Asylum and Community: History As a Guide to Improving Community Mental Health Care
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The Donegal District Lunatic Asylum
‘A WORLD APART’ – The Donegal District Lunatic Asylum Number of Registrar Name Where Chargable This exhibition curated by the Donegal County Museum and the Archives Service, Donegal County Council in association with the HSE was inspired by the ending of the provision of residential mental health services at the St. Conal’s Hospital site. The hospital has been an integral part of Letterkenny and County Donegal for 154 years. Often shrouded by mythology and stigma, the asylum fulfilled a necessary role in society but one that is currently undergoing radical change.This exhibition, by putting into context the earliest history of mental health services in Donegal hopes to raise public awareness of mental health. The exhibition is organised in conjunction with Little John Nee’s artist’s residency in An Grianan Theatre and his performance of “The Mental”. This project is supported by PEACE III Programme managed for the Special EU Programmes Body by Donegal County Council. Timeline This Timeline covers the period of the reforms in the mental health laws. 1745 - Dean Jonathan Swift: 1907 - Eugenics Education Society: On his death he left money for the building of Saint Patrick’s This Society was established to promote population control Hospital (opened 1757), the first in Ireland to measures on undesirable genetic traits, including mental treat mental health patients. defects. 1774 - An Act for Regulating Private Madhouses: 1908 Report by Royal Commission This act ruled that there should be inspections of asylums once on Care of Feeble-Minded a year at least, but unfortunately, this only covered London. 1913 Mental Deficiency Act: 1800 - Pressure for reform is growing: This Act established the Board of Control to replace the Lunacy This is sparked off by the terrible conditions in London’s Commission. -
The Patients of the Bristol Lunatic Asylum in the Nineteenth Century 1861-1900
THE PATIENTS OF THE BRISTOL LUNATIC ASYLUM IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 1861-1900 PAUL TOBIA A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of the West of England, Bristol for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Arts, Creative Industries and Education March 2017 Word Count 76,717 1 Abstract There is a wide and impressive historiography about the British lunatic asylums in the nineteenth century, the vast majority of which are concerned with their nature and significance. This study does not ignore such subjects but is primarily concerned with the patients of the Bristol Asylum. Who were they, what were their stories and how did they fare in the Asylum and how did that change over our period. It uses a distinct and varied methodology including a comprehensive database, compiled from the asylum records, of all the patients admitted in the nineteenth century. Using pivot tables to analyse the data we were able to produce reliable assessments of the range and nature of the patients admitted; dispelling some of the suggestions that they represented an underclass. We were also able to determine in what way the asylum changed and how the different medical superintendents altered the nature and ethos of the asylum. One of these results showed how the different superintendents had massively different diagnostic criteria. This effected the lives of the patients and illustrates the somewhat random nature of Victorian psychiatric diagnostics. The database was also the starting point for our research into the patients as individuals. Many aspects of life in the asylum can best be understood by looking at individual cases. -
The Madness Multiplies: the Expansion of Kentucky’S Early Lunatic Asylums Miranda P
__________________________________________________________________ The Madness Multiplies: The Expansion of Kentucky’s Early Lunatic Asylums Miranda P. Smith Miranda Smith is a junior from Highland, Illinois who is double majoring in History with Teacher Licensure and Math with Teacher Licensure. She wrote this paper for Dr. Curry’s HIS 2500: Historical Research and Writing. _____________________________________________________________________________ Public care of the mentally ill in America began in 1773 with the construction of Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg, Virginia.1 This was the first public institution in America created solely to care for and treat the “insane,” and it was a unique establishment for quite some time. The next state-funded psychiatric institution, which would be located in Lexington, Kentucky, would not be created until well after the American Revolution and over two decades into the nineteenth century. While this clearly demonstrates that the care of the mentally ill was still considered a private matter, in other words, the care of the person afflicted was the responsibility of their family or friends, the amount of time it took to create such an institution is quite surprising, considering there was certainly no shortage of ailments and circumstances that were believed to cause “insanity.” American doctors in the early nineteenth century recognized that there seemed to be a hereditary component to several cases, and even observed in some that the symptoms seemed to initially occur before or around a certain age.2 However, other cases seemed to be brought about by illness, trauma, or “moral causes,” which could include anything from an inability to find work, gambling, “religious excitement,” or even “novel reading.”3 With so many ways that a person could be deemed “insane,” it is no wonder that the number of state funded insane asylums grew so rapidly in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. -
A Study of Psychiatry and Mental Asylums in Colonial Kerala*
Indian Journal of History of Science, 53.1 (2018) 125-131 DOI: 10.16943/ijhs/2018/v53i1/49371 Project Report Medicine and British Empire in South India: A Study of Psychiatry and Mental Asylums in Colonial Kerala* Santhosh Abraham** 1. INTRODUCTION 1910 presented the asylums as a more permeable A lunatic asylum was established in and hybridized spaces with more of indianization Travancore in Kerala in 1871 to take care of and specialized therapies. It further aims to explore patients with epilepsy, mental retardation and the discourses on medicine in the British Empire psychiatric conditions of the region. One year in India with a special reference to the following in 1872, another asylum was opened in institutionalization of psychiatry to understand the Calicut to receive civil mental patients from intricacies involved and changes incurred in the Malabar, South Canara, Coimbatore and Nilgiris. functioning of colonial asylums in Kerala during These two mental asylums were under the direct the colonial period. patronage and control, either by the royal power The study is based on Colonial Archival or by the British colonial state to take care of the records on medicine and psychiatry. The colonial conditions in these asylums with regard to official correspondences on lunatic asylums, the admissions, treatments, etc. were similar to that annual and triennial superintendents’ reports and of other asylums in India. The asylum, as per monthly statements on the working of Lunatic Annual Report of the Lunatic Asylums of Madras Asylums in Calicut and Trivandrum have been Presidency for the Year 1879, remains too small searched and taken into account. -
Narrative Portraits of Asylums: the Contested Authorship of Mental Illness & Psychiatric Healthcare in Contemporary Legend
NARRATIVE PORTRAITS OF ASYLUMS: THE CONTESTED AUTHORSHIP OF MENTAL ILLNESS & PSYCHIATRIC HEALTHCARE IN CONTEMPORARY LEGEND Shannon K. Tanhayi Ahari Submitted to the Faculty of the University Graduate School in partial fulfillment oF the requirements for the degree Doctor oF Philosophy in the Department oF Folklore & Ethnomusicology Indiana University July 2019 Accepted by the Graduate Faculty, Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Doctoral Committee _____________________________________ Diane Goldstein, PhD _____________________________________ Ray Cashman, PhD _____________________________________ Michael Dylan Foster, PhD _____________________________________ John Holmes McDowell, PhD _____________________________________ Pravina Shukla, PhD April 26, 2019 ii Copyright © 2019 Shannon K. Tanhayi Ahari iii In loving memory of my mom, for my dad, and for Mostafa. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to acknowledge the generosity and patience of my dissertation committee members. Diane Goldstein, my wonderful mentor and committee chair, has been an intellectual inspiration. Pravina Shukla has motivated me along the way with her passion, kindness, and advice. I am grateful to Michael Dylan Foster not only for encouraging my intellectual curiosity, but also for challenging me to take my ideas further. I am indebted to Ray Cashman and John H. McDowell for their support and insightful comments. I am also grateful to my dear friend Henry Glassie, who in many ways has been an honorary member of my committee. During the course of my research and graduate career, I was fortunate to receive financial support from Indiana University's College of Arts and Sciences and from the Department of Folklore & Ethnomusicology, the last of which has been a welcoming institutional home in large part due to the hard work and dedication of Michelle Melhouse. -
Weston State Hospital
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports 2008 Weston State Hospital Kim Jacks West Virginia University Follow this and additional works at: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd Recommended Citation Jacks, Kim, "Weston State Hospital" (2008). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 857. https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/857 This Thesis is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by the The Research Repository @ WVU with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Thesis in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you must obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This Thesis has been accepted for inclusion in WVU Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports collection by an authorized administrator of The Research Repository @ WVU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Weston State Hospital Kim Jacks Thesis submitted to the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History Committee: Elizabeth Fones-Wolf, Ph.D., Chair Ronald Lewis, Ph.D. Kenneth Fones-Wolf, Ph.D. Department of History Morgantown, West Virginia 2008 Keywords: Weston State Hospital; mental institutions, history; West Virginia Hospital for the Insane; Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum i ABSTRACT Weston State Hospital Kim Jacks Weston State Hospital was a major mental institution in Weston, West Virginia. -
Resources on the History of Psychiatry History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine
Resources on the History of Psychiatry History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine Emily Martin, Professor of Anthropology, New York University Lorna A. Rhodes, Professor of Anthropology, University of Washington August, 2004 “The psychiatrist,” William Sharp, 193-, HMD Willard Asylum for the Insane, Infirmary for Women, circa 1880, HMD 1 Resources on the History of Psychiatry History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine Emily Martin, Professor of Anthropology, New York University Lorna A. Rhodes, Professor of Anthropology, University of Washington August, 2004 Overview This report introduces scholars interested in the history of psychiatry to the extraordinary collection in the HMD and NLM. This collection is unparalleled for its coverage of time and place in great depth and breadth, for its possession of immense numbers of unique audiovisual and print materials and for its invaluable holdings of manuscripts and oral histories. We have arranged our report in 10 major sections as listed below. Our time frame is primarily from the 19th century to the 1970s. For each major section we have organized items from the library in subsections by topic, date, location, or format. Within each subsection, we have listed only a small selection of materials available in the library, a selection we have chosen to illustrate the large range of sources the collection contains: scientific monographs, federal or state reports, personal accounts, conference proceedings, legal briefs, armed service publications, mass market publications, teaching materials, monographs on psychiatric ethics, treatment, or social effects, manuscripts, audiovisual materials, ephemera, and so on. For a guide to the current scholarly literature on all these topics, the HMD web site contains an extremely useful set of syllabi used in teaching the history of psychiatry in the US and the UK. -
Above All a Patient Should Never Be Terrified: an Examination of Mental Health Care and Treatment in Hampshire 1845-1914 Diane T
ABOVE ALL A PATIENT SHOULD NEVER BE TERRIFIED: AN EXAMINATION OF MENTAL HEALTH CARE AND TREATMENT IN HAMPSHIRE 1845-1914 DIANE TERESA CARPENTER ‘The thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Portsmouth.’ September 2010 ABSTRACT ABOVE ALL A PATIENT SHOULD NEVER BE TERRIFIED: AN EXAMINATION OF MENTAL HEALTH CARE AND TREATMENT IN HAMPSHIRE 1845-1914 Challenging significant historiography this study argues that the period 1845-1914 was a time in which to have been in receipt of the care of county lunatic asylums was substantially preferable to the alternatives for the local poor and mad, suggesting wider studies might show the same for other parts of England. Case examples are provided from the close research of two pauper lunatic asylums built in Hampshire during the period. Underpinning these is a methodology which synthesises an ‘alltagsgeschichte’ deriving from the Annales School with medical and local history. The research follows a metaphorical patient-journey beginning with the pre-patient stage when policy enforced the building of county lunatic asylums, examining the concept of architecture for sanity as well as local reaction to the building programme. It has identified a novel perspective for our understanding of the loci of control responsible for translating ideology into the physical structure of the asylum. Patient assessment and the asylum admission process are critically reviewed, and the identification of the symptoms of insanity as well as contemporary beliefs about aetiology are interrogated. Medicalization of aberrant behaviour and the early attempts at classification and diagnosis are subsequently analyzed. -
The Insane Asylum in Mississippi, 1848-1910
University of Mississippi eGrove Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2016 The Corruption Of Promise: The Insane Asylum In Mississippi, 1848-1910 Whitney E. Barringer University of Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd Part of the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Barringer, Whitney E., "The Corruption Of Promise: The Insane Asylum In Mississippi, 1848-1910" (2016). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 643. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/643 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of eGrove. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE CORRUPTION OF PROMISE: THE INSANE ASYLUM IN MISSISSIPPI, 1848-1910 A Dissertation presented in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History The University of Mississippi by Whitney E. Barringer August 2016 Copyright Whitney E. Barringer 2016 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT The ideology of insane asylum reform, which emphasized the Enlightenment language of human rights and the humane treatment of the mentally ill, reached American shores in the early- mid-nineteenth century. When asylum reform began to disseminate throughout the United States, forward-thinking Mississippians latched onto the idea of the reformed asylum as a humane way to treat mentally ill Mississippians and to bolster the humanitarian image of a Southern slave society to its Northern critics. When the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum opened in 1855, its superintendents were optimistic about the power of the state to meet mental healthcare needs. -
Mentally Ill Persons Are in Jails and Prisons Than Hospitals: a Survey of the States
More Mentally Ill Persons Are in Jails and Prisons Than Hospitals: A Survey of the States E. Fuller Torrey, M.D. Executive Director, Stanley Medical Research Institute, and Board Member, Treatment Advocacy Center Sheriff Aaron D. Kennard (retired), M.P.A. Executive Director, National Sheriffs’ Association Sheriff Don Eslinger, Seminole County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office, and Board Member, Treatment Advocacy Center Richard Lamb, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, and Board Member, Treatment Advocacy Center James Pavle Executive Director, Treatment Advocacy Center May 2010 More Mentally Ill Persons Are in Jails and Prisons Than Hospitals: A Survey of the States E. Fuller Torrey, M.D. Executive Director, Stanley Medical Research Institute, and Board Member, Treatment Advocacy Center Sheriff Aaron D. Kennard (retired), M.P.A. Executive Director, National Sheriffs’ Association Sheriff Don Eslinger, Seminole County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office, and Board Member, Treatment Advocacy Center Richard Lamb, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, and Board Member, Treatment Advocacy Center James Pavle Executive Director, Treatment Advocacy Center May 2010 I. Executive Summary (a) Using 2004–2005 data not previously published, we found that in the United States there are now more than three times more seriously mentally ill persons in jails and prisons than in hospitals. Looked at by individual states, in North Dakota there are approximately an equal number of mentally ill persons in jails and prisons compared to hospitals. By contrast, Arizona and Nevada have almost ten times more mentally ill persons in jails and prisons than in hospitals. -
Introduction. Deinstitutionalisation and the Pathways of Post-War Psychiatry in the Western World Despo Kritsotaki1, Vicky Long2 and Matthew Smith3
Introduction. Deinstitutionalisation and the Pathways of Post-War Psychiatry in the Western World Despo Kritsotaki1, Vicky Long2 and Matthew Smith3 1Department of History, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece 2Centre for the Social History of Health and Healthcare, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, UK 3Department of History, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK Near the small village of Gartcosh, located in the north-eastern quadrant of the greater Glasgow conurbation, there is an imposing two-towered gothic building that used to serve as the Main Administration Building of Gartloch Hospital. Surrounded by a fence, designed to keep people out, rather than to keep them in, its windows are either broken or boarded up. Inside, what is left of the floors is strewn with detritus, ranging from broken bits of furniture and torn curtains to crumbling plaster and bent nails. It is only when one looks up to the elaborate arched and buttressed ceiling, painted in shades of aquamarine, scarlet and vermillion, that a hint of the former grandeur of the place becomes apparent. Established in 1896 by the City of Glasgow and District Lunacy Board, Gartloch Hospital was one of dozens of Scottish psychiatric institutions built between the end of the eighteenth century and the middle of the twentieth century. It would exist for exactly 100 years, typically housing between 500 and 800 patients. Although it functioned primarily as a psychiatric facility for the city’s poor, as with similar institutions, it also served other functions, including a tuberculosis sanitaria soon after it opened, and as an Emergency Medical Services hospital during the First World War. -
The Lunatic Fringe
Mental Health History and the WHO: From Bedlam to Brock Chisholm Dr David Wright, Hannah Chair in the History of Medicine, McMaster University “The solution is not to virtually imprison affected people in costly and largely ineffective psychiatric hospitals, where human rights abuses are often rampant. Evidence tells us that service delivery in a primary care setting is far more cost-effective, equitable, efficient, and humane.” Dr Margaret Chan Director-General of the World Health Organization Address at the launch of the WHO mental health gap Action programme Geneva, Switzerland, 9 October 2008 ‘Bedlam’, by Hogarth (in Rake’s Progress), c. 1760 • Four Principles of Lunacy Reform, c. 1790s to 1860s non-restraint moral treatment madness as a mental disease immediate institutional treatment The Unchaining of the Lunatics, Paris, c. 1792 ....legislation in Europe permitting or obliging local authorities to establish public asylums for their insane Devon County Lunatic Asylum, England, 1845 .....states in United States, provinces in Canada, and colonial jurisdictions (NZ, Aus, SA, India, gradually follow suit) Ontario (Canada) Provincial Lunatic Asylum, Toronto, c. 1860 Most significant social expenditure of most states at the dawn of the twentieth century, dwarfing all other public health initiatives Seacliff Lunatic Asylum, near Dunedin, New Zealand, c. 1880 l’Asile de Bel-Air, (Genève) Vue générale de l’Asile de Bel-Air vers 1930. Tiré de Ch. Ladame: Asile-clinique psychiatrique Bel-Air, Chêne (Genève). Genève, 1933, Revue Médicale de