Following up from last week’s lecture, I thought it
was pretty absurd that wanting to be free could constitute an
individual having a mental disorder. The term "Droptephelia" did
not actually exist on Google, but I did find the term “Drapetomania”,
which is what I think Professor McKinney was referring too. The disorder was coined
by an American doctor named Samuel Cartwright in 1851. When Cartwright first described
the disorder he stated that it was, “unknown to our medical authorities [...]
yet known by our planters and overseers” emphasizing the point that only Negros
could be subject to this disease, since the planters and overseers (who are
white) bear witness to this first hand (pbs.org). According to Cartwright, the
disorder was a direct result from masters becoming too friendly or familiar
with their slaves, thus treating them as equals. The disease caused the
enslaved individual to run away from his or her service. However, as with any disease
there was a cure, and if the medical procedures were followed correctly, the
issues of having Negros neglect their duties could be prevented. Dr. Cartwright
claimed that the only way to rid a Negro of this disease was to severely beat
the individual. In his book, Disease and Peculiarities of the Negro
Race, Cartwright contests, “If any
one, or more of them at a time are inclined to raise their heads to a level
with their master or overseer […] they should be punished until they fall into
a submissive state which was intended for them to occupy […] they are to be
kept in that state and treated like children to prevent and cure them from running
away” (pbs.org). Cartwright supports his argument for why
this disease must be dealt with immediately with biblical word. He argued that
it is rule in the bible that slaves obey their masters, and be punished if they
fail to follow the protocol (listverse.com). In his book, Dr. Cartwright also
makes a reference to the white males stating that they had a moral obligation
to themselves to make sure their slaves are always “submissive-knee benders”
because it is the power that God bestowed upon them (pbs.org).
There was another mental disorder within the slave
race known as Dysaethesia Aethiopica, which was also coined by Cartwright. This
disorder was one of pure laziness, affected the mind and body, and was seen
mostly in Negros that had "too much" freedom for their own good
(pbs.org). He defined this disease as a, “partial insensibility of the skin[…]as
to be like a person half asleep, that is with difficulty aroused and kept awake[…]accompanied
with signs or lesions on the body discoverable to the medical observer”
(pbs.org). Once again the cure for this was violent whippings and beatings. It
is absurd how brainwashed people had become with the ideas of racism to believe
that signs of laziness showed on the skin. It makes no sense and there was no
scientific proof to back this claim up. Cartwright’s discovery of such diseases
serves as an example of scientific racism, which is an example of pseudoscience.
Pseudoscience is a form of scientific hypothesis or techniques that lack valid
reason or support.
Professor McKinney also briefly mentioned in class
the system of cataloging psychological disorders, known as the DSM. The model
is simply a mode of classification that is used to diagnosis individuals with psychiatric
disorders, and has been in development for centuries. Drapetomania was included
in the DSM model back in the 19th Century and was categorized as a
psychiatric disorder of impulsive behavior.
Heres a link to more information on Drapetomania
http://academic.udayton.edu/health/01status/mental01.htm
I agree that this idea of "drapetomania" is absurd. This idea exemplifies just how potent the institution of slavery was. Not only did slavery influence the thinking of whites, but it spread to even the sciences. One part that really struck me was the colored hospitals. The number of African Americans admitted into the hospital was questionable. Surely, all of these African Americans were not mentally unstable. Instead, it seemed to be a way to get free labor out of the African American men. Finally, the issue of the deaf mental hospital accused of rape really demonstrated how ignorant the white people were. It's not that hard to determine whether someone is deaf or if they are retarded. Surely, the whites could have known that the deaf man could not hear.
ReplyDeleteIt amazes me how far slaveowners were willing to go to prove that they were "good owners" or that they were innocent victims. If a slave ran away, it wasn't because the slaveowners were bad owners, but because the slave had a disease that caused them to run away. If a slave desired freedom, they weren't considered normal human beings, who in reality all want freedom, but were labeled as mentally ill. And if a slave wanted to find their family or no longer work for a white person after being emancipated, they weren't taking advantage of their freedom, they were just plain lazy. Not only did white people believe that they needed to own a slave to prove their "whiteness," but they also needed to find ways to prove that anything that went astray from their plans was not their fault. So in every case, the slaveowners were perfect and the slaves were flawed. It's sickening to think that slaveowners felt the need to create disorders to justify the way that they treated slaves and even more sickening that they only "treatment" they could come up with was to beat the slaves more. Memphis, this was really good research and a good article. Thanks for sharing it.
ReplyDeleteI think "Drapetomania" is simply another way in which strongly opinionated white oppressors justified the institution of slavery. Science, wrongly seen by many as truth or unarguable fact, was used to condone or to rationalize the American slave trade and American slavery since its origins. Craniometry and physical anthropology were used to provide scientific support for claims that black men’s skulls (and therefore brains) were smaller than their white male counterparts. Just another example of how pervasive science can be in establishing racism and race thinking. If one needed another line of defense in supporting their claim that black skinned individuals were inferior, the field of psychological pseudoscience could provide that. Giving slaves a unique psychological disorder was aimed to invalidate their desire to, in basic terms, be free. This disease is simply a tool used by those who are comfortable using science to support the inhumane treatment of another human and to visualize their rebellious slaves as mentally ill. Drapetomania is a haunting example of the combined power of race thinking and scientific “facts.”
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