Dorothea Lynde Dix

Overview

Dorothea Lynde Dix was born in Hampden, Maine, USA, on April 4, 1802. Although her family was rich, it was very unstable and abusive situation for Dorothea. Dorothea herself however was herself responsible enough to to look after her siblings and somehow managed to give her younger siblings some stability that their parents could not manage. At school, Dorothea discovered she was advanced in comparison to her peers, and far further in education. This allowed her more time to teach her siblings whilst waiting for her own aged peers to catch up. This itself giving her an appreciation for teaching.  At the tender age of 15, she actually went on to teach a class of children, aided by Edward Bangs. With the aid of her Grandmother Dorothea wished to open a school for girls to poor to otherwise afford education. Another change in Dorothea's life came when she decided to teach a class foe woman in the East Cambridge Jail. Conditions were horrible, and she was deeply frustrated and shocked with how the inmates were being treated. Cold, unhygienic, and stressful living conditions, that no person should be forced to live in. Dorothea made this a legal issue, and fought for the rights of the prisoners, many who were also mentally and emotionally vulnerable. When it came to the mentally ill, Dorothea adopted the stance that better living conditions, could not hurt the chances of improving the mental well being of its patients. This was unfortunately a rather radical attitude at the time, as the general perception was that the mentally ill could not be cured and weren't about to experience pain, cold, or heat. Dorothea was especially humble, she was embarrassed by praise and also opposed moves to name Hospitals after her. As a result many history books tended to overlook many of her contributions, though in recent years there have been pushes to tell of her story better.