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Epileptic colonies were established in the 1800s to isolate epileptics and mentally ill people from society. They were part of the eugenics movement and aimed to remove epilepsy from the gene pool. Patients were often forced to move there and conditions were more like a prison than a treatment facility. As the popularity of eugenics waned, the colonies closed, and today, epileptics and people with mental illnesses have numerous treatment options with professional and attentive staff.
An epileptic colony is a residential facility designed to meet the treatment needs of epileptics. Such sites have historically been used to isolate epileptics and the mentally ill from the rest of society, reflecting a widespread fear of epilepsy and mental illness. Modern facilities do not usually use the term “colony epilepsy” and may focus on inpatient and outpatient treatment for a variety of neurological conditions, not just epilepsy.
The first epileptic colony appears to have been established in Bielefeld, Germany, in the 1800s, around the same time that the eugenics movement was sweeping the European community. This is not a mere coincidence; eugenics is a social movement involving the selective breeding of the human race to promote desirable traits. The isolation of epileptics was no doubt meant to remove epilepsy from the gene pool, and when the concept was adopted in the United States, some facilities even sterilized their inmates, ensuring they couldn’t procreate.
Historically, epileptic colonies have been portrayed as pleasant structures dedicated to selfless patient care. Facilities were often divided into “treatable,” “incurable,” and “violent” wards, and patients were supposed to have access to top-notch medical care, physical therapy, recreation, and so on. In fact, an epileptic colony was often a very sad place, designed more like a prison than a residential treatment facility, and many people in such colonies had conditions other than epilepsy that went untreated.
Epileptic colonies often boasted of “waiting lists” for patients, when in reality many patients were forced to move to the colony by family members or their doctors. Some families chose to send sick relatives to an epileptic colony because they believed the family member could get better with better medical care, while others simply dumped such relatives, not wanting to cope with their disabilities. Either way, once in an epileptic colony, getting out was usually difficult. Others thought that loved ones with epilepsy might feel more comfortable in the company of other epilepsy sufferers.
As the popularity of eugenics began to wane, so did the epileptic colony. Many of these colonies closed as early as the 1920s, while others disappeared from the landscape until the 1950s and 1960s. As the idea of confining epileptics lost popularity, however, many facilities continued to care for mental patients, until the 1980s, when most state psychiatric hospitals were closed in the United States.
Today, epileptics and people with mental illnesses have numerous treatment options, some of which may include hospital stays. However, the conditions of these structures differ radically from those of the historic epileptic colonies, with professional, sensitive and deeply attentive staff to the patient’s well-being.
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