Dr. Stribling was only twenty-six years old in 1836 when he became
head of Western State hospital. Then, every institution for the
insane in the South, and all but a very few in the remainder of the
country, were little more than penitentiaries. Dr. Robert Hansen,
superintendent of Western State Hospital, wrote in 1967, "In an age
of the common man, Dr. Stribling possessed an uncommon and profound
knowledge of human nature, and the importance of human
relationships. He believed that the drives, interests, and needs of
the insane were the same as those of others, and that satisfaction
of them through human relationships, would help restore their
reason." Stribling recognized that insanity was a disease that if
treated early, was curable. He used medical and moral therapy,
separately or in concert, to cure his patients. Moral medicine
included early treatment, separating the violent from those who
could be cured, eliminating restraints whenever possible, providing
patients with nutritious food, occupation, exercise, amusements and
religious services. Caretakers were instructed how to increase
their patients' self-esteem, especially by being their friend.
Stribling's efforts to admit only patients who could be cured
resulted in a bitter dispute in the early 1840s between him and Dr.
John Minson. Galt was head of Eastern State Hospital, the first
institution in the Colonies built for the treatment of the insane.
Soon thereafter, Stribling rewrote Virginia's laws concerning the
insane to conform to his admission policies. In 1852, Stribling and
his directors defended themselves against charges by Captain
Randolph that they abused their patients. Randolph's son had been a
patient at Western State. During the Civil War Stribling managed to
provide for his patients even after Sheridan's troops sacked his
hospital. The daily lives of slave servants are described and also
the different approaches taken by Stribling and Galt provide for
insane free blacks and insane slaves. The similarities and
differences between the two young doctors are examined. (Stribling
was twenty-six and Galt twenty-two when they assumed their
positions.) Letters between Dr. Stribling and Dorothea Dix from
1849 until 1860 describe a deep and intimate friendship. Mrs.
Stribling's letter to her eighteen-year-old son while he was a
prisoner of war is probably representative of many letters from
other mothers in the South and North who were in a similar
situation. After the war, Stribing was successful after he
petitioned Congress to keep his job. His reconciliation speech at
the superintendents' meeting in Boston in 1868 was highly praised
by his fellow superintendents and the Boston press. Dr. Stribling
died in 1874.
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