sectioning
The Girl Behind the Gates
A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine handed me a book, The Girl Behind the Gates, (2020) with a trademark smile but no explanation; just ‘I’d love to know what you think.’
I’m instantly intrigued. First, by the author, Dr Brenda Davies, who’s a consultant psychiatrist, author, broadcaster, spiritual teacher and Principal of the Brenda Davies International School of Healing and Spiritual Development. Impressive, huh?
Second, by the blurb which tells me this is Davies’ first novel, and it’s based on the true story of a young woman cut down in her prime who’s eventually found in a psychiatric institution and slowly helped to overcome her past.
The fictionalised account takes us back to 1939. Seventeen-year-old Nora Jennings has led a charmed life, secure and happy, musically gifted, with bright prospects. Then one night of passion with her beloved cousin leads to catastrophic consequences. When her parents learn of her pregnancy, her father beats her savagely with a leather belt, before summoning their family doctor, priest and the senior doctor who directs the dreaded Hillinghurst Hospital, the very name of which is garlanded with shame and fear and inherent malevolence.
When it’s discovered that not only is Nora pregnant, but that she tried to abort the child using quinine and to cut her own wrists, the situation develops layer upon layer of criminality and moral unacceptability. All three acts are ‘mortal sins’. This is the era of the Mental Deficiency Act of 1913 after all. Nora, deemed a ‘moral imbecile’, or under the 1927 definitions a ‘moral defective’, poses a threat to others (terms only abolished in 1959!). She must be strictly controlled and segregated along with criminals, alcoholics, prostitutes and unmarried mothers who carry the same label. Sympathising with this disgraced family though he may, their family doctor can do nothing to protect her or he too will be imprisoned for ‘aiding and abetting’ criminal offences.
Under cover of darkness Nora is taken from her home and family and sectioned, locked away in the feared Hillinghurst Hospital. A young innocent with no diagnosis beyond a pregnancy out of wedlock.
‘We’re all here to help you get well’, the young doctor in charge of her care promises.
‘It would be best for everyone if you consider your family dead’, the second more senior doctor advises. ‘You’ve been a wicked cunning girl, and here you’ll learn to live a better life ..’
It’s horrifying to read of the barbaric treatments that were used in those days. Bad enough that they were applied in cases of real mental illness in a well-intentioned effort to cure; absolutely scandalous applied to this young sensitive girl who is simply trying to survive. Even the archaic un-pc-by-our-standards language sends shudders down the spine.
What’s more, those paid to care for the inmates inflict malicious cruel acts against her; and anyone showing compassion or kindness is punished or even dismissed. Nora endures both physical and sexual abuse, isolation, visitors are deterred, letters are withheld, humiliation is piled on top of scorn. When she gives birth to the baby, she’s denied even sight of her, and the child is left on a cold slab to die. Utterly bereft, Nora suffers a majorly powerful grief reaction but still clings to the hope that her baby has been adopted and one day she will seek and find her. She only learns of her death when she stumbles upon a patch of baby graves in the grounds and finds Angela’s marker.
Fast forward forty-two years to 1981, and Nora is discovered by psychiatrist Dr Janet Humphreys totally institutionalised and withdrawn in a back ward. Patiently and with great sensitivity, Janet starts to work with her to overcome her isolation and help her rediscover what it is to live freely. The account gives insights into the delicacy of such a task and the peaks and troughs that Janet much negotiate. And all the while the doctor is herself dealing with her own troubled past and broken relationships.
It’s a magnificent and heart-rending book, and despite the shocking revelations of life in a mental facility in the past, it’s ultimately a tale of triumph of good over evil, of hope over despair, and love over punishment.