DOMESTIC VIOLENCE - SEEKING SOLUTIONS

“"Before I entered an insane asylum and learned its hidden life from the standpoint of the patient, I had not supposed that the inmates were outlaws, in the sense that the law did not protect them in any of their inalienable rights." – Elizabeth Packard

Elizabeth Packard was the wife of Rev Theophilus Packard. She lived in America at the time of the Civil War. Her husband proclaimed she was mentally ill mainly because she defied his religious beliefs. He protested that he could not manage her at home. She was committed to an “insane asylum” based mainly on his evidence. She spent three years in the institution.

Even when discharged her husband thought she was still mentally ill so he locked her in a room. She managed to get a message out through a window to friends who took her case to a judge wwho issued a writ of habeas corpus ( bring the body). A public trial took place where a jury would decide on her mental state. It is said their decision took 7 minutes to make and she was officially deemed sane.

She spent her life crusading for to change laws about confinement due to mental illness. She is recognised as being significant in raising public awareness of the plight of mental illness and inappropriate incarceration.

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=406821

http://www.psychiatricsurvivorarchives.com/people.html

http://www.awesomestories.com/famous_trials/packard/packard.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Packard

http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/p001001b.html

Book about Elizabeth Packard : Barbara Sapinsley, "The Private War of Mrs. Packard". New York : Paragon House, 1991.

WOMENS ISSUES THEN AND NOW – MENTAL ILLNESS A RESPONSE TO OPPRESSION

http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~ulrich/femhist/madness.shtml#VicEra