Department of Health and Social Services Library

This compelling book includes 186 case studies of patients who were admitted to the Delaware State Hospital at Farnhurst between 1894 and 1920. Until now, their stories have remained hidden away, lost, forgotten, inaccessible. This book changes that by providing a detailed look at the lives of a wide variety of patients. Farnhurst is usually thought of as having been simply a "mental hospital" or "lunatic asylum." In reality, the institution cared for people with many different conditions ranging from "congenital imbeciles," to traumatic and acquired brain injuries, syphilis, epilepsy, delusions, schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, Huntington's disease, acute intermittent porphyria, deafness, blindness, age-related senility, pregnancy-related conditions, substance abuse disorders, etc. - at a time when there were few or no other options for care and treatment. An important resource for reducing the stigma associated with being diagnosed with a mental illness or spending time in a mental institution, this book shows that every patient came from somewhere and had meaningful lives before, during, and after their time at the Delaware State Hospital. They were real individuals, each with their own story. Come meet them.