When we say insane asylum, we mean a straitjacket. For many years it was the main symbol of psychiatric hospitals. The medics assure us that such means of securing patients have long since become a thing of the past. Nowadays, there are other, much more humane methods of pacifying the patient.
Who First Invented the Straitjacket?
History is “silent” about the origins of the straitjacket. But, it dates back to the era of the great French physician F. Pinel, who proposed its use for humane purposes. The straitjacket is a very useful invention, which was originally designed to secure the hands of prisoners, and only in the second half of the eighteenth century it was used for violently insane patients to reduce their motor activity and injuries, which occurred as a result of their aggressive actions.
In this context the word “strait” means “restraint. The straitjacket is described as early as 1772 in a book by the Irish physician David McBride, although there are claims that an upholsterer named Guilleret invented it in 1790 in France for the Bictré Hospital.
A straitjacket is a garment shaped like a jacket with long sleeves that exceed the shape of the fingertips. Its most typical use is to repeatedly straighten people who might harm themselves or others. Once the werewolf puts his hands in the sleeves, the person helping him crosses the sleeves with the chest and ties the ends of the sleeves to the back of the jacket, ensuring that the hands approach the chest with as little movement as possible. Although the straitjacket is the most common spelling, the straitjacket is also common. Straitjackets are also called camisoles.
What Kinds of Straitjackets Are There?
All straitjackets are sewn to order by a tailoring shop and can be of several types, (short, medium, long), depending on the requirements of the medical facility. The most common type is shirts sewn down to the floor and with long sleeves, thanks to which the mentally unstable person could be tied up by the “sleeves”. Also there are shirts of high security, on which belts are fixed and it is possible to fix the patient on the bed. There are shirts with rings, which are attached to the bed. Nowadays there is no ban on the use of straitjackets and they can be used to “pacify” the sick person.
Why Polar Explorers on Expeditions Take Straitjackets for Themselves
Baird was told by another Antarctic explorer, Rual Amundsen, that some members of the expedition might begin to behave inappropriately. The Norwegian called the phenomenon “expeditionary rabies,” as those who fall ill pose a danger to themselves and others. As Amundsen recounted, in 1898, one of his sailors, Tollefsen, suddenly ran away into the icy wilderness during the winter. And a second polar explorer, whom Amundsen tried to pacify, nearly chopped up the head of the expedition with an axe.
Various researchers called the condition cabin fever, polar sickness or acute expeditionitis. All of these psychiatric diagnoses are unofficial, but have clear symptoms. Those afflicted become extremely irritable, they perform impulsive acts or strange movements. Such phenomena have long been recorded in the polar latitudes. For instance, the Russian Pomors were aware of the psychopathic state of “meryachenie”, when the patient was irrepressibly drawn to repeat the words of others, to obey them in everything or, on the contrary, to make crazy antics. For example, in 1792, the son of the merchant Rybin, who was with him on a fishing schooner, saw the polar lights in the sky, suddenly threw himself overboard and swam north. When his strength ran out in the cold water, the young man drowned. The natives of the North attributed such actions to the “call of the Polar Star.”
The Use of Straitjackets
Most people know that straitjackets are usually used to pacify particularly violent mental patients. After all, it is a special garment for securing the hands and sometimes the arms and legs.
It is known from the history of this shirt that it was originally created and used to restrain prisoners. Much later it was used in medical institutions in place of the shackles used to hold the violent patients in one place. There is no single standard for these shirts, so they come with long sleeves or without them at all (they have internal cavities to accommodate the hands), have a different number of straps by which the patient was “tied” to the bed and other restraints and objects.
So-called physical restraints are indeed used to control patients’ motor activity, most often when the patient may harm himself or someone else. This practice is widespread throughout the world and its use is justified primarily by the safety of patients (it is not uncommon for a patient to ask to wear a straitjacket himself). Of course, the use of physical restraints is strictly regulated and is not an obligatory practice for all patients during the entire period of treatment in a psychiatric hospital.
That’s It!
Conclusion: Straitjacket is clothes which are necessary not only in mental hospitals but also in everyday life. Often there are situations in families of alcoholics when an alcoholic need to be pacified and this shirt can be ordered or bought in the special dress store.
