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Past Historical View of Seclusion Practices

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Hand-drawn illustration of a seclusion chair. This chair was used to control violent patients at the New York State asylum in the early 20th century. An unruly patient's arms were strapped into the wooded wells, feet secured to the floor, and a belt tied around the boy - sometimes a patient's head was covered with a hood.

An actual photography of the same seclusion chair. Hand-drawn illustration of a seclusion chair. This chair was used to control violent patients at the New York State asylum in the early 20th century. An unruly patient's arms were strapped into the wooded wells, feet secured to the floor, and a belt tied around the boy - sometimes a patient's head was covered with a hood.

Photo by: Dr. Stanley B Burns, 19th and 20th century psychiatry: 22 rare photos, CBC News

Seclusion has its origins in the 19th and 20th century institutional psychiatry, which justified punishment as part of care (Colaizzi, 2005; Dyck & Deighton, 2017).

It was not until 1922 that standard regulation was developed, enforcing the use of seclusion only for clearly defined circumstances. However, seclusion continued to be used as a part of routine care in psychiatric institutions (Dix et al., 2008; Evans et al., 2024).

Originally framed as protective, necessary, and even therapeutic, seclusion has been predominantly used to manage perceived risk rather than support recovery.

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