The Physician’s Annual Report of 1845 states: ‘The Mirror itself has proved a valuable means of affording occupation to some of the inmates and amusements to all.’^[1] Authors and editors of the Mirror were, majorly, private paying patients of the East House. To live in the East House, board rates ranged from £80 to £400 per annum, whereas, the cost to live in the pauper wards of the West House averaged £25 for the studied period. The Mirror was established by the asylums first medical superintendent – Dr William MacKinnon – to serve as productive labour for those unaccustomed to work in the East House, as the quote at the top illustrates. Furthermore, the authors of the Mirror saw its purpose in a similar way, as seen in the following quotation from the front pages of Volume 7: 

“The great and beneficent purpose has been attained,- that of affording to intelligent patients a field of useful literary exertion, which may not only contribute to their own comfort and enjoyment, and that of their companions in the seclusion of the Asylum, but may be instrumental in diffusing a feeling of sympathy in benevolent mind with their unfortunate position.”^[2]

Aside from being a therapeutic tool, the economic value of the periodical should be considered; MacKinnon could have established the Mirror to sell some ‘mad writings’ in exchange for a profit to benefit the asylum in financially troublesome times. However, my research did not find economic value as a major reason for the Mirror’s establishment. This conclusion is in consequence of consulting the Treasurer’s Annual Reports (1844-1854) and the Manager’s Minutes (1844-1854). Neither source contained a record stating the profits obtained from the public’s purchase of the periodical. The lack of financial record implies that the periodical was not an economic asset. Instead, the profits were, most likely, cycled through the asylum to pay for the use of the asylum’s printing press for publication and also for the periodical’s distribution. As such, the Mirror was primarily established as a therapeutic tool for a select few patients in the East House who were unaccustomed to labour. 

The Mirror struggled to find regular authors in its first few volumes which resulted in contributions from asylum patients in Hanwell, Aberdeen, Crichton, and Dublin. In the preface to Volume 2 the editor, ‘A.B.C’, stated that ‘the number of contributors is much less than we would desire it to be’ because of, the Editor predicted, ‘indolence and modesty’.^[3] The Editor continues, 

“‘We certainly must regard the experiment as important, and a proof of the advantage of the non-restraint plan; under the old system it would never been dreamed of. It has been so far interesting that it tends to satisfy the wise and the good that the inmates of a madhouse may, by the healthful exercise of their faculties, fit themselves to renew their intercourse with the world. To the indolent and the modest we repeat, that the brushing up of their mental armour will facilitate their egress from these walls…At any rate, we have much to hope for – nothing to fear.”^[4]

The Editor’s address displays that there was animosity towards writing for the Mirror. For those patients who were physically and mentally fit enough to write for the Mirror this could have been because by publishing in the Mirror they were publicly admitting to staying in an asylum. As many of those who could write for the Mirror were affluent members of society they, most likely, did not want to publicise their stay. This desire for animosity is displayed throughout the Mirror as pseudonyms, such as ‘Punch’, are used to hide the author’s identity.^[5] Additionally, at such an early stage, the therapeutic benefits of the Mirror may not have been recognised by patients as in the case books it is recorded that many men and women of the East House wrote for pleasure but very few published their work in the Mirror. Nonetheless, by Vol. 4, No. 7 the Mirror’s Editor is unable to include the writings of Hanwell patients because the Volume is full.^[6] Therefore, the lack of publishable writing material does not last long. 

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^[1] Dr William MacKinnon, Physician’s Annual Report (Edinburgh: Royal Edinburgh Asylum, 1845), p. 14. 

^[2] ‘To the courteous reader’, The Morningside Mirror, 7.1 (1851), p. ii. 

^[3] ‘To our readers’, Morningside Mirror, 2.1 (1846), p. vi. 

^[4] Ibid, p. vi. 

^[5] For more information see webpage ‘Punch’ 

^[6] ‘The Morningside Mirror’, Morningside Mirror, 4.8 (1849), 56 (p. 56).