First of, I greatly appreciate all serious answers!
The story takes place in England and my character works in service. He is in his thirties. His homosexuality is unknown to the staff.
Secondly, there are some specific questions I have, as I want to write the story as historically accurate as possible. I would be super grateful if you could help me out!
What were common terms for diagnoses? My character has what today would be called psychotic depression and also has a problem with self-harm. How would those be referenced, e.g in a clinical report? A term I often read was "melancholia", is that correct?
How were medications used? I read that opioids and amphetamines were used to treat depression until 1950, but were they already used in around 1928-1929?
What were the most common forms of treatment? I read insulin-coma-therapy was common, but what was it used for specifically? Would it be possible for my character to have recieved it? What about electroshock-therapy? Was psycho-analysis common?
How long did most people stay in the hospital around that time? I read that with the onset of psychiatric medications in the 1950's, the duration of psychiatric hospitalizations decreased, but how long were they in general before that?
ICD-4 was used around that time, is that correct?
How were psychiatric hospitals organized and constructed? Were they seperated by gender? Were there specific wards for specific conditions or were they all more or less put all together?
Would he wear is normal civil clothes or were there specific hospital-garments patients had to wear?
What consequences would this have had for his job in service? Would his employers be aware of his absence? Would they be notified?
Who would have been allowed to visit him? He has a boyfriend, of course not openly (due to the laws of the time), would he have been able to simply visit my character or is only close family allowed to visit patients?
What would happen if the staff found out about his homosexuality?
I'm much interested in history, but this is a topic I couldn't find the amount of information I wished and need.
Thank you so much already for answering!
Hi there - we're happy to approve your question related to your creative project, and we are happy for people to answer. However, we should warn you that many flairs have become reluctant to answer questions for aspiring novelists and the like, based on past experience: some people working on creative projects have a tendency to try to pump historians for trivia while ignoring the bigger points they were making, while others have a tendency to argue with historians when the historical reality does not line up with what's needed for a particular scene or characterization. Please respect the answers of people who have generously given you their time, even if it's not always what you want to hear.
Additionally, as amazing as our flair panel is, we should also point out that /r/AskHistorians is not a professional historical consultation service. If you're asking a question here because you need vital research for a future commercial product such as a historical novel, you may be better off engaging a historical consultant at a fair hourly rate to answer these questions for you. We don't know what the going rate for consultancy work would be in your locality, but it may be worth looking into that if you have in-depth or highly plot-reliant questions for this project. Some /r/AskHistorians flairs could be receptive to working as a consultant in this way. However, if you wish for a flair here to do this work for you, you will need to organize this with them yourselves.
For more general advice about doing research to inform a creative project, please check out our Monday Methods post on the subject.