A Reform of Treatment: An Analysis of the American Asylum

Location

Room 207, Schewel Hall

Access Type

Campus Access Only

Entry Number

99

Start Date

4-5-2023 10:15 AM

End Date

4-5-2023 10:30 AM

College

Lynchburg College of Arts and Sciences

Department

History

Keywords

Asylum, Mental Health, New York, Blackwell's Island, Bloomingdale, Utica, Kirkbride Plan, Moral Treatment, Nineteenth Century, American History

Abstract

Asylums took root in America in the nineteenth century. Faced with the difficult task of legitimizing mental healthcare as a field of practice, medical superintendents made decisions that benefited the health of their practices rather than their patients. While their methods of treatment were well founded in the research of Phillipe Pinel and William Tuke, and while they had the freedom to shape American healthcare as they desired, the medical superintendents were overzealous in their plans and ultimately failed to implement the policies of moral treatment with their many patients. Likewise, while medical superintendents claimed to need complete control over their patients’ environments, they quickly found themselves spread too thin in their institutions to genuinely help their patients. New York asylums exemplify the impracticality of moral treatment for the masses but also the varying treatment available for different classes and how that changed, as well as the faulty nature of the medical superintendent as the central figure of treatment with large patient numbers. Though well-intentioned, American asylums and their keepers were ultimately detrimental to their patients and to Americans’ faith in the field of psychiatric medicine.

Faculty Mentor(s)

Dr. Lisa Crutchfield
Dr. Edward DeClair
Dr. Beth Savage
Dr. Price Blair

Rights Statement

The right to download or print any portion of this material is granted by the copyright owner only for personal or educational use. The author/creator retains all proprietary rights, including copyright ownership. Any editing, other reproduction or other use of this material by any means requires the express written permission of the copyright owner. Except as provided above, or for any other use that is allowed by fair use (Title 17, §107 U.S.C.), you may not reproduce, republish, post, transmit or distribute any material from this web site in any physical or digital form without the permission of the copyright owner of the material.

This document is currently not available here.

Share

Import Event to Google Calendar

COinS
 
Apr 5th, 10:15 AM Apr 5th, 10:30 AM

A Reform of Treatment: An Analysis of the American Asylum

Room 207, Schewel Hall

Asylums took root in America in the nineteenth century. Faced with the difficult task of legitimizing mental healthcare as a field of practice, medical superintendents made decisions that benefited the health of their practices rather than their patients. While their methods of treatment were well founded in the research of Phillipe Pinel and William Tuke, and while they had the freedom to shape American healthcare as they desired, the medical superintendents were overzealous in their plans and ultimately failed to implement the policies of moral treatment with their many patients. Likewise, while medical superintendents claimed to need complete control over their patients’ environments, they quickly found themselves spread too thin in their institutions to genuinely help their patients. New York asylums exemplify the impracticality of moral treatment for the masses but also the varying treatment available for different classes and how that changed, as well as the faulty nature of the medical superintendent as the central figure of treatment with large patient numbers. Though well-intentioned, American asylums and their keepers were ultimately detrimental to their patients and to Americans’ faith in the field of psychiatric medicine.