• Home
  • Health & Wellness
  • Disclaimer
    • Terms of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • DMCA Notice
  • Home
  • Health & Wellness
  • Disclaimer
    • Terms of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • DMCA Notice
24/7 Health News
No Result
View All Result
Home Article

Music and mental health: the parallels between Victorian asylum treatments and modern social prescribing

March 9, 2023
in Article
Music and mental health: the parallels between Victorian asylum treatments and modern social prescribing
Dances and concerts were usually the only opportunity for patients to meet in a large group. K. Drake/Wellcome Collection, CC BY-NC

Music has a powerful effect on the listener. It is linked to better mental health, and it has been shown to alleviate loneliness, pain, anxiety and depression.

For this reason, it is increasingly being prescribed by doctors as a form of medicine. This practice – where patients are referred to various activities such as running groups, art classes and choirs – is known as social prescribing.

Music-based activities may be prescribed to help support patients’ mental health, combat isolation, encourage physical activity, and keep an active brain.

While social prescribing is a relatively new practice, the use of music as a therapeutic tool is not. The first widespread use of music as a therapeutic tool can be traced back to the 19th century, where it was used in Victorian asylums to support patients’ treatment.

Table of Contents

  • Music in asylums
  • The benefits of music
  • Music as treatment

Music in asylums

Victorian asylums are usually associated with poor sanitation, overcrowding, danger and patients held against their will. Indeed, the Victorians had little understanding of mental illness and the brain, which meant many treatments considered barbaric today were used on patients – including bleeding, leeching, shaving the head and bathing in ice.

From the end of the 18th century, however, practitioners moved away from the worst types of physical restraint. A new practice emerged, known as “moral management”, which placed a focus on using employment, diet, surroundings and recreational activities as forms of therapy.

When state-run asylums were first introduced in Britain in the early 19th century, music soon became included as a form of moral management to distract patients outside of working hours and keep them occupied. Both music and dance were efficient ways of entertaining large numbers of patients.

By the middle of the 19th century, almost all the larger asylums in the UK had their own band and would often organise dances, attended by over a hundred patients. Asylums also hosted concerts by travelling performers, from comic sketches to solo singers and amateur choirs. Dances and concerts were usually the only opportunities for patients to meet in a large group, providing important social interaction.

An illustration depicting asylum patients dancing at a ball.
Music and dances kept patients occupied outside working hours.
Wellcome Collection

Among the smaller asylums, chiefly catering for wealthier patients, patients had more options to create music as part of their treatment. They would often bring instruments with them. And small concerts put on by patients and staff were common.

The benefits of music

Much of the therapeutic value of music was attached to its social function. Accounts suggest that patients benefited from the anticipation of these social engagements and that events were used to reward good behaviour. Music was also used to break up the monotony of asylum life.

For example, at one private asylum, Dr Alfred Wood, wrote:

These entertainments involved a great amount of trouble in their preparation and arrangement and, I may add, considerable expense; but they are invaluable as a relief to the monotony of life in an Asylum. The pleasure they afford as well in anticipation as in reality, is ample to compensate for the efforts made to present them …

Dances, in particular, offered exercise and enjoyment, and even patients who were unable to dance enjoyed the music and watching fellow patients.

Musical events also carried strict expectations of behaviour. Patients needed a good deal of self-control to participate and behave appropriately. It was this process of conforming to expectations that formed an important part of rehabilitation. William A.F. Browne, one of the most noteworthy asylum doctors of the era, wrote in 1841 about the self-control needed before, during and after amusements.

Others suggested that music would help remind patients of happier days and give them hope and pleasure during their treatment. Browne also cited the “powers of music to soothe, enliven, rouse, or melt”. He suggested that even difficult patients may benefit from music, writing: “There is or may be a hidden life within him which may be reached by harmony.”

The writer James Webster recorded in 1842 that: “In many, the effect produced by the music upon their countenances and behaviour was often quite apparent.” Records include many stories of patients seemingly cured by music.

Webster cites the example of a young girl, previously “morose” and “stupefied”, who under the influence of music, seemed “pleased” and “cheerful” – appearing “altogether a changed creature”. Browne also wrote in one of his books of the miraculous effect music had on one patient who awoke, cured, the morning after listening to a performance of Scottish traditional melodies.

Music as treatment

In the 1890s, many doctors carried out experiments on the relationship between music and mental illness. Herbert Hayes Newington, medical superintendent of one of the era’s most prestigious asylums, used music to diagnose patients and help develop theories on how the brain works. Reverend Frederick Kill Harford, who campaigned to provide music in public hospitals during the early 1890s, believed music could treat depression, alleviate physical pain and help with sleep.

Although music remained in asylums as a form of therapy, interest in it as a large-scale treatment waned as innovations such as electroconvulsive therapy emerged in the 20th century.

For patients in Victorian asylums, therefore, music was an important part of mental health treatment – not only providing an opportunity for creative engagement but also fulfilling a range of social, emotional and intellectual needs. Given what we know now about the benefit of music on mental health, it’s no wonder doctors are making use of it again.

The Conversation

Rosemary Golding has received funding from The Wellcome Trust and the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

ShareTweetSharePin
Next Post
Suicide attempts rose among children and adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially for girls

Suicide attempts rose among children and adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially for girls

Most Read

What causes stuttering? A speech pathology researcher explains the science and the misconceptions around this speech disorder

What causes stuttering? A speech pathology researcher explains the science and the misconceptions around this speech disorder

December 15, 2022
morning back pain

Morning Again Ache Trigger Is Not the Mattress

October 11, 2021

Why Circadian Rhythms Matter for Your Health

July 30, 2024
lower back pain relief exercises

5 decrease again ache aid workouts

October 11, 2021

4 steps to building a healthier relationship with your phone

January 28, 2025
3 years after legalization, we have shockingly little information about how it changed cannabis use and health harms

3 years after legalization, we have shockingly little information about how it changed cannabis use and health harms

October 15, 2021
Nasal vaccines promise to stop the COVID-19 virus before it gets to the lungs – an immunologist explains how they work

Nasal vaccines promise to stop the COVID-19 virus before it gets to the lungs – an immunologist explains how they work

December 14, 2022
bleeding in gum

When The Bleeding in gum Is Severe ?

October 11, 2021
Good Night Sleep

6 Causes of Good Evening Sleep

October 11, 2021
Kick up your heels – ballroom dancing offers benefits to the aging brain and could help stave off dementia

Kick up your heels – ballroom dancing offers benefits to the aging brain and could help stave off dementia

January 3, 2023
Biden is getting prostate cancer treatment, but that’s not the best choice for all men − a cancer researcher describes how she helped her father decide

Biden is getting prostate cancer treatment, but that’s not the best choice for all men − a cancer researcher describes how she helped her father decide

May 20, 2025
Ten small changes you can make today to prevent weight gain

Ten small changes you can make today to prevent weight gain

October 12, 2021

COVID vaccines: how one can pace up rollout in poorer international locations

October 5, 2021

This Simple Hygiene Habit Could Cut Your Risk of Stroke, New Research Reveals

February 1, 2025

Multiple sclerosis: the link with earlier infection just got stronger – new study

October 12, 2021
Support and collaboration with health-care providers can help people make health decisions

Support and collaboration with health-care providers can help people make health decisions

December 16, 2021
Greece to make COVID vaccines mandatory for over-60s, but do vaccine mandates work?

Greece to make COVID vaccines mandatory for over-60s, but do vaccine mandates work?

December 1, 2021
Five ways to avoid pain and injury when starting a new exercise regime

Five ways to avoid pain and injury when starting a new exercise regime

December 30, 2022
woman covered with white blanket

Exploring the Impact of Sleep Patterns on Mental Health

August 4, 2024

Maximize Your Performance – Sync with Your Circadian Rhythms

August 9, 2024
Why are some people faster than others? 2 exercise scientists explain the secrets of running speed

Why are some people faster than others? 2 exercise scientists explain the secrets of running speed

April 29, 2024
Backlash to transgender health care isn’t new − but the faulty science used to justify it has changed to meet the times

Backlash to transgender health care isn’t new − but the faulty science used to justify it has changed to meet the times

January 30, 2024
News of war can impact your mental health — here’s how to cope

Binge-eating disorder is more common than many realise, yet it’s rarely discussed – here’s what you need to know

December 2, 2022
As viral infections skyrocket, masks are still a tried-and-true way to help keep yourself and others safe

As viral infections skyrocket, masks are still a tried-and-true way to help keep yourself and others safe

December 14, 2022
GPs don’t give useful weight-loss advice – new study

GPs don’t give useful weight-loss advice – new study

December 16, 2022
Nutrition advice is rife with misinformation − a medical education specialist explains how to tell valid health information from pseudoscience

Nutrition advice is rife with misinformation − a medical education specialist explains how to tell valid health information from pseudoscience

January 28, 2025
FDA limits access to COVID-19 vaccine to older adults and other high-risk groups – a public health expert explains the new rules

FDA limits access to COVID-19 vaccine to older adults and other high-risk groups – a public health expert explains the new rules

May 21, 2025
Four ways to avoid gaining weight over the festive period – but also why you shouldn’t fret about it too much

Four ways to avoid gaining weight over the festive period – but also why you shouldn’t fret about it too much

December 22, 2022
Nurses’ attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination for their children are highly influenced by partisanship, a new study finds

Nurses’ attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination for their children are highly influenced by partisanship, a new study finds

December 2, 2022
How hot is too hot for the human body? Our lab found heat + humidity gets dangerous faster than many people realize

How hot is too hot for the human body? Our lab found heat + humidity gets dangerous faster than many people realize

July 6, 2022
  • Home
  • Health & Wellness
  • Disclaimer

© 2020 DAILY HEALTH NEWS

  • Home
  • Health & Wellness
  • Disclaimer
    • Terms of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • DMCA Notice

© 2020 DAILY HEALTH NEWS