Gags, funnels and tubes: forced feeding of the insane and of suffragettes

Abstract

Just before the outbreak of World War I, British suffragettes were imprisoned in large numbers. Many engaged in hunger strikes and suffered brutal treatment, most notoriously forced feeding. Government authorities, backed by prominent physicians, justified forced feeding by citing its successful use with insane patients in asylums. In the nineteenth century forced feeding was, in fact, common in the asylum and much discussed in leading medical publications. Physicians generally ignored the feelings of patients, concentrating on technical problems such as the design of feeding instruments. Nor did critics amid the suffrage crisis sympathize with asylum patients. They defended women protesters but portrayed the force-fed insane as insensate. Forced feeding of the insane was nonetheless tainted by its association with the brutalization of suffragettes and in later years rarely discussed outside specialized psychiatric venues.