The Early Public Lunatic Institutions of England Part I

Download or read book The Early Public Lunatic Institutions of England Part I written by Robert J. Wycherley and published by Grosvenor House Publishing. This book was released on 2017-12-20 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the published literature of madness, and its institutional management, the earliest English institutions for the mad have tended to be treated as part of a "bad old days," from which progress has been painfully made to modern knowledge, and humanitarian treatment, of mental illness. This book takes issue with this simplistic account and re-examines these early institutions, using their own records. It suggests that the institutional governors, while somewhat distanced from day to day institutional management, were relatively well-intentioned, and that the institutions were far more complex in their organisation and functioning than has previously been reported.