Arkham Mercy Hospital- Creative Story

Creative “Short” Story- Arkham

            Once upon a time, there was a boy born on May 9, 1785 named Thomas Wheatley. He was born in a sleepy town called Needletown that was distant from other civilization for milesand into a seemingly normal family, for some of his siblings, like his elder brother Adrian and his sister Megan, had an illness within them. You see the two of them had schizophrenia, and during that time philosophers (psychologists of ye olden times) didn’t know that there was such a thing. Instead they assumed that this was due to being born on a full moon and diagnosed Thomas Wheatley’s poor siblings as “lunatics.” The doctors, peasants and townsfolk of Needletown banished them into the asylum just outside of the town, where they were treated inhumanely.

Thomas snuck out of his parent’s house to see his siblings and feed them whatever his mother made that night. Things only got worse as the “father of psychiatry” developed the “tranquilizing chair” that created psychological restraints on Adrian and Megan. One day, Thomas snuck out again one night and traversed the town limit to the asylum. He was about to visit his siblings until a doctor came in the room. The staff referred to him as “Dr. Rush” as he started cutting up Adrian. Piercing screams echoed the room and made Thomas shiver and fill up with anger. When the doctors left, he broke Adrian and Megan out, where they vowed to make better treatment for not just the patients in the asylum, but for pretty much everyone who had a mental illness.

            After years of research and organization, the trio began by trying to publicize the asylum’s barbaric treatment in the 1803, yet when they reached and preached in Needletown, rocks flew at their heads. Although their attempt in their hometown wasn’t successful, Adrian had told his friends who were also friends with Dorothea Dix who knew about these incidents and formed moral therapy for thepatients. All seemed to be satisfactory at that time for the Wheatleys, and that is when Thomas met a beautiful woman named Janet Ross, who also had an interest for humane treatment of mental patients. They got married on April 17^th, 1804 and had one boy whom they named Alfred. However, there seemed to be a change in the world of psychology around them had reverted back to their old ways. On top of that, the life span of humans in that era was about thirty years. So in order to rise up to the challenge, the Wheatleys raised their son to have a positive attitude towards moral therapy. Alfred grew up strong and healthy to be just like his father and in the 1850s when his parents passed, he took the wheel to find better treatment for mental patients. On 1856 when the horrible methods were enacted upon patients in Needletown, Alfred took some of the patients away and put them in a facility he designed and reconstructed. He called it “Arkham Mercy Hospital,” for naming it an asylum would make it nothing more than a prison. Friends of Alfred’s parents volunteered to pose as staff in the moral therapy facility.

            Although Alfred’s acts weren’t noticed and were successful, the asylum was still getting a staggering amount of patients. The treatments were emotionally scarring and even killing patients. Moreover, Alfred started to get severe pains in his chest for no noticeable reason. On May 2, 1858 he tried to inspire some of his patients to carry on his movement by inviting them to a big meet in the plaza of his hospital. Few patients were able to comprehend what he was preaching to them. Sadly, he suffered a heart attack three weeks later in the center of the plaza, with his “disciples” staring at his body. Fortunately, one child had felt the impact of his words. A girl named Sara Ali who had schizophrenia was imbued by Alfred’s words of emotion to help asylum patients cope with and have normal lives with their illnesses.

            Starting in 1875 Sara thought of ways to possibly treat mental patients with minor cases. To start somewhere, she heard of the famous Wilhelm Wundt who used specific methods and approaches over in Germany. On 1880 Sara decided to try it on her friends Marco, who had a fear of wolves, and wanted to see if she could create a breakthrough. Unfortunately, the methods that she used, structuralism, functionalism, and introspection didn’t work as well as she thought. She didn’t give up though, and with the help of the staff they still tried to care for the sick. One day, one of the staff members discovered something that could be able to help deal with schizophrenics. He found out that doses of lithium might depress some of the hallucinations by accidentally pouring some in one of the patient’s drinks! Thinking it was water, the doctor gave it to the patient who then later reported fewer hallucinations. Sara was relieved to hear this news as she started to consult and hire some psychologists. Although

            Now in the 1900s there was a huge change in psychology and dealing with mental thought processes. With the discovery of psychotherapy, especially the form psychoanalysis developed by Sigmund Freud was able to base the symptoms of patients with panic disorders, phobias, and even some schizophrenics that developed the illness through a traumatic event. This guided Sara through multiple psychological breakthroughs in therapy sessions. Having great trust and respect for the staff and leaders in Arkham Mercy Hospital, Sara Ali didn’t want to put this great progress to a sudden stop just because she passed on (because you know, she’s old according to this time). So in order to keep the dream going and the staff tending to the patients, Sara entrusted few elite leaders to take the lead when she passed. These men and women would study and learn their “modern” psychology and go into therapy sessions with patients. The first one to take the wheel after Sara’s death was Orpha Palomares in 1958, who was an excellent nurse and female psychologist.

            Orpha organized a team of researchers to get word from the outside about new ways to help these patients. The new drug phenothiazine would help the schizophrenics more effectively than the lithium, and new methods of psychotherapy were being applied with treatment. Sessions like client centered-therapy by Carl Rogers and cognitive therapy by Aaron Beck were used on the other patients with cases like depression, problems in self-actualization and phobias as well. Orpha just kept Arkham at top condition as if the facility were her child, and the better kept the place was, the more patients were being deinstitutionalized (in a good way).

            Eventually Arkham Mercy Hospital became a huge success and was going to be publicized to the whole country. Unfortunately, reporters came to Needletown and were driven out by the rocks the citizens threw. The rock thing didn’t change in that sleepy town, so Arkham remains only a legend to the world. Like a needle hidden in a haystack, these wonderful staff and members kept it secret, even to the town residents. Patients who were sent to the community were asked how they were healed. Oddly, Needletown didn’t believe some patients. They showed them where the building was, or once was. The whole hospital was torn to the ground and no traces of medical equipment were extracted. Needletown just thought it was some kind of symptom from their illnesses. The patients were baffled to see the magnificent edifice brought to a horrible end, yet they had a few ideas why. Some thought that the town wouldn’t treat the medical center as the leaders did. Others thought that ignorant vandals felt that mental patients should just stay in the asylums, and others just thought that Orpha got tired and left or something.

            The outside world eventually developed facilities like Arkham, open to the public everywhere and had many psychologists, psychiatrists and other staff. Arkham, like the greatest story never told, was said to be the best of mental hospitals in the 1900s. Some of the patients still returned to the abandoned land that once raised them and placed gifts and flowers on the charred doorsteps. Once in a while, they get together in groups and have little reunions, talking about their new lives and past adventures. It might have been better this way you know? One thing that is a definite is Orpha didn’t pass, for some of them claim to see her atop the rubble, just gazing at the land next to her.

            This story has been passed on from generation to generation, and the audience chooses whether to believe it or not. Well, I can tell you one thing. Eventually one man or woman would stand up in history to make a change to something morally or physically wrong like this. They have the courage, strength and determination to speak their own word, healthy or ill, refusing to fall under peer pressure and do what’s right. Maybe this would influence you to think about what’s really right and wrong. Needletown thought a lunatic would never be able to function in society. Sara gained many friends while working in Arkham Mercy Hospital, and it was those friends who helped carry the dream. Oh yeah, and they lived happily ever after or at least until the wars ended.