Dorothea Dix Essays

  • Dorothea Dix

    1082 Words  | 3 Pages

    and reformer, Dorothea Dix transformed living conditions in prisons and established institutions for the mentally insane in 20 states, as well as Canada (“DIX”). Through her crusade for fair treatment of the mentally insane, Dorothea Dix exemplifies the ideals of her time – to protect the rights of all human beings, no matter their age, race, or mental capacity. On April 4, 1802 in Hampden, Maine, Dorothea Lynde Dix was born to Joseph and Mary Dix. Due to her mother's poor health, Dix assumed the

  • Essay On Dorothea Dix

    914 Words  | 2 Pages

    Childhood and career Dorothea Lynde Dix was born on April 2,1802, in Hampden, Main. She was the daughter of an alcoholic farmer and a mentally ill mother. According to The Nursing Advocacy website, she did not have a happy or comfortable childhood. Dorothea had to take care of her younger siblings until she was eventually sent to live with her wealthy grandmother and then her great-aunt in Boston. At only fifteen years old, she began teaching at her own school for small children in Worcester, Massachusetts

  • Dorothea Dix

    1574 Words  | 4 Pages

    Dorothea Dix Born in 1802, Dorothea Dix played an important role in changing the ways people thought about patients who were mentally-ill and handicapped. These patients had always been cast-off as “being punished by God”. She believed that that people of such standing would do better by being treated with love and caring rather than being put aside. As a social reformer, philanthropist, teacher, writer, writer, nurse, and humanitarian, Dorothea Dix devoted devoted her life to the welfare of

  • Dorothea Dix

    948 Words  | 2 Pages

    Dorothea Lynde Dix was quoted as saying, “In a world where there is so much to be done, I felt strongly impressed that there must be something for me to do.” Dix began at the age of 39, and spent the next 20 years as a social reformer for the treatment of the mentally ill. When asked to teach a Sunday School class at a women’s correctional facility, Dix was appalled at the conditions, as well as the fact that many of the women weren’t criminals, but were instead mentally ill. This is where her crusade

  • Dorothea Dix: The Mental Illness Reform Movement

    771 Words  | 2 Pages

    Dorothea Dix was an activist who, in the nineteenth century, worked to help start mental asylums in America. Before she started her work, people who were mentally ill were either put in prison or almshouses (almshouses were what we would call homeless shelters now). If the family of the person who is mentally ill had enough money, they would care for the person in their home. They would hide the person and make them live only inside so no one would see them. In the prisons and almshouses, they were

  • What Is Dorothea Dix Cause Severe Depression

    1449 Words  | 3 Pages

    “In a world where there is so much to be done. I felt strongly impressed that there must be something for me to do.(Dix)” Few people can say that they have achieved as much as Dorothea Dix had in her her lifetime. Born in 1802 to Mary Bigelow and Joseph Dix, Dorothea Dix and her two younger brothers suffered poverty and abuse from their alcoholic parents. It is speculated that during this time she experienced severe depression which may have had a hand in inspiring her to reforming the treatment

  • Dorothea Dix: A Woman with a Passion for Social Reform

    1188 Words  | 3 Pages

    of Dorothea Dix devoted the rest of her life as an advocate to the humane attitude toward the mentally ill. She traveled the world from state to state visiting each and every prison, almhouse, asylum, orphanage, and hidden hovel documenting everything and anything she saw. After her intricate study of what she had been a witness of she wrote a letter or "memorial" and presented it to a legislator she knew who would present it to each legislature in each state she had studied. Dorothea Dix was

  • Dorothea Dix: Inhumane To The Mentally Ill

    1916 Words  | 4 Pages

    thoughts that the institution were being inhumane to the mentally ills. Dorothea Dix was a big advocate of this movement she had witnessed the way the mentally ills were being treated, and she wanted to change all those inhumane treatments. Dix did everything in her power to change and stop that. Dix was not the only one who was trying to change this system; Philippe Pinel was also a part of it. Between the years of 1841 and 1881, Dix mission was to raise money and bring awareness to the public by alerting

  • How Did Dorothea Dix Treat The Mentally Ill

    984 Words  | 2 Pages

    Dorothea Dix played a major role in improving the treatment of the mentally ill but also suffered many consequences as a result. Having a teaching background, she first took an interest in treating the mentally ill when she accepted a job teaching inmates in an East Cambridge prison, which was at a time when jails were considered a solution for many issues, including housing the mentally ill with no treatment. While teaching there she realized the actions of the workers towards the criminals were

  • Dorothea Dix

    1302 Words  | 3 Pages

    Dorothea Dix – One of the Great Women of the 1800s Once in a while a truly exceptional person has made a mark on the growth of mankind. Dorothea Dix was an exceptional woman. She wrote children’s books, she was a school teacher, and she helped reform in prisons. Some of her most notable work was in the field of making mental health institutions a better place for the patients that lived in them. Dorothea Dix gave a great deal to humanity and her achievements are still being felt today, especially

  • Mental Health Community in the 19th Century

    671 Words  | 2 Pages

    theory of Social Darwinism in the 1800s. They were put in mental asylums, where conditions had deteriorated substantially from earlier in the century. (Floyd) The public’s interest about the unsatisfactory care of the mentally ill, championed by Dorothea Dix, led to some reforms, such as higher medical standards, more oversight into asylum practices, and more research into mental health. (Floyd) Nevertheless, the status of the mentally ill did not elevate much higher, and by the 1890s the repeated

  • Architecture of Kirkbride Buildings; Lunatic Asylums in the 19th Century

    923 Words  | 2 Pages

    language and the weirdest thing I found was that women would be deemed insane from menstruation and teenage boys because of masturbation. The “insane” were treated without rights, starved, lost and forgotten while being hidden away from society. Dorothea Dix, who at first started out as a teacher saw these conditions in East Cambridge Jail. These were the most horrific images that she has ever seen in her life, and this made her try to establish human rights under the philosophy of Moral Treatment

  • Nurse Of The Civil War Essay

    1960 Words  | 4 Pages

    When the words Civil War comes to mind, some might think about North and South, slavery, Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee or even Ulysses S. Grant. But does the word nurse come to mind. Being a nurse of the Civil War was an important duty that many women had an opportunity to be a part of. The results of the Civil War changed history for many things but a major thing that came out of it was the women nurses. Women from the North and from the South came out of their houses and what they

  • Research Paper On Dorothea Dix

    772 Words  | 2 Pages

    Dorothea Dix The mentally ill was mistreated, beaten, thrown into unclean quarters, and even taken advantage of before the 1800's. They was viewed as helpless individuals. Society and the government viewed them as criminals and deemed them incurable. During the 1800's a pioneer named Dorothea Dix brought about a change dealing with the treatment of the mentally ill. She became the voice of them something they never had. Dorothea Lynde Dix was born on April 4th 1802 in Maine and the first of three

  • Dorothea Dix: The Insane For The Mentally Ill

    1445 Words  | 3 Pages

    thrown in jail and were treated as criminals. Dorothea Dix could not stand the unfair treatment and took upon herself to spread mental hospitals around the world. Throughout Dorothea Lynde Dix’s life, she was sedulous to helping people; she built an academy

  • Essay On Clara Barton

    531 Words  | 2 Pages

    Clara Barton Clarissa Harlowe Barton was born in North Oxford, Massachusetts on December 25, 1821, and died on April 12, 1912 at the age of 90 years old from tuberculosis. Her father, Stephen Barton was a community leader who served in the Indians combats or battles, and her mother Sarah had five children. She was the youngest of the five. She was educated at home by her older sisters, and at the age of 15 years old she started teaching school. She had a relationship with John J. Elwell, however

  • Dibs In Search Of Self Essay

    2110 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Book Throughout the book Dibs in Search of Self, by Virginia Axline, readers learn the moving story of a boy named Dibs who had been neglected since he was in the womb, by two scientist parents that did not want a child holding them back from their success. Readers are able to see the amazing journey of a six-year-old boy, learning to be himself and find his personality and intelligence through the help of play therapy sessions with the author, Mrs. Axline. Not only are readers seeing the growth

  • Dorothe Dorothea Dix: Prisoner Reform

    544 Words  | 2 Pages

    Dorothea visited jails and documented how bad prisoners got treated. From lack of food to poor medical health care. Dorothea noticed all these things and wanted to see a change. She sent her documents to the Massachusetts legislature while changes did not come right away she kept pushing for a change until she saw improvements. Dix ended up opening up 32 mental hospitals. Documentation was not the only movement method

  • The Theme of Marriage in Middlemarch

    2260 Words  | 5 Pages

    Bulstrodes), as well as widowhood (Dorothea). The marriage that would at seem most in need of a divorce, that between Dorothea and Casaubon, would be, ironically, the one that would last the longest if divorce had been available. Dorothea would not, indeed could not divorce Casaubon because of her honesty and the strength of her idealism. Despite the fact that Casaubon is clearly unsuitable, she still goes ahead with the marriage. It can be said that Dorothea represents the antithesis of Casaubon

  • Dorothea E. Orem's Self-Care Deficit Nursing Theory

    1523 Words  | 4 Pages

    Dorothea E. Orem's Self-Care Deficit Nursing Theory The purpose of this paper is to inform the reader how Dorethea Orem’s nursing theory has been used in research. Orem begin developing her theory in the 1950’s, a time when most nursing conceptual models were based on other disciplines such as medicine, psychology and/or sociology (Fawcett, 2000). Orem’s theory is a three-part theory of self-care. The three theories that make up the general theory are: Self-Care, Self-Care Deficit, and Nursing