Matthew Sciarrino

“Next to alcoholism, what intrigued and horrified Rush most in his rounds were the patients locked in the basement cells. He felt immediately that the circumstances these patients lived under were absolutely unacceptable. But the “lunatics,” who most people still viewed as damned rather than diseased, presented a unique and troubling situation. They weren’t truly in the hospital to be treated, because nobody knew for sure what their treatment should be. They were in the basement primarily to keep them safe from society, and society safe from them. The first step in improving their situation would simply involve warehousing them more benevolently. But even that proposition was challenging; nobody seemed to have the slightest idea how to proceed.”
― Stephen Fried, Rush: Revolution, Madness, and Benjamin Rush, the Visionary Doctor Who Became a Founding Father