CAMH SCAMH Thomas Merton Keyholes and Fanlights at Toronto's Most Life-Changing Address.avi

Now no one knows for sure what Merton saw, but I believe he saw some kind of abuse, partly because I know it (still) goes on. I've seen it happen, and to SCAMH clients....

Calling the Queen Street site a "life-changing" address is a bad joke.

I've used a brief clip from IT'S MY BIRTHDAY, a piece fluff in the public domain, and one from SHOCK CORRIDOR, not a piece of fluff etc., but maybe watching this brief clip will encourage viewers to get the movie. It's a work of genius, so see it for yourself....

(The clip shows an under-cover reporter nabbing an abusive keeper; the reporter eventually goes "mad" anyway - life-changing indeed!)

These are adapted from TROPING THE ASYLUM (with permission, of course). I only "filmed" half of them. I might get around to filming Clark's dismissive resonse, but I'm not sure it's cinematic....




On May 15, 1889, Thomas Merton,
a former patient at the Asylum
for the Insane, wrote the Inspectors
of Prisons and Public Charities,
W.J. O'Reilly and Robert Christie,
notifying them of important matters
"in connection with the treatment
of patients in the Asylum."




In Ward No. 12, he'd witnessed
the brutal abuse of his ward-mates....

By the Supervisor, Kennedy, and
Assistants Rutledge and McCreary.




They took John Manley and Allan Kennedy
into a room, from which he heard "faint cries"....

Through the key-hole, and the fan light
over the door, Merton watched them....

"Twisting a towel in the shape
of a rope & putting it around the neck....

"& tightening it, so that they
could not scream." The Attendants....

"Standing on the bed so that when kicking....
they would reach high up on the body...."

A patient from the "Refractory Ward"
wandered away from his walking party....

An Attendant "went after him
& brought him back & struck him

"on the head, knocked him down
& kicked him in the chest & bowels."

It was "wonderful" how careful they were,
not to take care of their patents, but

"To watch the movements of the Doctors"
for the best opportunity to abuse them.

From this "cunning way," only a detective,
posing as "a supposed lunatic" could catch them.

Merton wanted the Inspectors to understand,
he wasn't negative about Asylum and Staff....

He characterized Kennedy's successor,
Mr. Arthur Bollard, as a "model man."

He expressed gratitude for Bollard's "deep interest"
and for starting a calisthenics class....

He wished "all the attendants were like Mr. Bollard,"
but he hadn't always felt so fortunate....

He once considered himself
"unfortunate" to have been a patient....

He now considered himself "fortunate,"
"to see & know so much as I do now."

Whether as witness, or survivor,
he seems to have been both....

He trieds to be truthful, precise
although the events happened 10 years ago....

He endeavoured to give dates and names,
to be "truthful in the details."

He said he was "all right,"
except for intense "despondency or melancholy."

Otherwise, he was "quite sharp" in terms
of knowing what went on around him.

His was a book-keeper at Messrs. Kendrie & Co,
his character was good, or excellent.

There was nothing wrong with the truth
and accuracy of his statements.


Daniel Clark's Reply

Dr. Clark's reply to the Inspectors' enquiry
concerning Merton's letter is dated May 20, 1889
and is preserved in the same file.

Clark remembered Supervisor Kennedy
as an Attendant of "good reputation...."

A "kind man" who "would not be guilty
of the cruelties Mr. Merton accuses him of."

Rutledge died violently at Central Prison,
he was more victim, than victimizer....

McCreary, by then Supervisor of Ward 16,
was "one of the kindest men in the Asylum."

The patients, John Manley and Allan Kennedy,
were never "abusive or violent"....

They wouldn't have aroused "the cruel"
or "short-tempered" attendant....

Of course, abusive attendants DID exist.
provoked by patients themselves....

Clark denied that Merton had spied
on the Attendants through a key-hole.

"The truth is, no key hole is cut
through the door of any bedroom."

(Merton only says the Attendants
took the patients INTO A ROOM....)

Implying Merton was delusional, Clark
"forgets" he was committed, in 1877....

For intense depression, precipitated
by conscientiousness, over large transactions....

His "Certificates"never indicated
delusional thinking, or dishonesty.


Notes:

The original documents can be found in:

Archives of Ontario, Inspector of Asylums Correspondence, 1870-1897, RG 63-A1, Volume 250, File #6912.

For more information, and similar incidents, see Troping the Asylum (you can download a reading copy, from the Internet Archive).

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• CAMH
• SCAMH
• Transforming Lives
• Transforming Wives
• patient abuse

[socialconscience100]

Using Armstrong's Potato Head Blues for a FIGHT SCENE underlines the absurdity of the whole TRANSFORMING WIVES campaign, an even more inappropriate "accompaniment" to the issues of madness and "mental illness"....