Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T08:04:30.208Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A social history of serious mental illness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2020

Brendan Daugherty Open the ORCID record for Brendan Daugherty [Opens in a new window] ,
Katherine Warburton Open the ORCID record for Katherine Warburton [Opens in a new window]  and
Stephen M. Stahl
Brendan Daugherty*
Affiliation:
School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Justice Health and Forensic Mental Health Network, New South Wales, Australia
Katherine Warburton
Affiliation:
California Department of State Hospitals, Sacramento, California, USA Department of Psychiatry, University of California Davis, Davis, California, USA
Stephen M. Stahl
Affiliation:
California Department of State Hospitals, Sacramento, California, USA Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, University of California, Riverside, California, USA Psychiatry Department, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
*
*Address correspondence to: Brendan Daugherty, BMed, MPM, Grad Cert FMH, FRANZCP, Cert Child Adol Psych, Cert Forensic Psych, Post Office Box 150, Matraville, NSW 2036, Australia. (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Despite medical, technological, and humanitarian advances, the criminalization of those with serious mental illness continues. This is not an isolated phenomenon. The benefits of treatment reform and innovation are difficult to maintain or sometimes outright harmful. Across time and geography, the care of those with serious mental illness tends towards maltreatment, be it criminalization or other forms of harm. We present a social history of serious mental illness, along with the idea that the treatment of serious mental illness is a Sisyphean task—perpetually pushing a boulder up a hill, only for it to roll down and start again. The history is provided as a basis for deeper reflection of treatment, and treatment reform, of those with serious mental illnesses.

Keywords

psychosishistorysocialmental healthcriminalizationmaltreatmentSisyphusserious mental illness
Type
Perspectives
Information
CNS Spectrums , Volume 25 , Issue 5 , October 2020 , pp. 584 - 592
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References:

Grob, GN. Mental Institutions in America. Piscataway: Transaction Publishers; 1973.Google Scholar
Porter, R. Madness: A Brief History. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2002.Google Scholar
Scull, A. Madness in Civilization: A Cultural History of Insanity from the Bible to Freud from the Madhouse to Modern Medicine. Princeton: Princeton University Press; 2015.Google Scholar
Shorter, E, Healy, D. A history of psychiatry: from the era of the asylum to the age of prozac. J Psychopharmacol. 1997;11(3):287.Google Scholar
Tseng, W-S. The development of psychiatric concepts in traditional Chinese medicine. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1973;29(4):569–575.Google ScholarPubMed
Porter, R. The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity (The Norton History of Science). New York: WW Norton & Company; 1999.Google Scholar
Risse, GB. Mending Bodies, Saving Souls: A History of Hospitals. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 1999.Google Scholar
Miller, AC. Jundi-Shapur, bimaristans, and the rise of academic medical centres. J R Soc Med. 2006;99(12):615–617.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Youssef, HA, Youssef, FA, Dening, TR. Evidence for the existence of schizophrenia in medieval Islamic society. Hist Psychiatry. 1996;7(25):55–62.Google ScholarPubMed
Dubovsky, SL. Psychiatry in Saudi Arabia. Am J Psychiatry. 1983;140(11):1455–1459.Google Scholar
Pridmore, S, Pasha, MI. Psychiatry and Islam. Australas Psychiatry. 2004;12(4):380–385.Google Scholar
Andrews, J, Briggs, A, Porter, R, Tucker, P, Waddington, K. The History of Bethlem. Abingdon: Routledge; 2013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parry-Jones, WL. The Trade in Lunacy: A Study of Private Madhouses in England in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Abingdon: Routledge; 2013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parry-Jones, WL. English private madhouses in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Proc R Soc Med. 1973;66(7):659Google ScholarPubMed
Maisel, AQ. Bedlam 1946: Most US mental hospitals are a shame and a disgrace. Life Mag. 1946;20(18):102–118.Google Scholar
Gorman, M. Oklahoma Attacks Its Snake Pits. Pa.: National Mental Health Foundation; 1948.Google Scholar
Deutsch, A. The Shame of the States. New York: Harcourt, Brace; 1948.Google Scholar
Scull, A. The Most Solitary of Afflictions: Madness and Society in Britain, 1700–1900. New Haven: Yale University Press; 1993.Google Scholar
Kirkby, KC. History of psychiatry in Australia, pre-1960. Hist Psychiatry. 1999;10(38):191–204. doi:10.1177/0957154X9901003802.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Appelbaum, PS, Kemp, KN. The evolution of commitment law in the nineteenth century: a reinterpretation. Law Hum Behav. 1982;6(3–4):343Google Scholar
Scull, AT. Moral treatment reconsidered: some sociological comments on an episode in the history of British psychiatry. Psychol Med. 1979;9(3):421–428.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dix, Dorothea. Encyclopaedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Dorothea-Dix. Published 2019. Accessed October 20, 2019.Google Scholar
Scull, A, MacKenzie, C, Hervey, N. Masters of Bedlam: The Transformation of the Mad-Doctoring Trade. Vol. 346. Princeton: Princeton University Press; 2014.Google Scholar
Topp, L. Single rooms, seclusion and the non-restraint movement in British asylums, 1838–1844. Soc Hist Med. 2018;31(4):754–773.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Langley, GE. Sir John Charles Bucknill 1817–1897: our founder: based on a lecture given at the annual meeting of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Exeter on 9th July, 1979. Br J Psychiatry. 1980;137(2):105–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bucknill, JC. Notes on asylums for the insane in America. Am J Psychiatry. 1876;33(2):137–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Digby, A. Changes in the asylum: the case of York, 1777–1815. Econ Hist Rev. 1983;218–239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirby, D. Vulnerable patients moved 50 miles after closure of York Psychiatric Hospital. The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/vulnerable-patients-moved-50-miles-after-closure-of-york-psychiatric-hospital-a6787061.html. Published 2015. Accessed October 22, 2019.Google Scholar
Coleborne, C, MacKinnon, D. Psychiatry and its institutions in Australia and New Zealand: an overview. Int Rev Psychiatry. 2006;18(4):371–380. doi:10.1080/09540260600813248.Google ScholarPubMed
Dax, EC. The first 200 years of Australian psychiatry. Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 1989;23(1):103–110. doi:10.3109/00048678909062599.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mahone, S. Psychiatry in the East African colonies: a background to confinement. Int Rev Psychiatry. 2006;18(4):327–332.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oyebode, F. History of psychiatry in West Africa. Int Rev Psychiatry. 2006;18(4):319–325. doi:10.1080/09540260600775397.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sadowsky, J. Imperial Bedlam: Institutions of Madness in Colonial Southwest Nigeria. Vol. 10. Berkeley: University of California Press; 1999.Google ScholarPubMed
Nizamie, H, Goyal, N. History of psychiatry in India. Indian J Psychiatry. 2010;52(7):7. doi:10.4103/0019-5545.69195.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jain, S, Murthy, P. Madmen and specialists: the clientele and the staff of the Lunatic Asylum, Bangalore. Int Rev Psychiatry. 2006;18(4):345–354. doi:10.1080/09540260600929341.Google Scholar
Judd, A. America’s dark past relived as cycle ends. Atlanta Journal & Constitution. https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional/asylum-dark-past-relived-cycle-ends/uq2OK0dgHCeynhFUGba36O/. Published 2013. Accessed October 22, 2019.Google Scholar
Sisti, DA, Segal, AG, Emanuel, EJ. Improving long-term psychiatric care: bring back the asylum. JAMA. 2015;313(3):243–244.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kevles, DJ. Eugenics and human rights. BMJ. 1999;319(7207):435–438.Google ScholarPubMed
Bashford, A, Levine, P. The Oxford Handbook of the History of Eugenics. New York: OUP USA; 2010.Google Scholar
Adams, MB. The Wellborn Science: Eugenics in Germany, France, Brazil, and Russia. Oxford: Oxford University Press on Demand; 1990.Google Scholar
Broberg, G, Roll-Hansen, N. Eugenics and the Welfare State. Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland: Michigan State University Press; 2005.Google Scholar
Scull, A. Psychiatry and Its Discontents. Berkeley: University of California Press; 2019.Google Scholar
Scull, A. Madhouse: A Tragic Tale of Megalomania and Modern Medicine. New Haven: Yale University Press; 2007.Google Scholar
Wagner-Jauregg, J. The history of the malaria treatment of general paralysis. Am J Psychiatry. 1946;102(5):577–582.Google ScholarPubMed
Ouwens, IMD, Lens, CE, Fiolet, ATL, et al. Malaria fever therapy for general paralysis of the insane: a historical cohort study. Eur Neurol. 2017;78(1–2):56–62.Google Scholar
Lieberman, JA. Shrinks: The Untold Story of Psychiatry. New York: Hachette; 2015.Google Scholar
Walton, M. Deep sleep therapy and Chelmsford Private Hospital: have we learnt anything? Australas Psychiatry. 2013;21(3):206–212.Google ScholarPubMed
Jones, K. Insulin coma therapy in schizophrenia. J R Soc Med. 2000;93(3):147–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourne, H. The insulin myth. Lancet. 1953;262(6793):964–968.Google Scholar
Ackner, B, Harris, A, Oldham, AJ. Insulin treatment of schizophrenia: a controlled study. Lancet. 1957;269(6969):607–611.Google Scholar
Swayze, VW. Frontal leukotomy and related psychosurgical procedures in the era before antipsychotics (1935-1954): a historical overview. Am J Psychiatry. 1995;152(4):505–515.Google ScholarPubMed
Larson, KC. Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 2015.Google Scholar
Torrey, EF. American Psychosis: How the Federal Government Destroyed the Mental Illness Treatment System. New York: Oxford University Press; 2014.Google Scholar
Lamb, HR. Deinstitutionalization and the homeless mentally ill. Psychiatr Serv. 1984;35(9):899–907.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lamb, HR. Does deinstitutionalization cause criminalization?: the penrose hypothesis. JAMA psychiatry. 2015;72(2):105–106.Google ScholarPubMed
Pols, H. The development of psychiatry in Indonesia: from colonial to modern times. Int Rev Psychiatry. 2006;18(4):363–370. doi:10.1080/09540260600775421.Google ScholarPubMed
Pols, H, Wibisono, S. Psychiatry and mental health care in Indonesia from colonial to modern times. In: Mental Health in Asia and the Pacific. Springer; 2017:205–221.Google Scholar
Star Reese, A. Disorder. http://www.andreastarreese.com/disorder. Accessed October 25, 2018.Google Scholar
Lamb, HR, Weinberger, LE. The shift of psychiatric inpatient care from hospitals to jails and prisons. J Am Acad Psychiatry law Online. 2005;33(4):529–534.Google ScholarPubMed
Fazel, S, Khosla, V, Doll, H, Geddes, J. The prevalence of mental disorders among the homeless in western countries: systematic review and meta-regression analysis. PLoS Med. 2008;5(12):e225Google ScholarPubMed
Kessler, RC, Berglund, PA, Bruce, ML, et al. The prevalence and correlates of untreated serious mental illness. Health Serv Res. 2001;36(6 Pt 1):987.Google ScholarPubMed
Iglehart, JK. Decriminalizing mental illness—the Miami model. N Engl J Med. 2016;374(18):1701–1703.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McNiel, DE, Binder, RL, Robinson, JC. Incarceration associated with homelessness, mental disorder, and co-occurring substance abuse. Psychiatr Serv. 2005;56(7):840–846.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Torrey, EF, Kennard, AD, Eslinger, D, Lamb, R, Pavle, J. More Mentally Ill Persons are in Jails and Prisons than Hospitals: A Survey of the States. Arlington, VA: Treat Advocacy Center; 2010.Google Scholar
Asylum Projects - Lima State Hospital. http://www.asylumprojects.org/index.php/Lima_State_Hospital. Accessed October 10, 2019.Google Scholar
Asylum Projects - Matteawan State Hospital. http://www.asylumprojects.org/index.php/Matteawan_State_Hospital. Accessed October 10, 2019.Google Scholar
Asylum Projects - St. Joseph State Hospital. http://www.asylumprojects.org/index.php/St._Joseph_State_Hospital. Accessed October 10, 2019.Google Scholar
Resnik, J, VanCleave, A, Bell, K, et al. Reforming restrictive housing: The 2018 ASCA-Liman Nationwide Survey of Time-in-Cell. 2018.Google Scholar
Walker, ER, McGee, RE, Druss, BG. Mortality in mental disorders and global disease burden implications: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA psychiatry. 2015;72(4):334–341.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hjorthøj, C, Stürup, AE, McGrath, JJ, Nordentoft, M. Years of potential life lost and life expectancy in schizophrenia: a systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet Psychiatry. 2017;4(4):295–301.Google ScholarPubMed
Chang, C-K, Hayes, RD, Perera, G, et al. Life expectancy at birth for people with serious mental illness and other major disorders from a secondary mental health care case register in London. PLoS One. 2011;6(5):e19590.CrossRefGoogle Scholar