{"id":602,"date":"2020-03-17T12:35:47","date_gmt":"2020-03-17T12:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/health-humanities\/?p=602"},"modified":"2020-03-17T12:39:18","modified_gmt":"2020-03-17T12:39:18","slug":"home-alone-a-historical-perspective-on-self-isolation-during-coronavirus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/health-humanities\/home-alone-a-historical-perspective-on-self-isolation-during-coronavirus\/","title":{"rendered":"Home & Alone: A historical perspective on self isolation during coronavirus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Co-Director of the Centre for Health Humanities,\u00a0Dr Hannah Newton<\/a>,\u00a0draws on 17th-century plague accounts to offer\u00a0insights into the\u00a0emotional impact of self-isolation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yesterday, the British government announced its\u00a0policy<\/a>\u00a0for slowing down the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) infection: \u2018if you think you have symptoms\u2019 of this disease, \u2018stay at home and do not leave your house for 7 days\u2019. While at home, maintain a distance of 2 metres between family members, sleep alone, and do not go outdoors. This policy is clearly essential \u2013 it will save lives \u2013 but some people are anxious about the\u00a0loneliness<\/a>\u00a0that may ensue for those confined to their homes, especially the elderly who live alone.<\/p>\n

\"Drawing
Wellcome Images CC BY 4. This figure is a plague doctor; he wears a long beak mask which contains fragrant herbs, designed to protect against the perceived cause of plague \u2013 unpleasant odours. These masks were more common on the continent than in England; here, people were more likely to wear perfume, or to carry small metal vessels called \u2018pomanders\u2019, which contained aromatic oils<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A historical perspective on this experience may bring a degree of comfort. It reveals that people in other times have faced similar, and often far more extreme, circumstances. During the numerous outbreaks of plague in the seventeenth century, a disease that killed somewhere between 60 and 100 percent of those infected, royal proclamations in England required anyone suffering from this disease to be \u2018shut up\u2019 in their house for forty days and nights. Front doors were nailed shut, and the words \u2018Lord have mercy\u2019 were inscribed above. Guards were appointed to ensure no one left or entered, except for doctors.<\/p>\n

Known by the rather ominous name of \u2018locking-in\u2019, this policy was a notorious source of distress for patients, despite its necessity.\u00a0Richard Kidder<\/a>, bishop of Bath and Wells, recorded in his diary that when plague broke out in his household in 1665, \u2018No tongue can express the dismal calamity\u2019 he experienced. His neighbours \u2018dared not come near, and the provisions which were procured for us were laid at a distance upon a Green before my house\u2019. Such deep loneliness was also voiced by the anonymous author of a\u00a0pamphlet<\/a>\u00a0that criticised the practice: he pleaded, \u2018Have pity upon us, and add not sorrow to sickness: O let us not be forsaken by men! It is dreadful to be shut up from all the comfort of society, from free and wholesome air, from the care of family and relations\u2019.<\/p>\n

For people at this time, what made the experience of loneliness worse was the belief that this emotion could cause or exacerbate disease. The aforementioned pamphlet writer lamented, \u2018the very thought of a sad and dismal\u00a0confinement, contracts first a melancholy [low mood], and then a fever, and at last a Plague\u2019. Negative emotions like sorrow and fear were believed to cause the body\u2019s life force \u2013 known as the \u2018spirits\u2019 \u2013 to shrink and evaporate, leaving the person vulnerable to infection, and death itself.<\/p>\n

One of the most controversial aspects of locking-in was the fact that any healthy relatives and visitors who happened to be in the house when the plague first struck were required to be locked in with the sick person. A rare insight into the fears of these individuals as they contemplated catching the illness is conveyed in a poem by headteacher and clergyman,\u00a0John Toy<\/a>\u00a0(1611-1663), published in 1638:<\/p>\n

\u2018The father dreads to see his only son,<\/p>\n

The son to see his father too doth shun,<\/p>\n

The husband dreads his wife,<\/p>\n

whom he with dear embraces used to hold,<\/p>\n

The wife\u2019s afraid her husband to behold,<\/p>\n

Whom on kind arms she used to infold.<\/p>\n

Whom most they love, must most of all avoid\u2019.<\/p>\n

The need to refrain from engaging in physical affection with loved ones was a huge challenge, particularly when it came to children. When fourteen-year-old\u00a0Susanna Bicks<\/a>\u00a0lay dying of plague in 1664, she \u2018took her little sister in her arms, and kissed her with much affection\u2019. Her father quickly lifted the younger child away, and told Susanna \u2018he already had too much to bear\u2019 with her illness, and couldn\u2019t face the sickness of his other daughter too. Nevertheless, parents themselves rarely forbore these intimate gestures, choosing instead to take the risk of catching the disease. Susanna was kissed by her parents despite the fact they tried to stop her from embracing her siblings.<\/p>\n

\"Book
The book cover illustration is a painting by Gabriel Metsu, \u2018The Sick Child\u2019; it depicts close physical contact between mother and daughter. We do not know, however, if her illness was thought to be contagious \u2013 it was not plague<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The words of the poet\u00a0John Donne<\/a>\u00a0(1572-1631) sum up the experience of social isolation for many seventeenth-century people: \u2018As sickness is the greatest misery, so the greatest misery of sickness is solitude\u2019. For plague sufferers, the main way to combat this isolation was to commune with God in prayer. While religious succour is still very much alive in many communities today, perhaps a more widespread source of comfort will be phone and video calls.<\/p>\n

If you are interested in reading more about 17th-century\u00a0experiences of illness,\u00a0please see Hannah\u2019s two books,\u00a0The Sick Child<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Misery to Mirth<\/a>;\u00a0<\/em>the latter is available open access\u00a0here<\/a>. This research was\u00a0funded by the Wellcome Trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Co-Director of the Centre for Health Humanities,\u00a0Dr Hannah Newton,\u00a0draws on 17th-century plague accounts to offer\u00a0insights into the\u00a0emotional impact of self-isolation Yesterday, the British government announced its\u00a0policy\u00a0for slowing down the spread…Read More ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":347,"featured_media":603,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"__cvm_playback_settings":[],"__cvm_video_id":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16,11,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-health-humanities","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHome & Alone: A historical perspective on self isolation during coronavirus - 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