Bedlam, “Kashchenko”, “Buckle” – these names are well-known to many. But does everyone know the history of the creation of famous hospitals? What interesting facts, and sometimes mystical legends and star names are associated with them?
“Sorrowful House” – this is how the clinics for the mentally ill have long been called. For quite a long time, these establishments were notorious – and not in vain. Until almost the middle of the XNUMXth century, the methods of treatment in them sometimes resembled torture, the rights of those who got there were not respected, and doctors and staff were sometimes more dangerous than patients.
Back in the 70s and 80s, not only seriously ill people, but simply dissidents – “anti-Soviet” – could be sent to the USSR for compulsory treatment.
Fortunately, times have changed, and psychiatry is developing quite intensively. Much is changing – methods of treatment, medicines, attitudes towards patients. It is significant that in the media there are more and more open references to stars that they have been treated for depression or addictions by psychiatrists. I would like to believe that the era of stigmatization and cruel measures of “therapy” will remain in the past.
And we decided to recall some famous clinics and their even more famous patients.
1.Tonton
The whole world would not have known about the state psychiatric hospital in Massachusetts, which worked from 1851 to 1975, if it were not for the infamous nurse who worked at the Taunton clinic. Jane Toppan took an unhealthy pleasure in killing people with the drugs she had at her disposal.
Making helpless patients with injections from a mixture of her own composition, she sent more than 30 people to the next world, among whom was her sister. The criminal was exposed and placed in the same clinic already as a patient with mania for murder.
By that time, gloomy rumors about the affairs going on in the hospital had already taken on a new shape, and the inhabitants of the town began to talk about satanic black masses in its cellars, during which the staff allegedly sacrificed the sick.
The hospital was eventually closed, but nerds and esoteric tourists willingly visited the hospital and even, according to them, met the ghosts of the dead.
2. Bedlam
This name has become a household name – many people use the word “bedlam” without even knowing about its origin. In fact, it comes from the biblical “Bethlehem”, it was the London Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem (Eng. Bethlem), opened in 1547. Notable patients at the clinic included Hannah Chaplin, the mother of the famous silent film comedian.
Charlie’s mother performed on stage, sang and danced. Once, due to health problems, she lost her voice and was unable to perform – and then her five-year-old son replaced her, breaking the applause of the audience. It is likely that this incident determined his fate.
In 1896, Hanna lost her mind and was placed in Bedlam. Charlie Chaplin and his brother lived with their father’s new family for some time, and then, when their mother left the hospital, they ended up with her in the workhouse, where they worked, receiving shelter and food for this.
Researchers studying Hannah Chaplin’s medical records believe that she was sick with syphilis. In the later stages, the disease destroys the nervous system, which can manifest itself in attacks of aggression – this was the case with the actor’s mother. At the age of 35, she was again institutionalized.
Periodically, Charlie and his brother took her home and looked after her, but the disease made itself felt with new episodes, and Hannah had to be sent back to psychiatrists. When Charlie Chaplin became already quite famous and earned money to move to America, his mother was in deep dementia.
Not wanting to part with her, he took her in with him, providing round-the-clock care in his own home in California. After 7 years, she died in the arms of Charlie. Hannah Chaplin is buried in Hollywood Cemetery.
3. “Kashchenko”
Vladimir Semenovich Vysotsky repeatedly lay in Kashchenko, which he described in one of his songs. This is another psychiatric hospital, the name of which has become a household name. It is also called “Kanatchikova Dacha”, but in fact it is the Moscow Psychiatric Clinical Hospital No. 1 named after N. A. Alekseev.
It was this philanthropist and mayor, who ruled Moscow from 1885 to 1883, who raised money to build a clinic for the mentally ill on the site of the former dacha of the Kanatchikov merchants, at that time – on the border of the city.
The beautiful building of the hospital in the neo-Russian “brick” style resembles the building of the Historical Museum and others erected in Moscow under the same Nikolai Alekseev. The clinic was progressive at that time. There were no bars on the windows, straitjackets and other harsh measures were not used in it – the doctors professed a humane approach to working with patients.
An almost mystical story is also connected with the Kanatchikova Dacha. At 41, Nikolai Alekseev was killed just as mentally ill – shot dead in his own house. There is a theory that his death was prepared by political opponents who put weapons in the hands of the “crazy”.
The surgeon Nikolai Vasilyevich Sklifosovsky tried to save him, but the wound was fatal. And yet, dying, Alekseev managed to bequeath a large sum to complete the construction of the hospital. In honor of the doctor Pyotr Kashchenko, the hospital began to be called in 1922: the psychiatrist managed it for 2 years and, on the whole, made a great contribution to the development of medical science.
In addition to Vladimir Vysotsky, the actor and director Rolan Bykov, the poet Iosif Brodsky and other famous people were in Kashchenko at one time.
4. “Buckle”
The psychiatric hospital of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in St. Petersburg bears such a strange name because of the rivulet that originates nearby. Prior to the clinic, there was a jail (prison), and in 1865 the Temporary Asylum for Lunatics at the Correctional Institution was opened in the same building.
Correction, according to the charter of the institution, was subject to “persons presumptuous, violating good morals and bringing disgrace to society.” For example, women got there not only for an abandoned child, the opening of brothels and prostitution, but also for “disobedience to parental authority” and “impudent treatment of her husband.”
After the revolution, the city psychiatric hospital No. 2 was located here. The writer Vsevolod Garshin, who suffered from bipolar disorder (“manic-depressive psychosis”), and Antonina Milyukova, the wife of composer P. I. Tchaikovsky, were treated in the Buckle.
For “anti-Soviet” poems, Joseph Brodsky underwent a forced forensic psychiatric examination. Viktor Tsoi, according to him, was hiding there from military service (he had every chance of dying in Afghanistan).
5. “Named after Gannushkin”
Psychiatric Clinical Hospital No. 4 named after P. B. Gannushkin is located in Moscow on Poteshnaya Street. Where does this name come from? In 1684, for the young Peter I, the Amusing Town was built on the banks of the Yauza – for fun, for the entertainment of the heir.
At the beginning of the XNUMXth century, the buildings were destroyed, but the name remained. A factory of the merchants Kotovs was built on this site, which went bankrupt at the beginning of the XNUMXth century, while the empty buildings were given to the Preobrazhensky Hospital.
At the beginning of the 2th century, with the money of Moscow patrons, XNUMX neo-Gothic modern buildings were erected there, and after the revolution, the city institute of clinical and social psychoneurology was located there.
Now the hospital bears the name of the famous psychiatrist Gannushkin, who actually never worked there. In the early 90s, actress Tatyana Peltzer lay here. Everyone remembers well her roles in the films “Formula of Love”, “12 Chairs” by Mark Zakharov, “Three in a boat, not counting the dog” and others.
According to the recollections of colleagues, the actress had a quick-tempered, quarrelsome character and could, without hesitation, say something unpleasant to anyone – from a quivering newcomer to the troupe to a venerable director. So with a scandal, she left the Satire Theater for Lenkom.
With age, the eccentric actress became maniacally suspicious, absent-minded. The texts of the roles were suggested to her by Alexander Abdulov and other stage partners. Once Tatyana Peltzer made a particularly loud scandal in the theater, and an ambulance was called for her. Doctors took her to the Gannushkin Psychiatric Hospital.
A few days later, actress Olga Aroseva managed to get there to visit Peltzer – she was not allowed in for a long time, explaining that Tatyana Ivanovna was aggressive and dangerous. Peltzer was covered in bruises and blood, as Aroseva recalled.
Never knowing what really happened there, the actress’s friends took her away and placed her in another psychiatric clinic. In 1992, having received a fracture of the femoral neck, Tatyana Peltzer died at the age of 88.
The history of psychiatry has long been rather bleak. The superstitious, ignorant and sometimes aggressive attitude towards those who were different from the rest, and sometimes seemed “possessed by the devil”, the lack of rights of the sick and the barbaric methods by which they were tried to treat them – all this created an aura of dark mystery around psychiatric hospitals. The mystical attitude towards them and many frightening legends inspired writers and filmmakers. Let all the negativity remain part of the historical past.