Fun Fact #289 Dorothea Dix
Fun Fact #289
Dorothea Dix
Heading into a dark basement in the dead of night, Dorothea Dix went to the back most cell to find a man lying on a small damp bed who hadn’t eaten in days. This man used to be a prominent member of the New Jersey State legislature, who had suffered from severe depression in his old age and lost everything. Instead of helping him the state put him down there so he wouldn’t be an embarrassment. Using his story, Dix began a movement to reform how the Mentally ill were treated, and began opening Asylums for the mentally ill across the US. She even popularized the use of Therapy though it wasn't used in Mental Asylums.
