Weekly Report 52: Dorothea Dix

Recently, I researched and wrote an research assessment about mental health reformer Dorothea Dix. Dix was an author, teacher, activist, and reformer who was a champion for those with mental illnesses. She is famously known for writing Conversations on Common Things. She brought health care reform to prisons and was an advocate for the indigent insane. Dix spent approximately forty years lobbying to establish state hospitals for those with mental illnesses. Accordingly, her lobbying and effort led to the creation and construction of thirty two US institutions. Here are some interesting facts I came across that are not mentioned in the assessment:

1. Dix associated and knew many of the brightest minds of her age. For example, she was close friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson and she was also William Ellery Channing's (The Father of Unitarianism) governess.

2. She acted as the Superintendent of Women Nurses for the Union Army during the Civil War. She volunteered her services within a week of the start of the war in 1861.

3. When traveling abroad, she advocated for reform to Pope Pius IX, who personally ordered construction of a new hospital for the mentally ill after hearing her report.

4. She was called "Dragon Dix" by many during the Civil War due to tendency to clash with military officials and ignore orders. Surprisingly, she was disliked by many of the nurses and military officials, even though army nursing care improved under her supervision and she ensured nurses' conditions and rights.

~Shrinidhi Joshi

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