Dorothea Dix's One Purpose and a Multitude of Accomplishments

Nurses are usually stereotyped as flirty, seductive vixens who can give you all your needs including those that are not prescribed by the doctor. Some are even thought of as escorts as they give you all their attention, take care and assist you in all ways they can in exchange for money. What they don’t know is that, nurses are naturally compassionate and selfless in helping others, just like one of the famous pioneers in nursing that is not often heard of – Dorothea Lyne Dix.

Dorothea Dix in Her Early Years

Dorothea Lynde Dix was born on April 4, 1802. She was the eldest among the three children of Joseph Dix and Mary Bigelow Dix. She grew up in an abusive and unstable environment created by her alcoholic father and her mentally-ill mother. As a young girl, she had to learn to lean on nobody but herself especially when it comes to taking care of her younger siblings. Oftentimes, whenever her parents fight, she would find refuge in her grandmother’s home in Boston. She may not have the best guidance from her parents but she managed to keep herself from becoming like them. 

Passion for Teaching

Upon entering school, she was already way ahead of everyone else as she was taught by her father how to read and write at a very young age. This advantage gave her the passion to read and teach more. At age twelve, her parents were no longer able to take care of their children and so her grandmother decided to take them away to Boston. Living in a mansion, with all your needs being taken cared of is not where Dorothea was accustomed to. Her grandmother had a hard time instilling the idea of her being wealthy and so she asked her sister to “take care” of Dorothea for a while. 

Dorothea Dix's Model School for Girls, Boston, 1831

Dorothea stayed in her grandmother’s sister’s house for nearly four years. There, she was able to meet her relatives and her second cousin, Edward Bangs. He was the one who helped Dorothea to reach her dream of becoming a teacher in a school. Soon after, Edward fell in love with, proposed and was engaged to Dorothea. But with a hesitant heart towards the idea of marriage, she continued to delay their wedding date. When her father died in 1821, she finally decided to return the ring to Edward.

Advocacy for the Mentally-Ill

Dorothea's Efforts Paved a Way for the First Mental Asylum in the US

In 1836, she was taking care of her sick grandmother while teaching in her school and that was the time when her health has taken its toll. She had what we now call as Tuberculosis and was advised by her good friend, Dr. Channing to leave her school and take a long vacation in England. When she returned in 1841, her mother and grandmother had already died and she continued on in her passion for teaching. Volunteering to teach Sunday school to women inmates in East Cambridge Jail has unveiled a lot of things to her. 

Dorothea was struck by the fact that different kinds of inmates like drug addicts, escorts, retards, and the mentally-ill were all living in one dreadful condition. She immediately gathered information regarding this matter, taking the issue to the courts of different states and after several debates and discussions, she finally won legislative support. The government has set aside funds for mental asylums in the US to support Dorothea’s advocacy to help the mentally-ill get well in an environment suited for them. 

Dorothea was the Superintendent for Union Army Nurses

To further her dreams, she decided to travel to Europe where she made drastic changes to how Europeans treat the mentally-ill in two years’ time. Upon her return to the US in 1854, she never stopped with her advocacy even during the Civil War, where she became the Superintendent for Army Nurses. In 1881, the state hospital of Trenton, New Jersey was built through her relentless efforts. This was the place where she died on July 17, 1887. She was then buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.    

What Do We Know About Dorothea Dix Today?

Dorothea the Nurse

Reading a lot of stories and biographies of Dorothea Dix has made me realize that the passion to help people is what we all need to succeed in really making a difference. While it is true that nurses need to have the right of education in an approved school and be certified before we can become full-fledged nurses, the ability to start change is just within our hands – right here, right now. Dorothea Dix is a living proof to that fact. Now, even though we know that she held a major part in humanitarian reform in the US, her life and contributions are still not as profound as any other nurses in history. 

Her achievements are broader and bolder yet we can only read and hear about them in less than 10% of books referencing to the history of Psychology. Some suggested that the reason for this was because Dorothea did not manage to make us understand the nature of mental illness. Even though this may seem absurd, Dorothea wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. She was known to be modest when it comes to her accomplishments.  

She’s the type of person who doesn’t want the crowd to be looking after her. She often refused to have a certain hospital be named after her and her publications remained discreet. Nevertheless, I believe that people like her don’t need to be put under the radar. They should at least be given credit for doing what they did as there are only some like them remaining today.