Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T14:06:23.724Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

From Madness to Mental Illness: Medical men as moral entrepreneurs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Get access

Extract

This paper seeks to provide a sociological account of one aspect of a highly significant redefinition of the moral boundaries of English society: a redefinition which saw the transformation of insanity from a vague, culturally defined phenomenon afflicting an unknown, but probably small, portion of the total population into a condition which could only be authoritatively diagnosed, certified, and dealt with by a group of legally recognized experts and which was now seen as one of the major forms of deviance in English society. Where in the eighteenth century only the most violent and destructive amongst those now labelled insane would have been segregated and confined apart from the rest of the community, by the mid-nineteenth century, with the achievement of lunacy ‘reform’, the asylum was endorsed as the sole officially approved response to the problems posed by all forms of mental illness. In what follows, I want to focus attention rather closely on one centrally important feature of this whole process—and that is just how that segment of the medical profession which we now call psychiatry captured control over insanity; or, to put it another way, how those known in the early nineteenth century as mad-doctors first acquired a monopolistic power to define and treat lunatics. I shall begin, though, with some general remarks on the sociological importance of the issues I shall be raising here.

Type
From Madness to Mental Illness
Copyright
Copyright © Archives Européenes de Sociology 1975

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

Alexander, Franz D. and Selesnick, Sheldon T., The History of Psychiatry: an evaluation of psychiatric thought and practice from prehistoric times to the present (New York, Harper and Row, 1966).Google Scholar
Allen, , Matthew, , Cases of Insanity, with Medical, Moral and Philosphical Observations upon them (London, Swire, 1831).Google Scholar
Allen, , Matthew, , Essay on the Classification of the Insane (London, Taylor, 1837).Google Scholar
Anonymous, On the Present State of Lunatic Asylums: with suggestions for their improvement (London, Drury, 1839).Google Scholar
Arnold, , Thomas, M. D., Observations on the Nature, Kinds, Causes, and Prevention of Insanity (Leicester, Robinson and Caddell, 17821786), 2 vols.Google Scholar
Bedfordshire County Asylum, Minute Book Vol. I, in manuscript at the Bedfordshire County Record Office (18121822).Google Scholar
Bedfordshire County Asylum Extracts from the Minutes of the Visitors of the County Lunatic Asylum at Bedford, containing the rules and orders for the government thereof. In manuscript at the Bedfordshire County Record Office (18121844).Google Scholar
Bedfordshire County Asylum Miscellaneous papers relating to the founding of the Asylum. Bundle at the Bedfordshire Record Office (no date).Google Scholar
Bakewell, , Samuel Glover, M. D., An Essay on Insanity (Edinburgh, Neill, 1833).Google Scholar
Becher, , Thomas, John, Rev., An Address to the Public on the Nature, Design, and Constitution of the General Lunatic Asylum near Nottingham (Newark, Nottinghamshire, Ridge, 1811).Google Scholar
Belcher, W., An Address to Humanity, containing a Letter to DrMonro, Thomas; a Receipt to make a Lunatic, and seize his Estate and a Sketch of a True Smiling Hyena (London [for the author] 1796).Google Scholar
Bingham, , Nathaniel, , Observations on the Religious Delusions of Insane Persons […] with which are combined a copious practical description […] of mental disease, and of its appropriate medical and moral treatment (London, Hatchard, 1841).Google Scholar
Browne, , Francis, William Alexander, What Asylums Were, Are, and Ought to be (Edinburgh, Black, 1837).Google Scholar
Browne, , Francis, William Alexander, The Moral Treatment of the Insane: a lecture (London, Adlard, 1864).Google Scholar
Burnett, C. M., , M. D., Insanity Tested by Science, and shown to be a disease rarely connected with organic lesion of the brain, and on that account far more susceptible of cure than has hitherto been supposed (London, Highley, 1848).Google Scholar
Burrows, , Man, George, Cursory Remarks on a Bill now in the House of Peers for Regulating of Madhouses, […] with observations on the defects of the present system (London, Harding, 1817).Google Scholar
Burrows, , Man, George, An Inquiry into Certain Errors Relative to Insanity (London, Underwood, 1820).Google Scholar
Burrows, , Man, George, Commentaries on the Causes, Forms, Symptoms, and Treatment, Moral and Medical, of Insanity, (London, Underwood, 1828).Google Scholar
Combe, , Andrew, , Observations on Mental Derangement: being an application of the principles of phrenology to the elucidation of the causes, symptoms, nature, and treatment of insanity (Edinburgh, Anderson, 1831).Google Scholar
Conolly, , John, , An Inquiry Concerning the Indications of Insanity, with suggestions for the better protection and care of the insane (London, Taylor). Facsimile edition by Hunter and MacAlpine (London, Dawsons, 1964).Google Scholar
Cox, J. M., Practical Observations on Insanity: in which some suggestions are offered towards an improved mode of treating diseases of the mind […] to which are subjoined, remarks on medical jurisprudence as connected with diseased intellect (London, Baldwin and Murray, 1806).Google Scholar
Cullen, , William, , First Lines of the Practice of Physic (Edinburgh, Bell and Bradfute, 1808), 2 vols.Google Scholar
Dain, , Norman, , Concepts of Insanity in the United States, 1786–1830 (New Brunswick, New Jersey, Rutgers, 1964).Google Scholar
DrDe La Rive, , Lettre adréssie aux rédacteurs de la bibliothèque britannique sur un nouvel établissement pour la guérison des aliénés (1798).Google Scholar
Dickens, , Charles, and Wills, W. H., A Curious Dance Round a Curious Tree Household Words, 01 17, 1852. Reprinted in Harry Stone (ed.), Charles Dickens Uncollected Writings from Household Words, (Bloomington and London, Indiana University Press, 1968), vol. II, pp. 381–391.Google Scholar
Stone, HarryDictionary of National Biography (New York, Macmillan).Google Scholar
Stone, HarryEdinburgh Review: An Account of the York Retreat, by Smith, Sydney, XXIII (1814), pp. 189198.Google Scholar
Stone, HarryLunatic Asylums, by Fltton, W. H., , M. D., XXVIII (1817), pp. 431471.Google Scholar
Edinburgh Royal Lunatic Asylum (1812).Google Scholar
Ellis, , Charles, William, A Letter to Thomas Thompson, Esq., , M. P., containing Considerations on the Necessity of Proper Places being provided by the Legislature for the Reception of all Insane Persons and on Some of the Abuses which have been found to exist in Madhouses, with a Plan to remedy them (Hull [for the author] 1815).Google Scholar
Ellis, , Charles, William, A Treatise on the Nature, Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment of Insanity, with practical observations on Lunatic asylums, and a description of the Pauper Lunatic Asylum for the County of Middlesex at Hanwell, with a detailed account of its management (London, Holdsworth, 1838).Google Scholar
Fallowes, , Thomas, , The Best Method for the Cure of Lunaticks. With some account of the incomparable Oleum Cephalicum used in the same, prepared and administered by Fallowes, Tho., , M. D. at his house in Lambeth-Marsh (London [for the author] 1705).Google Scholar
Fletcher, R., Sketches from the Case-Book to illustrate the Influence of the Mind on the Body, with the treatment of some of the more important brain and nervous disturbances (London, Longman, 1833).Google Scholar
Forster, , Thomas, , Observations on the Phenomena of Insanity (London, Underwood, 1817).Google Scholar
Freidson, , Eliot, , Profession of Medicine: a study in the applied sociology of knowledge (New York, 1970). Quoted as 1970a.Google Scholar
Freidson, , Eliot, , Professional Dominance (New York, Atherton, 1970). Quoted as 1970b.Google Scholar
Goffman, , Erving, , Asylums: essays on the social situation of mental patients and other inmates (New York, Doubleday, 1961).Google Scholar
Hallaran, , Saunders, William, Practical Observations on the Causes and Cure of Insanity 2 (Cork, Edwards and Savage, 1818).Google Scholar
Halliday, , SirAndrew, , A General View of the Present State of Lunatics and Lunatic Asylums in Great Britain and Ireland, and in some other Kingdoms (London, Underwood, 1828).Google Scholar
Hansard's, Parliamentary Debates.Google Scholar
Hanwell Manuscript: Middlesex Lunatic Asylum: Visiting fustices' Minutes, vol. I (18271829), vol. II (1829–31). In manuscript at London County Record Office, Middlesex Division.Google Scholar
Haslam, , John, , Observations on Madness and Melancholy (London, Callow, 1809).Google Scholar
Haslam, , John, , Medical furisprudence as it relates to Insanity, according to the Law of England (London, Hunter, 1817).Google Scholar
Higgins, , Godfrey, , The Evidence taken before a Committee of the House of Commons respecting the Asylum at York; with observations and notes, and a Letter to the Committee (Doncaster, Sheardown, 1816).Google Scholar
Hill, , George, , Nesse, , An Essay on the Prevention and Cure of Insanity (London, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1814).Google Scholar
Hill, , Gardiner, RobertA Lecture on the Management of Lunatic Asylums, and the Treatment of the Insane (London, Simpkin Marshall, 1839).Google Scholar
Hill, , Gardiner, Robert, A Concise History of the Entire Abolition of Mechanical Restraint in the treatment of the Insane (London, Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1857).Google Scholar
Hill, , Gardiner, Robert, Lunacy: its past and present (London, Longmans, Green, Reader and Dyer, 1870).Google Scholar
House of Commons, Reports of the Select Committee on madhouses in England, with minutes of evidence and appendices (18151816).Google Scholar
House of Commons, Report from the Select Committee on pauper lunatics in the County of Middlesex and on lunatic asylums (1827).Google Scholar
House of Lords, Minutes of Evidence taken before the Select Committee of the House of Lords on the Bills relating to lunatics and lunatic asylums. In Journals of the House of Lords (1828).Google Scholar
Hunter, Richard A. and MacAlpine, , Ida, , Three Hundred Years of Psychiatry 1535–1860: a history presented in selected English texts (London, Oxford University Press, 1963).Google Scholar
Irish, , David, , Levamen infirmi, or: Cordial Counsel to the Sick and Diseased (London [for the author] 1700).Google Scholar
Jones, , Kathleen, , Lunacy, Law, and Conscience 1744–1845. The social history of the care of the insane (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1955).Google Scholar
Jones, , Kathleen, , Mental Health and Social Policy, 1845–1955 (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1960).Google Scholar
Kittbie, Nicholas A., The Right to be Different: deviance and enforced therapy (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins, 1972).Google Scholar
Mayo, , John, and Thomas, Mayo, Remarks on Insanity (London, Underwood, 1817).Google Scholar
Mayo, , Thomas, , An Essay on the Relation of the Theory of Morals to Insanity (London, Fellowes, 1834).Google Scholar
Metropolitan Commissioners in Lunacy: Report to the Lord Chancellor, 1844 (London, Bradbury and Evans, 1844).Google Scholar
Millingen, J. G., Aphorisms on the Treatment and Management of the Insane, with considerations on public and private lunatic asylums, pointing out the errors in the present system (London, Churchill, 1840).Google Scholar
Morison, , SirAlexander, , Outlines of Lectures on the Nature, Causes, and Treatment of Insanity, edited by Morison, Thomas C. (1st edition 1825) (London, Longman, Green, Brown, and Longmans, 1848).Google Scholar
Neville, William B., On Insanity; its nature, causes, and cure (London, Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, 1836).Google Scholar
Nisbet, , William, Two Letters to the Right Honourable George Rose, , M. P., on the Reports at Present before the Honourable House of Commons on the State of Madhouses (London, Cox, 1815).Google Scholar
Nottingham Lunatic Asylum: The Articles of Union entered into and agreed upon between the Justices of the Peace for the County of Nottingham; the Justices of the Peace for […] the town of Nottingham; and the subscribers to a voluntary institution; for the purpose of providing a General Lunatic Asylum (Newark, Ridge, 1811).Google Scholar
Pargeter, , William, , Observations on Maniacal Disorders (Reading [for the author] 1792).Google Scholar
Parkin, , John, , On the Medical and Moral Treatment of Insanity. Including a notice on the establishment for the treatment of nervous and mental maladies: Manor Cottage, King's Road, Chelsea, established in 1780 (London, Martin, 1843 [?]).Google Scholar
Parry-Jones, , Brenda, , A Calendar of the Eldon-Richards Correspondence c. 1809–1822, Journal of the Merioneth Historical and Record Society (1965), pp. 3950.Google Scholar
Parry-Jones, William L., The Trade in Lunacy: a study of private madhouses in England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972).Google Scholar
Perfect, , William, , Select Cases in the Different Species of Insanity, Lunacy, or Madness, with the modes of practice as adopted in the treatment of each (Rochester, Gillman, 1787).Google Scholar
Perfect, , William, , A Remarkable Case of Madness, with the Diet and Medicines used in the Cure (Rochester [for the author] 1791).Google Scholar
Phillips, , Derek, , Rejection: A Possible Consequence of Seeking Help for Mental Disorder, A.S.R., XXVIII (1963), 963972.Google Scholar
Pinel, , Philippe, , A Treatise on Insanity, translated by Davis, D. D. (Sheffield, Cadell and Davies, 1806).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prichard, , Cowles, James, A Treatise on Insanity and Other Disorders Affecting the Mind (London, Sherwood, Gilbert, and Piper, 1835).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prichard, , Cowles, James, On the Different Forms of Insanity in Relation to Furisprudence (London, Bailliere, 1842).Google Scholar
Prichard, , Cowles, James, Quarterly Review, Insanity and Madhouses, XV (1816), 387417.Google Scholar
Prichard, , Cowles, James, Inquiries Relative to Insanity, XXIV (1820), 169194.Google Scholar
Reid, , John, , Essays on Insanity, Hypochondriacal and other Nervous Affections (London, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1816).Google Scholar
Scheff, , Thomas, , Being Mentally III: a sociological theory (Chicago, Aldine, 1966).Google Scholar
Scott, Robert A., The Construction of Stigma by Professional Experts, in DOUGLAS, J.D. (ed.), Deviance and Respectability (New York, Basic Books, 1970).Google Scholar
Scull, Andrew T., Museums of Madness: the social organization of insanity in nineteenth-century England (Princeton University [Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation] 1974).Google Scholar
Sedgewick, , Peter, , Mental Illness is Illness, Salmagundi, SummerFall, 1972.Google Scholar
Shryock, , Harrison, Richard, The Development of Modern Medicine (Philadelphia. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1936).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spurzheim, J. G., Observations on the Deranged Manifestations of the Mind, or Insanity (London, Baldwin, Craddock and Joy, 1817).Google Scholar
Stark, , William, , Remarks on the Construction of Public Asylums for the Cure of Mental Derangement (Glasgow, Hedderwick, 1810).Google Scholar
Szasz, , Thomas, , The Myth of Mental Illness (New York, Dell, 1961).Google Scholar
Szasz, , Thomas, , Law, Liberty, and Psychiatry (New York, Macmillan, 1963).Google Scholar
Szasz, , Thomas, , Ideology and Insanity (New York, Doubleday, 1970). Quoted as 1970a.Google Scholar
Szasz, , Thomas, , The Manufacture of Madness (New York, Dell, 1970). Quoted as 1970b.Google Scholar
Thurnam, , John, , Observations and Essays on the Statistics of Insanity: including an inquiry into the causes influencing the results of treatment in establishments for the insane: to which are added statistics for the retreat near York (London, Simpkin Marshall, 1845).Google Scholar
Tuke, , Hack, Daniel, The Moral Management of the Insane (London, Churchill, 1854).Google Scholar
Tuke, , Samuel, , Essay on the State of the Insane Poor, The Philanthropist, I (1811), 357360.Google Scholar
Tuke, , Samuel, , Description of the Retreat: an institution near York for insane persons of the Society of Friends (York, Alexander, 1813). Facsimile edition edited by Hunter, Richard A. and MacAlpine, Ida (London, Dawsons, 1964).Google Scholar
Uwins, , David, , A Treatise on those Disorders of the Brain and Nervous System, which are usually considered and called Mental (London, Renshaw and Rush, 1833).Google Scholar
Asylum, Wakefield Lunatic, Rules for the Management of the Pauper Lunatic Asylum for the West Riding of the County of York, erected at Wakefield. Drawn up and proposed by Higgins, Godfrey, Esq. (Wakefield, Waller, 1817).Google Scholar
Asylum, Wakefield Lunatic, Westminster Review, Esquirol on the Treatment of the Insane, XVIII (1833), 129138.Google Scholar
Willis, , Francis, , A Treatise on Mental Derangement (London, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1823); also the second edition, 1843.Google Scholar
Zilboorg, , Gregory, , A History of Medical Psychology (New York 1940); paperback edition (Norton 1966).Google Scholar
Zola, , Kenneth, Irving, Medicine, Morality, and Social Problems — Some Implications of the Label Mental Illness: Paper presented at the American Ortho-Psychiatric Association, 03 20–23, 1968.Google Scholar
Zola, , Kenneth, Irving, Medicine as an Institution of Social Control, The Sociological Review, XX (1972), 487504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar