in vain. She did not give up. She traveled to Europe again, only this time she would replicate her work done in the U.S. Because in those days "nurses" were often uneducated, crude, and often cruel women, she spent a great deal of energy devoted to educating these and other women on the ethics of care and virtually every aspect of hospital care. In 1861, during the course of the Civil War, she started a volunteer nursing corps, that although it was scorned by the Army was widly popular and readily accepted by civilian authorities. Throughout the war she became much more vigilant than before. She ordered court marshalled every doctor she found drunk or disorderly. She was on in years and no longer cared whose toes she stepped on.
When Dorthea Dix was 73 she watched the first class of nurses especially trained to care for the insane graduate from her "first born" hospital in New Jersey. Her eptiaph, "She was the most useful and distinguished woman America has yet produced." is easily understandable.
 Studies
|
 Technology
|
 |
 |
 Listing
|
 Pages |
|
 |
home