Asylum on the Hill: History of a Healing Landscape

by Katherine Ziff, Samuel T Gladding (Foreword)

Asylum on the Hill is the story of a great American experiment in psychiatry, a revolution in care for those with mental illness, as seen through the example of the Athens Lunatic Asylum. Built in southeast Ohio after the Civil War, the asylum embodied the nineteenth-century “gold standard” specifications of moral treatment. Stories of patients and their families, politicians, caregivers, and community illustrate how a village in the coalfields of the Hocking River valley responded to a national movement to provide compassionate care based on a curative landscape, exposure to the arts, outdoor exercise, useful occupation, and personal attention from a physician.

Katherine Ziff’s compelling presentation of America’s nineteenth-century asylum movement shows how the Athens Lunatic Asylum accommodated political, economic, community, family, and individual needs and left an architectural legacy that has been uniquely renovated and repurposed. Incorporating rare photos, letters, maps, and records, Asylum on the Hill is a fascinating glimpse into psychiatric history.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Mental Health

263 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 15, 2012

Reviews

[Lauren Stoolfire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love reading about the darker side of Ohio history and Ziff's book is fascinating and well put together. I particularly enjoyed looking at the pictures she included. This would make an excellent nonfiction companion to A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis.

[Shae · Rating 5 out of 5]

I gave this 5 stars because I want to support the author and encourage others to read this book. However, I do wish the author had been a little more critical about the asylum and its patients. The focus was on the moral treatment era of the asylum which was prior to the most egregious human rights abuses and probably when the asylum peaked but the author still casually glosses over the numbered gravestones and forced institutionalizations.

[Juliana Kulak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as I thought it would be!

[Jamie Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Local history is always awesome sauce. This book is well researched with many primary source documents cited and shown photographed in the text. I loved seeing the attending physicians and caretakers photographed. I also liked hearing the stories of patients, while maintaining their anonymity (e.g. patient 7).

The systemic corruption was fascinating as well. It was interesting to hear that, with each new superintendent, many politices changed in the facility. This lead to varied patient care or abuses, depending on the admin. Makes sense. I appreciate the name dropping and the direct quotes. Also remarkable that to-be presidents (governors of Ohio) had oversight of the public facility.

Similarly, I appreciated the info about gendered wage gaps.

Seeing the asylum as a community hub was something I hadn’t considered. But, it’s remarkable that the grounds were the only park in Athens for many years.

Those positives being noted, I wish this book dived into the treatments that patients endured. I want to know the philosophies of care from doctors at the time. Doctors used hydrotherapy. Why was this seen as curative? How frequently was this treatment employed? Why were women generally treated with one form of hydrotherapy, while men with a different one? I respect the author’s refrain from ogling. Sensationalizing trama is terrible. But, if the title is “a healing landscape,” I feel the book is wrong not to provide context for its traumas. (Especially because the treatments were considered medicinal at the time.)

The back cover told me about an institutionalized union attempt. I wanted to hear more about that. It wasn’t mentioned in the pages.

There’s a ton of interesting and pertinent information about this building and the grounds. Too much to list in a review! But I can’t help but feel a little like I need to conduct more research by myself about asylums. The information is so well written that I wish it would’ve researched it for me.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have ever been a student of Ohio University or a resident of Athens, Ohio this is a very familiar landmark with a fascinating history. There is much lore, some which is dispelled, and remarkable information about the philosophy, architecture, patient care, working of the facility and the evolution of 150+ years of the asylum on the hill...now known as The Ridges. Ohio University has become true stewards of the land, the buildings and the history. Once more I am proud of my alma mater as they do a wonderful job on restoration with purpose, promise, reverence.

[chris]

Interesting and informative!

I personally found this book's strongest aspect to be the various patient case files scattered throughout, providing the teeniest glimpse into many of the residents' lives. Peering at letters and poems and forms that record those whose stories have been mostly lost to time is just... an unparalleled feeling.

I agree the author had a bad habit of repeating themself within and across sections, slowing down the reading pace a little.

[Victoria Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book very much! It treated the topic very well. My only concern with it, however, was that it's depiction of Dr. Weir Mitchell could have been a bit more nuanced. While he may have made some great points, his own practices were hardly more "scientific" than the doctors whom he critiqued.

[Alan Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Asylum on the Hill is part of my research for a book Im planning on mental health treatment in Ohio. It provides an excellent history about the former psychiatric hospital in Athens, Ohio

[E.T. Bowen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great info. Unfortunately, also tends to romanticize the asylum and its history... More time should have been spent reflecting on the experiences of the patients.

[Tammy Magalis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book but i thought it was a tad slow

[Carol Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I chose to read this book because I volunteered there as a student at Ohio University. When I visited later with my children, the Athens Mental Hospital, as we knew it, was a building housing art studios. It was still a foreboding looking place. Inside there were a lot of rundown, unused rooms. I found my volunteer evenings there to be unsettling and sad. It was interesting to learn how many women were housed there for postpartum depression among other things.
Although this book has a limited audience, I found it a good read.

[Cornerofmadness · Rating 3 out of 5]

While admittedly this book has a limited audience (people interested in psychiatric history, the history of the Kirkbride plan or the history of Athens), it was a very good look at those three things. The Athens Lunatic Asylum (now known as the Ridges) was a Kirkbride hospital emphasizing nature and natural light as part of the treatment plan for the mentally ill.

I met the author at a talk she was giving about the book. Both talk and book were very interesting. It’s laid out so it progresses naturally through time. It opens with a chapter on what the moral treatment experiment of Kirkbride’s actually was. The next chapter was on the patients and to me, this was the most interesting of the chapters. It’s apparent that just about anything could have gotten you committed back in the 1800’s. The chapter on the architecture was also very interesting as was the one of the landscape. I was less interested in the chapters on the politics of running such a massive establishment and on the caretakers, but I never do like politics.

The epilogue brings it all to a close right up to what’s going on with it now. Some of the outbuildings are offices for Ohio University and the main building, what is being used of it – asbestos and lead are costly to remove so who knows how much will truly be saved in the end – as the Kennedy art museum. I’ve been in there.

[Stephen]

Anyone who has attended Ohio University or lived in Athens knows of the Athens Mental Health Center (fka The Athens Lunatic Asylum). As a child, I remember it when it still had patients and was fairly self-sufficient, growing its' own food, generating its' own power, etc. Even though Ohio University has taken over the land and now uses it for classes, storage and an art museum, many of the spooky aspects remain (the hundreds of graves with only patient numbers and no names; the dark, Gothic brick architecture, etc). Those who study local history, psychology or criminology may remember Billy Milligan...

[Mollie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed about half this book. Being an OU grad, I knew "a lot about The Ridges" but the majority of what I knew was likely myths about the area. I liked reading about the patients who were treated there and the ways OU has repurposed the buildings. Although I knew methods of treatment, politics, and architecture made the book well-rounded, those were not my favorite parts. Overall, I enjoyed learning some of the facts of this mysterious place!

[Jana Denardo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This asylum is very near where I live. I've been inside part of it as it's now reclaimed by Ohio University and is an art museum. This book is a very readable account of the moral treatment plan by Dr. Kirkbride, the history of the Athens Lunatic Asylum and the history of Athens as well. It was fascinating.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I honestly could not finish this book, despite my wanting to like it. It was rather repetitive and....well, let's just say it reminds me of a badly-written college paper, a paper written with very little information repeated over and over in a dry and uninteresting way. It was boring, which is sad considering what it's about.

[Denise · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great as a dissertation, but lacking in a final published product. The photographs are amazing although not adequately tied to surrounding text. The epilogue, however, was well worth the read. I wish the author would start with her epilogue as a foundation and create the book around it. The idea has great promise.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of particular interest to those that have lived in Athens. Rather repetitive, could have used more editing to eliminate this. Would have enjoyed additional photos of the patients and blueprints of the buildings.