“Everything. . .for His Relief”: The Mental Distress, Family Care, and Institutionalization of William and George Pickering, 1786–1826
When William Pickering’s mind became “troubled” in 1803, his parents and seven siblings launched into action. As hundreds of letters between family members reveal, after initially ensuring William’s safety, the family embarked on an extended initiative to heal his disordered thinking, first through lifestyle modifications and medical treatments, then boarding in the home of a physician who specialized in mental disorders. By 1807, the family decided that it was necessary to institutionalize William in the Pennsylvania Hospital where he died in 1814. The Pickering letters documenting William’s treatments—as well as those of his brother George who was also institutionalized for purported insanity—suggest a blurring of the bounds between home and asylum care in the early United States. Before asylum admission, the family pursued a range of therapies that were part familial, part medical, and part institutional. After institutionalization, family members continued to care for their confined relations.