Ever True to Thee
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What is the history of the Mississippi State Hospital?
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We're standing in a hallway at the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield, one of a handful of state-run residential mental health facilities still operating here. It's my first time really seeing the hospital, but I've heard about it my whole life. Everyone in Mississippi has. It was the threat that your family always gave you. If you act crazy, you'll go to Whitfield.
Oh, yeah? People see you do that, you're going to Whitfield. If you don't behave, I'm going to take you to Whitfield.
Put you out. Whitfield. That's the informal name for the Mississippi State Hospital. It's been Mississippi's primary mental health facility since 1935, when the state shuttered the old asylum in Jackson and moved those patients out here. It's that place your mom says you'll go if you don't act right, the place your friend's neighbor got sent. It has mythic status in Mississippi.
Why was the old asylum in Mississippi considered infamous?
But standing here in a marble room full of outdated therapy equipment, Whitfield's not scary. It's quaint. at least in the museum. Hard to say how much of that is because of our tour guides, Donna Brown and Kathy Denton. These two have been here for decades and know everything about the place. Donna took the lead with Kathy chiming in. I notice a black and white photo of a woman in what looks like a shower. The lady in the shower, they had to pencil in panties and bra on her because that was pornography for 1938. It's a quirky museum. There's a display of patient-run newspapers and literary magazines. And then, around the corner, posters for movies where Whitfield makes a cameo, including the Sandra Bullock classic, A Time to Kill.
The scene in the movie where she breaks into the psychiatrist's office was filmed in the building that you passed on the way to this one. In The Beast Within, you watch a lot of it on YouTube. But you're going to recognize very little of the hospital. There's a lot of screaming and running and dark.
Part of the museum is housed in one of Whitfield's old hydrotherapy units. Hydrotherapy basically means using water as medical treatment for physical or mental health. If you've ever taken a dip at a spa, you've had hydrotherapy.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the history of the Mississippi State Hospital?
1:37–3:07
2
Why was the old asylum in Mississippi considered infamous?
3:07–5:28
3
How did hydrotherapy play a role in mental health treatment?
5:28–14:10
4
What was the Kirkbride Plan and its significance?
14:10–22:02
5
Who was Dorothea Dix and what was her impact on asylums?
22:02–25:56
6
How did the old asylum's legacy shape public perception?
25:56–1:02:23