A Hazard Of The Job

by Coy Hall

About the Author: Coy Hall is a professor of history and an author of mystery and horror. He lives in West Virginia.

Excerpt

No blame, no scorn in a label like feebleminded—just an inferior creature protected from a world that meant harm. Locked away for their safety and your safety. Saying feebleminded gave one the feeling of paternalism. Indeed, it was a word you could put at the top of stationary and feel good about. Only the older doctors used lunatic for the nomenclature, and when one of the doctors said that word tension could flood a room. Three decades had passed since lunatic had been part of the hospital’s name and two decades had passed since asylum had been part of the name. Both terms were features of a regrettable past, the board said. It was a much younger board now, having jettisoned a few elder statesmen after the war. The same board, in 1922, rebranded the hospital as The State Hospital of the Feebleminded and Infirm—bland, innocuous, paternal. The name deflected attention.

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