The Shackles of Stigma: Mental Health Reform in New England

Outcasts & Dissidence: New England's History of Misbehavior

Listen in for a little history on mental health advocacy and reform in New England through the lens of the work of Boston's Dorothea Dix and the dark story of Maine's School for the Feeble-Minded, aka Pineland.
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Sources
-Battlefield.org gives a pretty complete bio on Dix, but the best info about her years as the head Army nurse in the Civil War, of course. It’s a great article, and I highly recommend you check it out. https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/dorothea-dix-reformer-author-teacher-nurse
-Britannica’s brief bio of Dorothea Dix - ol’ faithful! Short, sweet, and to the point. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Dorothea-Dix
-Info about Dix’s would-have-been 99th birthday tribute. Ellsworth American (Ellsworth, Maine) · 10 Apr 1901, Wed · Page 2
-Memorial to the Legislature of Massachusetts, Dorothea Dix (1843). IF YOU ONLY READ ONE THING ON THIS LIST MAKE IT THIS! https://archive.org/details/memorialtolegisl00dixd
-An ode to Bonnie-Jean Brooks, founder of OHI, the organization that first picked up where Pineland left off. https://www.ohimaine.org/founding-president-and-ceo/
-Just a brief mention here about Dix (and hoping for three of her for every Hitler) - The Recorder (Greenfield, Massachusetts) · 20 Sep 1939, Wed · Page 8
-Additional articles are accessible from this one page - the timeline. However, this timeline also offers more information, for example about education and schooling for individuals with disabilities. https://shadowsofpineland.org/timeline/
-The interviews with Pineland’s former patients are available here:
https://soundcloud.com/user-109012618/life-on-my-own-vanessa-munsey
https://soundcloud.com/user-109012618/life-on-my-own-vicki-schad
https://soundcloud.com/user-109012618/life-on-my-own-richard-raymond
https://soundcloud.com/user-109012618/life-on-my-own-maryann-preble
-Warning Out of Town in New England by Josiah Henry Benton (1911) is a really interesting piece of history that I was sad to gloss over (don’t worry, we’ll get back to that!) that covers from 1656-1817. Tough years to be a non-conformist in New England… http://shadowsofpineland.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/1656-1817-Warning-Out-in-New-England-Josiah-Henry-Benton-published-1911.pdf

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