Sorry it has been so long! It has been hard keeping up, more than I thought it would be. On February 4th was a very nice day traveling all the way to Bethlehem, or Bedlam, Royal Hospital for the mentally unstable. It is out in the middle of nowhere compared to most of our other visits for school, located on Monks Orchard Road in Beckenham, England. This is the 4th location of the hospital that is different from all the others because it is more spread out than the other hospitals that were previously built resembling large palaces and having corridors of female and male wards and large dining and entertainment rooms. The old locations are located at Bishopsgate, Moorefield, and where the Imperial War Museum is now located. I think all the information we have been learning and the places we have been going for Mad Europe has been very interesting. Learning about the different techniques they use to do to cure people such as trying to balance out the four humors of the body (blood, yellow bile, black bile, and flem) and other more modern techniques like just talking to the patients and changing the environment they are in. While we were at the hospital we had a tour of the art museum they have there; they are just small works that are done by the patients who are admitted into the hospital.
We also had a presentation about Bedlam on how it started, why they wanted to build it, and the development of it through the years. And one of my favorite parts was we got to look at an entry in some of the first volumes ever made of the patients that were admitted there from the 17th century and read about their condition, what the doctors thought was wrong with them, what the patient’s life was like at home, age and other stuff about them. My patient was a 40ish old male who worked as a lawyer and whose name is not coming to mind at the moment but he was admitted because he had mood swings and threated to kill himself and his wife. Without going too much into detail, my diagnosis and mine alone is that his wife cheated on him and he was angry and wanted revenge but everyone thought it was crazy and went with his wife’s story. I think this because he also wanted to kill another man whose first name I remember was John, so it’s the most logical explanation and I’m sure back then they didn’t look into things on a more personal level and talk to the patient like they should have. He was admitted because he was ‘over worked’, which I guess can make people go sort of mad but not enough to go to a mental institution.
After that very intellectual day I didn’t feel like doing anything else but later on I went to the Generators basement where the dancing and bar was and had a good time with the I.T.C. people and meeting people from other countries. It was our last night to really be out before we had to leave London so it was bittersweet dancing till two and then waking up at three in the morning to some loud bang in my bed. I was ready to leave the loud hostel, but not London; although, I will be back some day. I like it to much there!
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