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christian counseling today
Vol. 21 no. 2
«
Diane Langberg , PH.D.
looking inward
T
he Philadelphia Hospital for
Mental Diseases opened for
its first patient in 1907. The
population grew quickly,
as did the stories of abuse and neglect.
During World War II, 3,000 conscien-
tious objectors were assigned to men-
tal hospitals around the country. In
Philadelphia, a Quaker, named Charlie
Lord, was appalled by the conditions
of the patients and surreptitiously use
three rolls of film to take photos in
order to expose the violence and ongo-
ing humiliation inflicted on vulnerable
humans. The pictures were given to
Eleanor Roosevelt following WWII,
and the general public was appalled at
the horrific abuse having just witnessed
the decimation of human beings carried
out by the Nazi regime. Byberry, as the
hospital was called, reached its peak in
the 1960s with 7,000 patients. Again in
the 80s, horrid living conditions, sexual
abuse, and starvation were exposed and
the facility was closed in 1990.
As counselors, many of you have
worked with those who have experi-
enced abuse in psychiatric hospitals.
You are keenly aware of the shame
and ostracism patients have experi-
enced—not only in society at large,
but within the Christian community.
Some may have family members who
have suffered from both a particular
diagnosis and the wrongful, hurtful,
and ignorant responses of others. To
navigate life with a mind inside your
head that does not hold on to what is
real or torments you day and night is
to live with great vulnerability, confu-
sion, pain and despair. The pictures
that Lord took were published in
LIFE
®
magazine and titled, “Bedlam
1946.” They are deeply distressing;
however, improper responses by the
Christian community—including its
judgments or avoidance of those whose
minds are their own enemies, and from
which they cannot escape—are equally
disturbing.
Certainly, there are also examples of
the Church entering in and caring with
dignity for those with mental illness,
as well as instances, such as Charlie
Lord, of those who have exposed abuse
toward the vulnerable and worked to
bring change when human beings were
suffering in hidden places. If we are to
live in this world as people obedient to
the Word of God, then we must live
out I Corinthians 12:22-23, which
tells us an outstanding truth: “… those
members of the body which seem to
be weaker are necessary. Those parts
of the body which we think to be less
honorable, on those we bestow more
abundant honor; and our unpresentable
parts have more abundant propriety.”
Look at Lord’s pictures and see—
see the indignity, the dehumanizing
“bestowed” on those who were created
in the image of God… see the abuse
of power against the helpless and those
with no voice… see the degradation
which not only shames those so dishon-
ored, but also dishonors the name of
the Lord our God who created both
the vulnerable and the “caregiver.”
Then let us raise our heads and hearts
to those around us. Let us look at our
own families where depression, despair
and anxiety cloud minds; where voices
torment thoughts; where agitation and
sleeplessness lead to irrational thinking.
Let us look on the outskirts of our
churches where many are marginalized
because we have not yet learned how
to enter into their pain and wounds
and sit silently and respectfully, able
Tending to the Sick Among Us