Sunday, December 18, 2016

Tarot! (Unedited Transcript)



[14:15] Jedburgh Dagger (jedburgh30.dagger): I was asked to handle the introductions for an infirm Klaus. (He's not really here it's an illusion...)
[14:15] Merry Chase (merrytricks): I suspect he's actually busy at this time of year because he's really Santa Klaus.
[14:16] Jedburgh Dagger (jedburgh30.dagger): So without any further ado, please welcome Merry Chase to the Salon stage for a chat on Tarot..
[14:16] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander) grins holographically
[14:16] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander) applauds
[14:16] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Thank you!
[14:16] Otenth Håkon Paderborn (otenth.paderborn) applauds
 [14:16] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta) applauds
[14:16] Otenth Håkon Paderborn (otenth.paderborn): Miss Discovolante! How wonderful to see you.
[14:16] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Welcome!  Thanks for coming, at this busy time of year.
 [14:16] Merry Chase (merrytricks): This talk is on Tarot, which I think is a super sweet piece of serendipity because this happens to be the 78th of these talks, and guess how many cards are in a Tarot deck?
[14:17] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander) looks pleased at the Jarl's outburst.
[14:17] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Yup.
[14:17] Merry Chase (merrytricks): 78.
[14:17] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Cool, huh? We didn’t plan that, either. I’m a pinch-hitter, ‘cause the scheduled speaker had to cancel.
[14:17] Merry Chase (merrytricks): I’ve been researching tarot’s evolution, so that’s what we’ll talk about mostly, but if we have time we can go into prohibition and theory a little. The history of tarot basically combines the history of two things: divination and playing cards.
[14:17] Merry Chase (merrytricks): The beginnings of divination are lost in the mists of Avalon, or more likely in the Clan of the Cave Bear. Anyhow, so far back I’m not going to try to trace that.
[14:18] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Pretty much for as long as we’ve been human, we’ve been seeking signs and auguries. A dream, cloud shapes, the toss of yarrow sticks or bone dice, the appearance of sheep entrails, you name it, we’ll see meaning in it. 

Maybe that’s wrong, to try to see the future, but to err is human, and to divine is human, too.

(Pause for laughter.)
 [14:18] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta) chuckles then groans
[14:18] Senna (sennathesoothsayer): :-)
[14:18] Zantabraxus (zantabraxus.aristocarnas): Thank you, Jed  *smiles and listens attentively to the talk*
[14:18] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander) grins
[14:18] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Thank you, thank you. But yeah, we seem to compulsively seek signs. So, we had bones, dice, dreams, various oracles.  And when paper came along, it seems like it was natural for us to find a way pretty soon to use that for divination, somehow.
[14:18] Zantabraxus (zantabraxus.aristocarnas): Oh dear, pun-ishment.
[14:18] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Fond as we are of oracles, we’re also fond of games. It’s impossible to say which we did first with cards -- play games or tell fortunes.
[14:19] Lady Sumoku: And then cookies
[14:19] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Now, for cards, you need writing,  printing, and paper.
 [14:19] Merry Chase (merrytricks): We invented writing about five thousand years ago, in Sumer, a little after we invented cities and started needing to keep written records. Sumerians also invented the first printing process, about 3000BCE, with the cylindar seals that were rolled to make an impression on clay tablets.
[14:19] Merry Chase (merrytricks): It’s a while before we get around to paper. Of course, we used papyrus in Egypt also around the third millenium BCE, and heiroglyphic writing, but we don’t seem to have got around to making cards until we came up with pulped paper.
[14:19] Merry Chase (merrytricks): It’s a while before we get around to paper. Of course, we used papyrus in Egypt also around the third millenium BCE, and heiroglyphic writing, but we don’t seem to have got around to making cards until we came up with pulped paper.
[14:19] Merry Chase (merrytricks): oops, sorry
[14:19] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Senior moment, repeating myself.
[14:20] Merry Chase (merrytricks): We started making paper in China around 100 CE, and by 200 CE we had wood block printing—also a Chinese invention and also very useful for creating cards--but it’s another 700 years after block printing, before cards show up. By the early 9th century we are at last playing card games.
[14:20] Merry Chase (merrytricks): We have lots of RPGs in Second Life, so it might be interesting to hear that the first card game was evidently a roleplaying game. It was called Game of Leaves, and it involved a book as well as cards.
[14:20] Merry Chase (merrytricks): The history of games is a whole ‘nother fascinating avenue down which we could wander. Every time I check a fact I find myself tempted by intriguing side tracks. But sticking with the idea of the cards, it wasn’t long before another important element evolved, and that was suits.
[14:21] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Card suits that is. I don't know when and where humans invented three-piece suits.
[14:21] Merry Chase (merrytricks): ahem... where were we?
[14:21] Merry Chase (merrytricks): ah yes, China.
[14:21] Merry Chase (merrytricks): China is to credit, again, for suits. There were cards with suits by the 12th century but they were sort of like an outgrowth of dominoes or play money. Like money, the suits were ranked by denomination, as if you were playing with ones, fives, tens, twenties, and hundred-dollar bills.
 [14:22] Merry Chase (merrytricks): There's a little blurbage behind me, to your left, showing an early Chinese card and telling more about those suits.
 [14:22] Merry Chase (merrytricks): The forebears of our four modern suits, were Mamluk decks. Nobody seems certain whether cards traveled first to India and Persia and then to Arabia, or vice versa, but in one direction or another, the Silk Road carried, along with other treasures, the early decks of playing cards.
 [14:23] Merry Chase (merrytricks): And in the Arabian Mamluk dynasty, we get not only 4 suits, but also, although the number of cards wasn’t standardized for a while, we begin to see decks of 52 just like modern playing cards.  (Although unlike most modern decks, these were hand-crafted with silver and gilt paint.)
[14:23] Merry Chase (merrytricks): You can see examples of those Mamluk suits up in the air above the Chinese card.
[14:24] Merry Chase (merrytricks): And in the Arabian Mamluk dynasty, we get not only 4 suits, but also, although the number of cards wasn’t standardized for a while, we begin to see decks of 52 just like modern playing cards.  (Although unlike most modern decks, these were hand-crafted with silver and gilt paint.)
 [14:24] Merry Chase (merrytricks): grr, um, let me try to move forward with my thoughts once more!
[14:24] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Suits, yes.
[14:24] Merry Chase (merrytricks): And divination. You wanted to hear about tarot, not just cards. So....
[14:25] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Also, by now, we know for sure that cards are being used to tell fortunes. Some of the Mamluk cards have fortunes on them in calligraphy --- “I will, as pearls on a string, be lifted in the hands of kings.” “May God give thee prosperity; then thou will already have achieved thy aim.” “With the sword of happiness I shall redeem a beloved who will afterwards take my life.“

And speaking of swords, Swords was one of the early suits, and is one of the modern tarot suits, too. The Mamluk suits were Swords, Polo Sticks, Cups and Coins, and these evolved into our tarot suits and our poker suits, with some interesting variations according to region once they hit Europe.
 [14:25] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Up in the air on the right, you can see the evolution of European suits. There are some fun variations on our familiar four.
[14:26] Merry Chase (merrytricks): From Arabia cards entered Spain and thence the rest of Europe.  A 1371 Catalan rhyming dictionary defines “naip” as playing card, possibly from the Arabic na-ib, the word for a court card in the Mamluk decks. At that time, Andalusia was still under Muslim rule, so in spreading “into Europe” the cards really only had a few hundred kilometers to travel.
[14:26] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Then we see the nobles of Italian city-states commissioning decks of cards, with family members portrayed as the various images on the court cards.  Now, by the end of the 15th century, from the deck of 52, we expand to that serendipitous 78 by adding 22 special cards with allegorical themes, called “trionfi” or “triumphs.”
[14:27] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Trionfi, or triumphs, is also the name of a game played with the cards, and another game is called tarocco, and from there, we get Tarot. In modern fortune-telling decks, those triumphs are called the Major Arcana, while the other 52 cards are referred to as the minor arcana.
[14:27] Merry Chase (merrytricks): So, now here we are in Renaissance Italy with gilt-and-silver cards all the rage among the nobility, but cards require one more thing before they can become widely popular, and that’s affordability.  The Tarot of Marseilles brings a new standardization and simplicity to card design, and then, enter the printing press.
[14:27] Wildstar Beaumont waves silently
[14:28] Merry Chase (merrytricks): In the poster at center behind me you can see seven cards, from various eras, and see that evolution from ornate portraiture to simplicity, paint to woodcut to printing press.
 [14:29] Merry Chase (merrytricks): The inquiring minds of the Enlightenment studied spiritualism and the occult with as much seriousness as they gave to areas that we still think of as science today, though of course there was plenty of quackery and charlatanism as well.  A history of tarot was invented from whole cloth, whence we get a fabricated ancient Egyptian origin for the word “tarot.”
[14:29] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Tarot catches the popular imagination. It appears in stories and poems. Decks of cards can be produced cheaply in assembly-line fashion, from printing to cutting to sorting and packaging, and fortune telling decks are advertised in the London news sheets of the 18th century. Soon, everyone from Napoleon Bonaparte to Wolfgang von Goethe to Lisa Simpson is getting tarot card readings.  And it is on The Simpsons that a 79th card is added to the deck. The Happy Squirrel.
[14:30] Merry Chase (merrytricks): On the course of this journey, there have been reawakenings in interest in spiritualism in general, and tarot specifically. During one of these, in 1910, the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck was published, and it has remained one of the most popular decks of all time. Its imagery was drawn the 15th century Sola Busca deck, from the Italian noble era of tarot.  You can also see the influence of the Marseilles tarot. And in turn, the Rider-Waite-Smith imagery has continued to be the basis for hundreds of variations of tarot decks.
[14:30] Merry Chase (merrytricks): I couldn't find any statistics on the current popularity of tarot, or sales of tarot decks, in a quick last-minute search. It'd be interesting to know.
[14:31] Merry Chase (merrytricks): But in a nutshell, that's the evolution of tarot cards.

 [14:31] Merry Chase (merrytricks): We see on that 7-card poster, the more modern decks, starting with the 4th card, the iconic Rider-Waite-Smith deck.

[14:32] Merry Chase (merrytricks): On the bottom row are more recent decks but there are so many... do a web search for almost anything plus the word tarot and it seems like you'll find a deck.
 [14:32] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Goddess Tarot, Heavy Metal Tarot, whatever.
[14:33] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Now, one important aspect of history has been Prohibition.
[14:33] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Both divination and simple game play with cards, as well as gambling, have been prohibited at various times and places.
[14:33] Merry Chase (merrytricks): 1294, China: Not only gamblers, and the owner of the premises, but the block printer who printed the cards, are arrested, whipped, and fined, under laws against gambling.

1376, Florence: A decree outlaws the recently-introduced practice of playing ‘naibbe,’ or card games.

1377, Paris: Card play is forbidden on working days. Through the remainder of the 14th century, card play is prohibited in various municipalities and states of Europe.
 [14:34] Merry Chase (merrytricks): 1614, Spain: The Inquisition tortures Margarita de Borja until she confesses to cartomancy. Margarita de Borja confessed to the Spanish Inquisition:
“She would lay five rows of cards on the table, each row containing four cards face up. Then she picked them up and shuffled them while saying: ‘Lady Saint Martha, you are in the church, you listen to the dead and inspire the living: so tell me through these cards what I am asking you about.’  Having the cards coming up in pairs; kings near kings, pages near pages and so on; was a good omen, but having the cards came up in any other configuration indicated a bad omen.”

(And I would ask, was that witchcraft, or prayer and meditation? )
[14:35] Merry Chase (merrytricks): 1966 – 1976, China: The Cultural Revolution bans playing and printing of cards. When cards return, court cards are replaced by numbers 11, 12 and 13.

Card Play Today: Playing cards is forbidden by Islam as it may distract from thoughts of Allah and also lead to gambling, which is forbidden.
 [14:35] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Tarot Today: Check your local laws before reading tarot for pay.  Professional cartomancy remains banned in many places and though the laws are rarely enforced, most “fortune tellers” safeguard themselves with disclaimers: “For entertainment purposes only.” Reading cards has sometimes been defended as a practice of religious or speech freedom.

[14:36] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Whew. That's a lot of history. I've thrown up a ton of words. But if you'd like, I can throw a few more up about theory and science of tarot.
[14:36] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): You have time, I believe.
[14:36] Senna (sennathesoothsayer): yes please, if you have time
[14:36] Wildstar Beaumont: of course .. please continue
[14:36] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Okay! Good!
[14:36] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Does tarot work, and, if so, why, or how?
[14:37] Merry Chase (merrytricks): In my own practice I’ve found it unsettling that I can read for someone and they will respond to me that my insight was uncanny – although I have absolutely no knowledge of their situation, before or after the reading!
[14:37] Merry Chase (merrytricks): I issue a sort of disclaimer that I have no psychic ability, and that tarot is just a form of meditation. But why do the most relevant cards, for meditating on, seem to turn up time and time again? Out of 78 cards, we choose ten, and I tell you their story. Every ten-card story is different, depending on each card and its position and the relationship between the ten.  Somehow, out of the random shuffle of archtypal images, the right story comes up for almost every querant. Not 100%, but nearly every reading, my clients tell me I’m spot on. And I have no idea of the particulars of their lives, and how the tarot story I told them has answered their questions.
 [14:38] Merry Chase (merrytricks): This experience clearly isn’t limited to me and my clients. For centuries, tarot decks continue to sell. More new designs are created, and scores of existing designs remain best-sellers.
[14:38] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Famous tarot author Mary K Greer cites Jung and Hawking on her website, in her discussion of this question.  Certainly the imagery of tarot is rooted in archetypes that speak to common human experience. There are cards about love, and cards about night terrors, and cards about delusion. Everyone has experienced those things.
 [14:38] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Maybe tarot, dream, and other methods of divination, tap into the collective subconscious and circumvent our linear perception of time. We know intellectually that our concept of time as a line or stream is only subjective, so maybe insights into past and future events are delivered because in consulting oracles we step for a moment out of the subjective time stream.
[14:39] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Professional tarot readings go for about $50 to several hundred dollars, US. They’re comparable to psychotherapy sessions, not only in price but in the kind of benefit people derive from them. And another parallel might be that they’re both imprecise sciences, soft sciences, and modalities that work for some people and not for others.

[14:39] Merry Chase (merrytricks): We know so little really, about the human mind, about consciousness and about time. But for more about the directions in which science might pursue this question, including trippy graphs about quantums and stuff, check out Greer’s blog, here:
 [14:40] Merry Chase (merrytricks): I will take questions in a moment.
[14:40] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Thanks for coming to my talk on the history of tarot. It only skimmed the surface of the subject. If you'd like to delve deeper, I can highly recommend a couple of my research resources:
For the history of playing cards http://www.wopc.co.uk/history/earlyrefs.html
I'm sorry I couldn't credit all sources of information and images but I did my best. If there's material included I ought to have credited, please let me know and I will correct that. And please forgive me, remembering this is a presentation given for love and not for profit, to benefit a good cause.
 [14:41] Merry Chase (merrytricks): And if you’d like to get a reading from me…
I'm sorry I didn't have time to create a whole Experience for you to walk into, here, today, but I am working on something with Cara Cali at Botanica, where there will be 22 Experiences to walk into. So I hope you'll all come to that.  Stay tuned.
And please, if you are able, help my severely disabled daughter, here: 
[14:41] Merry Chase (merrytricks): So, any questions about anything from history to theory to...?
[14:41] Merry Chase (merrytricks): eep, doorbell, brb!!!
[14:42] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Heh.
 [14:42] Merry Chase (merrytricks): oh wow, sweet, it was kids caroling!
[14:42] Senna (sennathesoothsayer): :-)
[14:42] Merry Chase (merrytricks): I had to run them off though because of my daughter's being sick and asleep.
[14:42] Lady Sumoku: How many were actually named Carol?
[14:42] Merry Chase (merrytricks) feels like a Scrooge.
[14:43] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Excuse me, I'll see if I can catch them and ask which one(s) is/are Carol.
[14:43] Senna (sennathesoothsayer): hehe
 [14:43] Merry Chase (merrytricks): so anyway, Tarot? Questions?
[14:44] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): How many decks do you own?
[14:44] Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, Scottie Melnik!
 [14:44] Merry Chase (merrytricks): I own two decks plus maybe four or five automatic tarot tables inworld, and five decks in RL.
 [14:44] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): What draws you to your favourites?
[14:45] Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, SennaTheSoothsayer Resident!
[14:45] Merry Chase (merrytricks): I prefer reading from Rider-Waite-Smith for others, just because it's familiar to so many people.
[14:45] Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, Karenza McCullough!
[14:45] Merry Chase (merrytricks): For myself, it depends on my mood largely.
 [14:45] Merry Chase (merrytricks): I am very fond of one called Wheel of Change because it's multi-cultural and multi-era, and features images like factory smokestacks, and burning guitars.
[14:45] Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, Lady Sumoku!
[14:45] Senna (sennathesoothsayer): I like the Rider-Waite-Smith as the pictures are so self-explanatory
[14:46] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Yes, they are, very accessible.
[14:46] Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, MurphyFox Manimal!
[14:46] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Some decks speak directly and others take a lot of study.
[14:46] Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, Otenth Paderborn!
[14:46] Merry Chase (merrytricks): There's some I love for the art but they don't really speak to me.
[14:47] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Some are just fun and funny.
 [14:47] Merry Chase (merrytricks): But it can be really valuable reading an accompanying book with a deck, if it's well-written, and finding out all kinds of depths in the variations the creator made, the liberties they took, with the standard images.
[14:48] Otenth Håkon Paderborn (otenth.paderborn) shuffles through his inventory looking for the 3D tarot images he thinks he bought from Madcow Cosmos
[14:48] Merry Chase (merrytricks): That's another thing I like about Wheel of Change. If there's a garden shed with a broken window there's a reason for it, and it can have startling impact.
 [14:49] Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, Liz Wilner!
[14:49] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Some creators seem to create a deck out of pure asthetic inspiration, and others have more theory in mind.
[14:49] Merry Chase (merrytricks): A 3D deck sounds fascinating, Otenth!
[14:49] Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, Wildstar Beaumont!
 [14:50] Otenth Håkon Paderborn (otenth.paderborn): It was an art exhibit. He did only some of the major arcana.
[14:50] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Ahh.
[14:50] Merry Chase (merrytricks): I am working on sort of a 3D experience of tarot hsitory, actually the third incarnation of my exhibit.
 [14:50] Otenth Håkon Paderborn (otenth.paderborn): The only thing I can find is a landmark from 2008.
[14:50] Lady Sumoku drags Wulfi back inworld through the power of interpretive dance.
[14:50] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Brava. Well-danced.
[14:51] Liz Wilner smiles
[14:51] Zantabraxus (zantabraxus.aristocarnas) hands Smokey the connection glue gun
 [14:51] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander) chuckles
 [14:51] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Any other questions, about decks, about historic moments in tarot, about reading tarot?
[14:51] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Or anything?
[14:51] Merry Chase (merrytricks): The name of my cat?
[14:51] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Moggy?
[14:51] Wildstar Beaumont: Tarot ?
[14:52] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Nope, not at all related. Pure nonsequitor. Hendrix Chainsaw.
[14:52] Liz Wilner: Decks
[14:52] Liz Wilner: oh!  lol
[14:52] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Now I have some good names for future cats!
[14:52] Wildstar Beaumont: :)
[14:52] Murphy T. Fox (murphyfox.manimal): Good night everyone
[14:52] Lady Sumoku: I wouldn't have guessed that.
[14:52] Lady Sumoku waves
[14:52] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Oh, how about, how long have I been reading?
[14:52] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Over three decades.
[14:53] Lady Sumoku has been reading over three decades, but not cards.
[14:53] Merry Chase (merrytricks) feels almost as old as her avatar looks!
 [14:53] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Oh yeah, I've been reading for about 52 years. Ha. Tarot for 30+
 [14:53] Lady Sumoku: You have me beat, but I'm not saying by how much.
[14:54] Wildstar Beaumont: :)
 [14:55] Merry Chase (merrytricks): I have to say too that while tarot gives much comfort and guidance, and people say my readings are spot on, tarot never told me my kid was going to be disabled by neuro-immune disease, or the level of disaster of Hurricane Katrina, or that Trump would be elected, or any major horrors I've seen. I never saw them coming via Tarot.
 [14:55] Senna (sennathesoothsayer): I find I can never read anything that is about me or which affects me personally with tarot
[14:55] Liz Wilner: so Tarot won't give Powerball numbers, then
[14:55] Lady Sumoku: We wouldn't have been able to duck many of those things anyway.
[14:56] Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, Zantabraxus Aristocarnas!
[14:56] Merry Chase (merrytricks): But Tarot has given me ways to look at the past and present and hints of things to be prepared for, or ways to influence the future, like Dickens’ Ghost of Christmas to come. Shadows which may yet be, or not.
 [14:56] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Yeah, I can only read for myself in a limited way, that's true too.
[14:57] Merry Chase (merrytricks): It's good even if you're a good reader, to have someone else read for you sometimes.
[14:57] Merry Chase (merrytricks): And yes, can't duck what's coming. You can only hope to influence things for the best.
[14:57] Merry Chase (merrytricks): And maybe with these ancient roots and universal archetypes, tarot helps put it all into perspective.
 [14:58] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Powerball numbers. Hm. I actually have not tried that so I can't be sure it wouldn't work!
[14:58] Lady Sumoku: I'm kicking myself for not buying one of those 365-day emergency food pallets now. :P
[14:58] Wildstar Beaumont: :)
[14:58] Lady Sumoku doesn't have room for four years' worth
[14:58] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Well, then there's the value of preparedness. I put a whole lot of effort into assembling an emergency supply box, which got stolen from my car!
[14:58] Lady Sumoku: D'oh
[14:59] Merry Chase (merrytricks): yeah
[14:59] Merry Chase (merrytricks): pfft

[14:59] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Did the cat return?
[14:59] Merry Chase (merrytricks): So we can try to divine the future but the gods and other humans will always mess with us anyway.
[14:59] Merry Chase (merrytricks): The cat?
[14:59] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Pfft.
[14:59] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Angry cat, ja?
[15:00] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Oh, maybe my cat is the one who took my emergency box from my car, and has set up a secret bunker somewhere.
[15:00] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Cats are devious like that
[15:01] Merry Chase (merrytricks): hahaha
[15:02] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Ermengarde, I wonder, has anyone written Tarot For Your Cat?
 [15:02] Merry Chase (merrytricks): That may be a golden concept there.
[15:02] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): I've seen the Tarot for Cats, which is interesting. Mostly as cats like to sit on things.
[15:02] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Right.
[15:03] Merry Chase (merrytricks): That's all my cat has ever done with my cards.
[15:03] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Drat, it's already been done, though. There goes my retirement plan.
[15:03] Lady Sumoku: I think you can count yourself blessed, then.
[15:03] Merry Chase (merrytricks): ha, true
 [15:04] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Are there any other questions?
[15:04] Lady Sumoku: Maybe there's room for Tarot for Hamsters.
[15:04] Merry Chase (merrytricks): I noticed that the entire proceedings will be posted on the website. I hope the person noting things down hasn't crashed and lost their notes.
[15:04] Lady Sumoku: We will collaborate if there are gaps
[15:04] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): We would appreciate copies of your images to include.
[15:04] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Okay, yes!
[15:04] Merry Chase (merrytricks): To whom should I provide those?
[15:05] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): There will be photos posted in the Flickr group also :)
[15:05] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Also, please touch the sign with the Sun, on the right. It will give you presents.
 [15:05] Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, Ancasta Resident!
[15:05] Zantabraxus (zantabraxus.aristocarnas): We are slightly behind on the transcripts, due to the nature of holiday schedules, but hope to be caught up soon.
[15:05] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Danke, the gift is very kind.
[15:06] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Are there any last tips before we reward our speaker appropriately?
[15:06] Merry Chase (merrytricks): I'm very gradually creating a full set of tarot t-shirts. By the time SL5 is out I may be done.
[15:06] Lady Sumoku: We'll probably be on our third lives by then.
[15:06] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta) grins
[15:06] Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, Wildstar Beaumont!
[15:07] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Thank you all so much for being here, and being interested in this stuff, and for your generosity!
[15:07] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Danke again for your very interesting presentation, and for speaking at the Salon in general.
[15:07] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander) applauds
[15:07] Otenth Håkon Paderborn (otenth.paderborn): Thank you!
[15:07] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta) applauds!
[15:07] Liz Wilner applauds
[15:07] Otenth Håkon Paderborn (otenth.paderborn) applauds
[15:07] Renza (karenza.mccullough) applauds
[15:07] Lady Sumoku cheers
[15:07] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Thanks! I am sorry, again, that I couldn't make it more of a multimedia experience, but do watch for the exhibit at Botanica which will be very much one.
[15:07] Wildstar Beaumont: very interesting ! thank you !
[15:07] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Thanks!
[15:07] Senna (sennathesoothsayer):      ˜*•. ˜*••*˜ .•*˜
[15:07] Senna (sennathesoothsayer):      ˜*•. ˜*••*˜ .•*˜
[15:07] Senna (sennathesoothsayer): ˜*•.  ɊǷǷﺎﻣɊƲՏȻ  .•*˜
[15:07] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Thank you all so much!
 [15:08] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Its been really interesting, I've learned a few things.
[15:08] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Great! I'm so glad!
[15:09] Merry Chase (merrytricks): I've had a ton of fun researching this, since I created my first exhibit for Decades Festival about 2.5 years ago.
[15:09] Merry Chase (merrytricks): My second exhibit was at Rocca and drew a lot of visitors so I'm excited to be working on v3.
[15:09] Merry Chase (merrytricks): And of course I'll be happy to read for any of you. Just message me.
[15:10] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): You had an aether address for that?
[15:10] Merry Chase (merrytricks): ah yes
[15:10] Merry Chase (merrytricks): merrytricks@gmail.com
[15:11] Merry Chase (merrytricks): or drop me a notecard inworld
[15:11] Liz Wilner: how do you do those remotely?
[15:12] Martini Discovolante: hello Otenth! soz i missed your greeting earlier. pokey day for  this little lump of coal!
[15:12] Merry Chase (merrytricks): I I've had successful readings here inworld, or via skype, or email.
 [15:12] Lady Sumoku: It's fine weather for pokey days, at least in the northern hemisphere.
 [15:12] Otenth Håkon Paderborn (otenth.paderborn): I just assumed you were off chasing children in some other existence.
[15:12] Merry Chase (merrytricks): It's actually startling -- or maybe not -- for people who know how strangely intimate and present this virtual reality can be.
[15:12] Merry Chase (merrytricks): But it seems startling to me how well remote readings work.
[15:12] Otenth Håkon Paderborn (otenth.paderborn) nods
 [15:13] Otenth Håkon Paderborn (otenth.paderborn): I like your comment on your website about how SL strips away the "meat world"
[15:13] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Oh and telephone, of course. Mustn't forget that fine invention.
[15:13] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Ha, thanks!
[15:13] Martini Discovolante: i met my quota early.
[15:13] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Exactly.
 [15:14] Martini Discovolante: thanks to the state of the edu system, they are none too bright , these new ones.
[15:14] Merry Chase (merrytricks): There's a way we're more present to one another here, than in the flesh.
[15:14] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander) smiles at Fraulein Martini and the unexpected knight at his feet
 [15:14] Merry Chase (merrytricks): So many nights are not what we expect.
 [15:15] Zantabraxus (zantabraxus.aristocarnas): My goodness, Hello JJ
[15:15] Martini Discovolante: i hear the knights are longer this time of year in this heisphere
[15:15] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander) groans
[15:15] Merry Chase (merrytricks): For anyone who wanted to hear the tarot talk, it's over but it will be up on the Salon blog and I think I'll put it on my blog as well.
[15:15] Wildstar Beaumont: time to go ... good night everybody and thank you again Miss Chase
[15:16] Lady Sumoku waves
[15:16] Merry Chase (merrytricks): JJ is here at nearly Solstice, so of course is nearly the shortest knight. [Note: My brain must have been in the Southern hemisphere at this point.]
[15:16] Renza (karenza.mccullough): Good night and thank you.
[15:16] Otenth Håkon Paderborn (otenth.paderborn): Thank you very much.
 [15:16] Zantabraxus (zantabraxus.aristocarnas) groans
[15:16] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Thank you all again, so much!
[15:16] JJ Drinkwater graons
 [15:16] Otenth Håkon Paderborn (otenth.paderborn) waves goodbye and poofs.
[15:16] Liz Wilner: Thank you Merry...and thank you Baron and Baronin for hosting this once-again interesting salon! :)
[15:16] Merry Chase (merrytricks): I know, I should have had more puns in my talk. I'll try to be better prepared net time.
[15:16] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Take care everyone
[15:16] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Thanks and happy Solstice to all!
[15:16] Otenth Håkon Paderborn (otenth.paderborn) left chat range.
[15:17] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Bitte sehr
[15:17] Liz Wilner waves to all
 [15:17] Zantabraxus (zantabraxus.aristocarnas) smiles at Liz
[15:17] Merry Chase (merrytricks): I'll be here for a few minutes more, cleaning up my mess.
 [15:18] Lady Sumoku is glad she doesn't have to do it.
[15:18] Zantabraxus (zantabraxus.aristocarnas): Merry, thank you so much for the interesting talk, and on such short notice.
[15:18] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Indeed.
[15:18] Merry Chase (merrytricks): Thanks!

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Æther Salon - Asylums! (Edited Transcript)

Most of you know me as Beryl Strifeclaw.  I keep the asylum here in New Babbage afloat when I'm not off on some insane quest or other unexpected madness.

Let me begin this by saying how this journey began for me and the reason that I began taking an interest in asylums and mental hospitals, long before I joined SL. It had nothing to do with a fascination with the past.  I met someone who actually worked in a hospital treating those in need.  I would soon learn something from them that you aren't going to see in a history book or a newspaper.

Everyone probably has or had a friend, or at least seen depicted on TV, where someone cannot stand how their profession is depicted on screen.  Real lawyers who hate how slimey they are represented, Doctors who despise being compared to their television actors (Patch Adams), Cheerleaders as the brainless bullies, and soldiers complain the truth is never accurately depicted. My friend had similar complaints about mental institutions, except theirs was that in all forms of media the asylum or hospital was never there to actually help anyone.  It was always a backdrop for some twisted location where no one listened, people experimented uncarringly upon patients, or delighted in torturing their victims.

To them every asylum or mental hospital represented in stories was always the backdrop of a 'torture porn' where those who worked there had no redeeming qualities at all.  The most recent examples of these I've spoken to them about was American Horror Story: Asylum and the psychiatrist in American Horror Story: Murder House. She despised both of these depictions as it only further serves the negative perception in the public mind toward mental health facilities.  The worst part for her was when the psychiatrist in Murder House called therapy a sick joke and no one was ever helped by it. She found that offensive to everything she represented. Often when people speak of mental hospitals and asylums this picture of torment and torture is brought to mind first.  Sadly it is just another thing, like the social stigma and mockery surrounding medication or needing therapy, that adds to the anxiety that make many people forgo the help that they could get.There is no getting around that terrible things happened in these places, and the manner of their corruptions might still surprise you.

However, if you take nothing else out of this, I hope it will be to realize that there are still people working in these facilities, which have much better practices today than even twenty years ago.  For every uncaring individual wanting their pay-check, or corrupt practitioners, there are people who want to help those in need and nothing I say today should stop you from seeking them out.
With that said lets go back to the earliest asylums...

In 872, Ahmad ibn Tulun built a hospital in Cairo that provided care to the insane, which included music therapy.  Bimaristans were Islamic institutions that were later described by European travellers who wrote about their wonder at the care and kindness shown to 'lunatics'. Despite this medical historians would say, "They were a drop in the ocean for the vast population that they had to serve, and their true function lay in highlighting ideals of compassion and bringing together the activities of the medical profession."  (Roy Porter 1997 The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity)

In Europe during the medieval era, the 'mad' were housed in a variety of settings. Monasteries, towers (fools' towers), hospitals and more. The ancient Parisian hospital Hôtel-Dieu also had a small number of cells set aside for lunatics, whilst the town of Elbing boasted a madhouse, the Tollhaus, attached to the Teutonic Knights' hospital. Dave Sheppard's Development of Mental Health Law and Practice began in 1285 with a case that linked "the instigation of the devil" with being "frantic and mad". The level of provision for the care and control of the insane remained extremely limited at the turn of the 18th century. Madness was seen as a domestic problem, with families and parish authorities central to regimens of care. Parish authorities would often provide financial support, the provision of parish nurses and, where family care was not possible, lunatics might be 'boarded out' to other members of the local community or committed to private madhouses or workhouses.

In the late 17th century, this model began to change, and privately run asylums for the insane began to proliferate and expand in size. Already in 1632 it was recorded that Bethlem Royal Hospital, London had "below stairs a parlor, a kitchen, two larders, a long entry throughout the house, and 21 rooms wherein the poor distracted people lie, and above the stairs eight rooms more for servants and the poor to lie in".  (Allderidge, Patricia 1979 Management and Mismanagement at Bedlam). Inmates who were deemed dangerous or disturbing were chained, but Bethlem was an otherwise free roaming building. Its inhabitants could wander around its confines and possibly throughout the general neighborhood in which the hospital was situated.  In 1676, Bethlem expanded into newly built premises at Moorfields with a capacity for 100 inmates. Practices such as leeching the patients and restraints such as the 'Tranquilizer chair' were used during this era.

This, is the tranquillizer chair. The idea was that they couldn't see, hear or otherwise get any stimulation. The bucket was for what you think it was for. The mad were more likely to go more insane in these conditions. But that was because they weren't interested in treating the patients. Privately run asylums quickly got a reputation for caring more about profits than care for their patients.  The August 19, 1858 edition of The Times printed an editorial about three cases of wrongful confinement. The editor used those accounts, which were filled with detailed descriptions of greed and corruption leading to these confinements revealed the subpar regulations in place. People were bribing doctors to wrongfully commit relatives in order to receive their inheritances early among other things.

According to the editor any man or woman could, without much difficulty, be incarcerated in a Private Lunatic Asylum when fully within the realm of reason.  Private asylums like these would have been employed by the upper class, as they were expensive, but in the case of inheritance it was sometimes worth the cost. The corruption went further.  Sometimes Asylum directors were bribed to ensure better care was given to one specific patient. Someone who wanted to lock up their sister or mother but ensure nothing bad happened to them.  The fear of abuse made the Doctors even more influential because even judges and politicians had to use their services for members of their family.

By failing to place a relative who was thought to be insane or problematic to the status quo into an asylum, families were opening up the possibilities of “immediate danger, disgraceful scenes, and exposures” to the public and ruining their family image. (Monroe, Henry Articles on Reform in Private Asylums. Deviance, Disorder, and the Self.) In this era where your image was everything, incarcerating anyone who shamed your family on the surface was important to your own welfare. There were asylums for 'hysterical women' and 'drunkards' and women who were guilty of 'infidelity'.  Here are just a few things that could get one involuntarily committed:  Insanity caused by anxiety, Epilepsy,  Insanity caused by childbirth, Insanity caused by overwork, depression, inebriation, and infidelity (known as 'Moral Insanity')

Even their opinions were enough to get women incarcerated.  The men who were in charge of these women, either a husband, father, or brother, could send women to mental institutions stating that they believed that these women were mentally ill because of their strong opinions.  Between the years of 1850-1900, women were placed in mental institutions for behaving in ways the male society did not agree with. "These men had the last say when it came to the mental health of these women, so if they believed that these women were mentally ill, or if they simply wanted to silence the voices and opinions of these women, they could easily send them to mental institutions. This was an easy way to render them vulnerable and submissive."  (Packard, E.P. (1873). Modern persecution, or, Insane asylums unveiled as demonstrated by the report of the Investigating Committee of the Legislature of Illinois.)

However, not everyone was corrupt.  And even the corrupt ones did not stand in the way as things were changing for the better as the world was getting ready for Sigmund Freud's theories.  Even decades before his studies into psychotherapy things were becoming more humane during the Enlightenment and 'Optimistic' asylum periods. Attitudes towards the mentally ill began to change. It came to be viewed as a disorder that required compassionate treatment that would aid in the rehabilitation of the victim. When the ruling monarch of the United Kingdom George III, who suffered from a mental disorder, experienced a remission in 1789, mental illness came to be seen as something which could be treated and cured.

Therapeutic Optimism in asylums ran from about 1830 to around 1860 and were at its height in the 1840s. Asylums built under the 1808 and 1828 County Asylums Act tended to be left to the management of doctors. As the theories and techniques of managing lunatics in asylums developed, so did the belief that this asylum treatment itself was the correct, scientific way to cure 'lunacy'. Signs of the therapeutic change can be seen in the changing legislation. The 1828 Madhouses Act, unlike the 1774 Act, was concerned about conditions in asylums. These included the 'moral conditions'. Official visitors were required to inquire about the performance of divine service and its effects. In 1832, this inquiry was extended to include "what description of employment, amusement or recreation (if any) is provided". This was not much, but it was a start.

In May 1839 John Connolly visited Lincoln Asylum where Robert Gardiner Hill had abolished mechanical restraint of patients in a small asylum. On appointment to Hanwell, Connolly proceeded to abolish it in a large asylum. Several English asylums were practising non-restraint by 1844. Doctors were already recognizing that chains and restraints were worsening the patients conditions instead of helping them recover.  To paraphrase the friend I mentioned at the beginning, 'because real life isn't a horror story where doctors are soulless monsters, they did what scientists are supposed to do and changed their practices to fit the science.'

Iron chains, mercury pills, and Tranquillizer chairs were being abandoned for more humane treatments and eventually most were discontinued completely in the 1850's as a failed experiment along with bleeding the patients. Outdated treatments, there were many: Instead they began to utilize actions and the freedom to move around their tiny rooms.  When left with nothing to do but live in the tiny space patients often went mad even when they were sane before but activities were being introduced.  Painting, reading, and game activities. So while you might have found devices like the tranquilizer chair in the old asylum in Babbage, the Dunsany, it was considered archaic to Professor Rance or Solsen 'today'.  However, we would be starting to use Steam boxes, hydrotherapy, lobotomies, and radium therapy instead.

The steam box. Basically using water and sweat to calm people. The science showed them it might work and for some it did, especially in inebriates asylums.  But...In our era, 188X, focus had shifted from incarceration and chains to treatments.  Some of these treatments were misguided or fundamentally flawed.

Treatments would continue to improve after Freud as people tried different techniques in their quest to help.  However conditions were still far from perfect and corrupt practices still had rational, innocent people taken away to private asylums. Journalists would soon begin exposing this world in more depth.  Unsurprisingly there were very few who would check themselves in during the era of the Tranquillizer chair.  Now exposes would become more frequent as more journalists began to feel safer committing themselves to get their stories, and the rampant abuse, terrible conditions, and corruption would be exposed.

The Victorian era, our era, actually set the stage for modern mental hospitals with the advances we made. Reforms would continue and eventually bedlams would abandon some of their morals due to overcrowding and more unstable patients.  Asylums would eventually fall out of favor and be replaced with mental hospitals

To cover everything that covers asylums would take far more than an hour could possibly contain, so here are a few resources you can use:

http://studymore.org.uk/mhhtim.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_treatment
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-2141741/Sent-asylum-The-Victorian-women-locked-suffering-stress-post-natal-depression-anxiety.html

But really it takes only a few seconds of research these days to find the abuse.  It's much harder to find the humanity hidden in there.

I will finish off by saying this. There is help, and you should not let anything I say or reveal during this salon stop anyone from seeking assistance should they need it.  Even if some psychiatrists got their license from a cracker jackbox, and others mock those who need help or medication, do not let that stop you from seeking needed assistance. Unless someone is a mental health specialist themselves, they have no right to comment upon your mental health in any way.

Fin~




Æther Salon - Asylums! (Unedited Transcript)

[14:08] Luncheon Plate Mk 2: Have some petit fours.
[14:08] Solace Fairlady: The baron is cost cutting again, i am sure they were petit fives last time
[14:09] Darlingmonster Ember whispers: :D
[14:09] Tepic Harlequin: Grand Eights is better.....
[14:09] Stereo Nacht: Good day Ms. Andrea!
[14:09] Beryl Strifeclaw: Well, I'll give it another few minutes due to the unusual things going on with getting word out
[14:09] Russell A. FirecrestRussell A. Firecrest admires the wide array of interesting looking people.
[14:10] Darlingmonster Ember: welcome Miss Andrea
[14:10] Solace Fairlady: welcome back m Davis
[14:10] Stereo Nacht: I think I did my best... If people want to relay to more groups, feel free!
[14:10] Solace Fairlady: Hello Andrea!
[14:10] Stereo Nacht: Good day Mr. lighthouse!
[14:11] Andrea Jones: Greetings all
[14:11] Stereo Nacht: Good day Ms. Sera!
[14:11] Now playing: Igor Kipnis - Scarlatti (D): Harpsichord Sonata In D, K 443 [7xt]
[14:11] Stereo Nacht: Good day Ms. Writer!
[14:11] Sera: Hello Miz Nacht
[14:11] Darlingmonster EmberDarlingmonster Ember gets out her notebook and quill
[14:12] Ceejay Writer: Good Day, Stereo, and all!
[14:12] Beryl Strifeclaw: Hello everyone.
[14:12] Solace Fairlady: Hello Miss Ceejay, miss Srea!
[14:12] Solace Fairlady: *Srea
[14:12] Emerson LighthouseEmerson Lighthouse waves to Stereo
[14:12] Solace Fairlady: *S e r a
[14:12] Solace Fairlady: and m lighthouse
[14:12] Stereo Nacht: You'll get it, Ms. Solace! ;-)
[14:12] Ceejay Writer: I'll stay as long as I can, but at some point RL is going to haul me off by the collar.
[14:12] Sera: Hello everyone and thanks Miz Fairlady
[14:13] Solace Fairlady: one day, Stereo:)
[14:13] Emerson LighthouseEmerson Lighthouse nods and smiles to Ms Fairlady
[14:15] Beryl Strifeclaw: Most of you know me as Beryl Strifeclaw.  I keep the asylum here in New Babbage afloat when I'm not off on some insane quest or other unexpected madness.
[14:15] Beryl Strifeclaw: Let me begin this by saying how this journey began for me and the reason that I began taking an interest in asylums and mental hospitals, long before I joined SL.
[14:16] Beryl Strifeclaw: It had nothing to do with a fascination with the past.  I met someone who actually worked in a hospital treating those in need.  I would soon learn something from them that you aren't going to see in a history book or a newspaper.
[14:16] Darlingmonster Ember: ooo
[14:16] Beryl Strifeclaw: Everyone probably has or had a friend, or at least seen depicted on TV, where someone cannot stand how their profession is depicted on screen.  Real lawyers who hate how slimey they are represented, Doctors who despise being compared to their television actors (Patch Adams), Cheerleaders as the brainless bullies, and soldiers complain the truth is never accurately depicted.
[14:17] Beryl Strifeclaw: My friend had similar complaints about mental institutions, except theirs was that in all forms of media the asylum or hospital was never there to actually help anyone.  It was always a backdrop for some twisted location where no one listened, people experimented uncarringly upon patients, or delighted in torturing their victims.
[14:17] Beryl Strifeclaw: To them every asylum or mental hospital represented in stories was always the backdrop of a 'torture porn' where those who worked there had no redeeming qualities at all.  The most recent examples of these I've spoken to them about was American Horror Story: Asylum and the psyciatrist in American Horror Story: Murder House.
[14:18] Beryl Strifeclaw: She despised both of these depictions as it only further serves the negative perception in the public mind toward mental health facilities.  The worst part for her was when the psyciatrist in Murder House called therapy a sick joke and no one was ever helped by it. She found that offensive to everything she represented.
[14:18] Darlingmonster Ember: nods
[14:18] Beryl Strifeclaw: Often when people speak of mental hospitals and asylums this picture of torment and torture is brought to mind first.  Sadly it is just another thing, like the social stigma and mockery surrounding medication or needing therapy, that adds to the anxiety that make many people forgo the help that they could get.
[14:19] Beryl Strifeclaw: There is no getting around that terrible things happened in these places, and the manner of their corruptions might still surprise you. However, if you take nothing else out of this, I hope it will be to realize that there are still people working in these facilities, which have much better practices today than even twenty years ago.  For every uncaring individual wanting their paycheck, or corrupt practicioners, there are people who want to help those in need and nothing I say today should stop you from seeking them out.
[14:19] Beryl Strifeclaw: With that said lets go back to the earliest asylums...
[14:19] Darlingmonster EmberDarlingmonster Ember applauds
[14:20] Beryl Strifeclaw: In 872, Ahmad ibn Tulun built a hospital in Cairo that provided care to the insane, which included music therapy.  Bimaristans were Islamic institutions that were later described by European travelers who wrote about their wonder at the care and kindness shown to 'lunatics'. Despite this medical historians would say, "They were a drop in the ocean for the vast population that they had to serve, and their true function lay in highlighting ideals of compassion and bringing together the activities of the medical profession."  (Roy Porter 1997 The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity)
[14:20] Rowan Entilles: +
[14:21] Beryl Strifeclaw: In Europe during the medieval era, the 'mad' were housed in a variety of settings. Monsasteries, towers (fools' towers), hospitals and more.  The ancient Parisian hospital Hôtel-Dieu also had a small number of cells set aside for lunatics, whilst the town of Elbing boasted a madhouse, the Tollhaus, attached to the Teutonic Knights' hospital. Dave Sheppard's Development of Mental Health Law and Practice began in 1285 with a case that linked "the instigation of the devil" with being "frantic and mad".
[14:22] Beryl Strifeclaw: The level of provision for the care and control of the insane remained extremely limited at the turn of the 18th century. Madness was seen as a domestic problem, with families and parish authorities central to regimens of care. Parish authorities would often provide financial support, the provision of parish nurses and, where family care was not possible, lunatics might be 'boarded out' to other members of the local community or committed to private madhouses or workhouses.
[14:22] Beryl Strifeclaw: In the late 17th century, this model began to change, and privately run asylums for the insane began to proliferate and expand in size. Already in 1632 it was recorded that Bethlem Royal Hospital, London had "below stairs a parlor, a kitchen, two larders, a long entry throughout the house, and 21 rooms wherein the poor distracted people lie, and above the stairs eight rooms more for servants and the poor to lie in".  (Allderidge, Patricia 1979 Management and Mismanagement at Bedlam)
[14:23] Beryl Strifeclaw: Inmates who were deemed dangerous or disturbing were chained, but Bethlem was an otherwise free roaming building. Its inhabitants could wander around its confines and possibly throughout the general neighborhood in which the hospital was situated.  In 1676, Bethlem expanded into newly built premises at Moorfields with a capacity for 100 inmates.
[14:24] Beryl Strifeclaw: Practices such as leeching the patients and restraints such as the 'Tranquilizer chair' were used during this era.
[14:24] Beryl Strifeclaw: This, is the tranquilizer chair
[14:25] Stereo Nacht: Ah! Sensory deprivation...
[14:25] Tepic Harlequin: blimey! that'd do it
[14:25] Stereo Nacht: (more or less)
[14:25] Beryl Strifeclaw: Completely
[14:25] Philip Sexton: Convenient
[14:25] Beryl Strifeclaw: The idea was that they couldn't see, hear or otherwise get any stimulation
[14:25] Russell A. Firecrest: I don't think I'd find that particularly calming.
[14:25] Beryl Strifeclaw: The bucket was for what you think it was or
[14:25] Beryl Strifeclaw: The mad were more likely to go more insane in these conditions
[14:25] Tepic Harlequin: convienient, anyhows.....
[14:26] Stereo Nacht: yeah... I expect...
[14:26] Beryl Strifeclaw: But that was because they weren't intrested in treating the patients
[14:26] Beryl Strifeclaw: Privately run asylums quickly got a reputation for caring more about profits than care for their patients.  The August 19, 1858 edition of The Times printed an editorial about three cases of wrongful confinement. The editor used those accounts, which were filled with detailed descriptions of greed and corruption leading to these confinements revealed the subpar regulations in place. People were bribing doctors to wrongfully commit relatives in order to recieve their inheritances early among other things.
[14:27] Philip Sexton: Hah!
[14:27] Beryl Strifeclaw: According to the editor any man or woman could, without much difficulty, be incarcerated in a Private Lunatic Asylum when fully within the realm of reason.  Private asylums like these would have been employed by the upper class, as they were expensive, but in the case of inhertiance it was sometimes worth the cost.
[14:28] Beryl Strifeclaw: The corruption went further.  Sometimes Asylum directors were bribed to ensure better care was given to one specific patient. Someone who wanted to lock up their sister or mother but ensure nothing bad happened to them.  The fear of abuse made the Doctors even more influential because even judges and politicians had to use their services for members of their family.
[14:28] Beryl Strifeclaw: By failing to place a relative who was thought to be insane or problematic to the status quo into an asylum, families were opening up the possibilities of “immediate danger, disgraceful scenes, and exposures” to the public and ruining their family image. (Monroe, Henry Articles on Reform in Private Asylums. Deviance, Disorder, and the Self.)
[14:28] Beryl Strifeclaw: In this era where your image was everything, incarcerating anyone who shamed your family on the surface was important to your own welfare.
[14:29] Beryl Strifeclaw: There were asylums for 'hysterical women' and 'drunkards' and women who were guilty of 'infidelity'.  Here are just a few things that could get one involuntarily committed: 
Insanity caused by anxiety, Epilepsy,  Insanity caused by childbirth, Insanity caused by overwork, depression, inebriation, and infidelty (known as 'Moral Insanity')
[14:30] Beryl Strifeclaw: Even their opinions were enough to get women incarcerated.  The men who were in charge of these women, either a husband, father, or brother, could send women to mental institutions stating that they believed that these women were mentally ill because of their strong opinions.  Between the years of 1850-1900, women were placed in mental institutions for behaving in ways the male society did not agree with.
[14:30] Tepic Harlequin: ladies with strong opinions? scandelous!
[14:30] Beryl Strifeclaw: "These men had the last say when it came to the mental health of these women, so if they believed that these women were mentally ill, or if they simply wanted to silence the voices and opinions of these women, they could easily send them to mental institutions. This was an easy way to render them vulnerable and submissive."  (Packard, E.P. (1873). Modern persecution, or, Insane asylums unveiled as demonstrated by the report of the Investigating Committee of the Legislature of Illinois.)
[14:31] Beryl Strifeclaw: However, not everyone was corrupt.  And even the corrupt ones did not stand in the way as things were changing for the better as the world was getting ready for Sigmund Frued's theories.  Even decades before his studies into psycotherapy things were becoming more humane during the Enlightenment and 'Optimistic' asylum periods.
[14:31] Stereo Nacht: (I would have been sent to one!)
[14:31] Beryl Strifeclaw: I will take a moment while you digest the idea of an optimistic asylum period.
[14:32] Beryl Strifeclaw: Ready now?  Yay.  Attitudes towards the mentally ill began to change. It came to be viewed as a disorder that required compassionate treatment that would aid in the rehabilitation of the victim. When the ruling monarch of the United Kingdom George III, who suffered from a mental disorder, experienced a remission in 1789, mental illness came to be seen as something which could be treated and cured.
[14:33] Beryl Strifeclaw: Therapeutic Optimism in asylums ran from about 1830 to around 1860 and were at its height in the 1840s. Asylums built under the 1808 and 1828 County Asylums Act tended to be left to the management of doctors. As the theories and techniques of managing lunatics in asylums developed, so did the belief that this asylum treatment itself was the correct, scientific way to cure 'lunacy'.
[14:33] Tepic Harlequin: funny that, the bloke in charge gets ill, an suddely yer can cure it...
[14:33] Beryl Strifeclaw: Signs of the therapeutic change can be seen in the changing legislation. The 1828 Madhouses Act, unlike the 1774 Act, was concerned about conditions in asylums. These included the 'moral conditions'. Official visitors were required to inquire about the performance of divine service and its effects. In 1832, this inquiry was extended to include "what description of employment, amusement or recreation (if any) is provided".
[14:34] Beryl Strifeclaw: This was not much, but it was a start.
[14:34] Beryl Strifeclaw: In May 1839 John Connolly visited Lincoln Asylum where Robert Gardiner Hill had abolished mechanical restraint of patients in a small asylum. On appointment to Hanwell, Connolly proceeded to abolish it in a large asylum. Several English asylums were practising non-restraint by 1844.
[14:34] Stereo Nacht: (Hence the saying: "If men could get pregnant, abortions would be free and easy to get!" :-P )
[14:34] Beryl Strifeclaw: Doctors were already recognizing that chains and restraints were worsening the patients conditions instead of helping them recover.  To paraphrase the friend I mentioned at the beginning, 'because real life isn't a horror story where doctors are soulless monsters, they did what scientists are supposed to do and changed their practices to fit the science.'
[14:35] Beryl Strifeclaw: Iron chains, mercury pills, and Tranquilizer chairs were being abandoned for more humane treatments and eventually most were discontinued completely in the 1850's as a failed experiment along with bleeding the patients.
[14:35] Philip Sexton: Mercury pills?
[14:36] Beryl Strifeclaw: Outdated treatments, there were many
[14:36] Beryl Strifeclaw: Instead they began to utilize actions and the freedom to move around their tiny rooms.  When left with nothing to do but live in the tiny space patients often went mad even when they were sane before but activites were being introduced.  Painting, reading, and game activities.
[14:36] Tepic Harlequin: well, if yer sane an yer take mercury, yer go insane... so.... if yer insane...
[14:36] Philip SextonPhilip Sexton nods
[14:36] Beryl Strifeclaw: So while you might have found devices like the tranquilizer chair in the old asylum in Babbage, the Dunsany, it was considered archaic to Professor Rance or Solsen 'today'.  However, we would be starting to use Steam boxes, hydrotherapy, lobotomies, and radium therapy instead.
[14:37] Beryl Strifeclaw: The steam box
[14:38] Rowan Entilles: excellent they can lose weight too, i suppose
[14:38] Beryl Strifeclaw: Basically using water and sweat to calm people
[14:38] Russell A. FirecrestRussell A. Firecrest chuckles
[14:38] Rowan Entilles: they should have required doctors to use their contrivances
[14:38] Wright Davis: they're not far off, a sauna can be very calming
[14:39] Beryl Strifeclaw: Yes, the science showed them it might work and for some it did
[14:39] Darlingmonster Ember: radium makes everything better
[14:39] Beryl Strifeclaw: Especially in inebriates asylums
[14:39] Beryl Strifeclaw: Buut
[14:39] Beryl Strifeclaw: In our era, 188X, focus had shifted from incarceration and chains to treatments.  Some of these treatments were misguided or fundamentally flawed.
[14:39] Wright Davis: obviously there is a but
[14:39] Beryl Strifeclaw: Treatments would continue to improve after Frued as people tried different techniques in their quest to help.  However conditions were still far from perfect and corrupt practices still had rational, innocent people taken away to private asylums.
[14:39] Beryl Strifeclaw: Journalists would soon begin exposing this world in more depth.  Unsurpiringly there were very few who would check themselves in during the era of the Tranquilizer chair.  Now exposes would become more frequent as more journalists began to feel safer committing themselves to get their stories, and the rampant abuse, terrible conditions, and corruption would be exposed.
[14:40] Beryl Strifeclaw: The Victorian era, our era, actually set the stage for modern mental hospitals with the advances we made.
[14:40] Stereo Nacht: (I'll pass on the steam chair - sometimes, even local temps are too hot for my little penguin self!)
[14:40] Beryl Strifeclaw: Reforms would continue and eventually bedlams would abandon some of their morals due to overcrowding and more unstable patients.  Asylums would eventually fall out of favor and be replaced with mental hospitals
[14:41] Andrea Jones: Well we had a queen in charge.
[14:41] Philip Sexton chuckles
[14:41] Beryl Strifeclaw: To cover everything that covers asylums would take far more than an hour could possibly contain, so here are a few resources you can use:
[14:41] Beryl Strifeclaw: http://studymore.org.uk/mhhtim.htm
[14:42] Beryl Strifeclaw: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_treatment
[14:42] Beryl Strifeclaw: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-2141741/Sent-asylum-The-Victorian-women-locked-suffering-stress-post-natal-depression-anxiety.html
[14:42] Beryl Strifeclaw: But really it takes only a few seconds of research these days to find the abuse.  It's much harder to find the humaity hidden in there.
[14:43] Beryl Strifeclaw: I will finish off by saying this.
[14:43] Beryl Strifeclaw: There is help, and you should not let anything I say or reveal during this salon stop anyone from seeking assistance should they need it.  Even if some psyciatrists got their license from a cracker jackbox, and others mock those who need help or medication, do not let that stop you from seeking needed assistance.
[14:43] Beryl Strifeclaw: Unless someone is a mental health specialist themselves, they have no right to comment upon your mental health in any way.
[14:43] Beryl Strifeclaw: Fin~
[14:43] Sera: agreed
[14:43] Darlingmonster EmberDarlingmonster Ember applauds
[14:43] Stereo Nacht:  `*.¸.*´ APPLAUSE `*.¸.*´APPLAUSE `*.¸.*´
[14:43] SeraSera applauds
[14:44] Rowan Entilles: ^-^
[14:44] Solace FairladySolace Fairlady applauds
[14:44] Darlingmonster EmberDarlingmonster Ember applauds
[14:44] Rowan Entilles: wonderful!
[14:44] Philip SextonPhilip Sexton applauds
[14:44] Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, Darlingmonster Ember!
[14:44] Solace Fairlady: Thank you beryl!
[14:44] Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, Wildstar Beaumont!
[14:44] Russell A. FirecrestRussell A. Firecrest claps
[14:44] Juliette Moldylocks: Thank you, Beryl. Well done!
[14:44] Rowan Entilles: thank you so much
[14:44] Stereo Nacht: Thank you Ms. Beryl!
[14:44] Darlingmonster Ember: very nice
[14:45] Philip Sexton: Madam, you kept an orderly house *smiles*
[14:45] Beryl Strifeclaw: It's okay
[14:45] Darlingmonster Ember: Grins
[14:45] Solace Fairlady: a very informative and thoughtful presentation Beryl
[14:45] Beryl Strifeclaw: I'll take questions if you have any of course
[14:46] OldeSoul Eldemar: Raises hand
[14:46] Beryl Strifeclaw: Yes Olde?
[14:46] OldeSoul Eldemar: Beryl is there a copy of your presentation so I may read it
[14:46] Beryl Strifeclaw: Actually yes
[14:47] OldeSoul Eldemar: Thank you so much !
[14:47] Darlingmonster Ember: a question: it seems the medical profession actually redirects expertise every 10 years, is that speeding up like most science? Are they learning things faster about care for duress?
[14:47] OldeSoul Eldemar: that is fine, whenever
[14:48] Jedburgh Dagger: Medicine is really very conservative to change in many ways
[14:48] Beryl Strifeclaw: With the internet things really sped up with the sharing of information and practices
[14:48] Beryl Strifeclaw: But yes, things are still slow.
[14:48] Darlingmonster Ember: ah
[14:48] Darlingmonster Ember: thank you
[14:48] Beryl Strifeclaw: They still need to be licensed unlike the first asylums I mentioned
[14:48] Stereo Nacht: I guess the "at least, do no harm" finally means something... (Most of the time)
[14:48] Jedburgh Dagger: The bulldog clamp was developed for surgery in the early 1900s and was still being used in some places up until the late 80s
[14:49] Beryl Strifeclaw: Most of those and the private ones had no licenses and it wasn't required till the 1800's
[14:49] SeraSera shakes head in amazement
[14:50] Beryl Strifeclaw: The private asylums were the worst offenders usually
[14:50] Solace Fairlady: thank you Beryl, and to the salon:)
[14:50] Solace FairladySolace Fairlady bobs a curtsey
[14:50] Darlingmonster EmberDarlingmonster Ember curtsies
[14:50] Philip Sexton: Most interesting talk.
[14:50] Stereo Nacht: Good night Ms. Solace, Ms. Ember!
[14:50] OldeSoul Eldemar: Take care ladies
[14:51] Sera: Thank you Beryl. Well done
[14:51] Juliette Moldylocks: Good evening, all.  Thank you again, Beryl.