An inquiry concerning the indications of insanity : with suggestions of the better protection and care of the insane / by John Conolly... now reprinted by photolithography with an introduction by Richard Hunter and Ida Macalpine.

  • John Conolly
Date:
1964
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inquiry concerning the indications of insanity : with suggestions of the better protection and care of the insane / by John Conolly... now reprinted by photolithography with an introduction by Richard Hunter and Ida Macalpine. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    penetration in a matter wherein nobody seems in doubt but himself; or he may even be tempted to affect to perceive those signs of madness which do not exist. The owner of the lunatic asylum is & most respectable man,—a neighbour, a friend, perhaps; and the asylum is his fortune ; to depre- ciate it, or to cast a doubt upon a case where he has none, may be to ruin him : and the sense of duty in an honorary visitor could hardly lead him to run such a risk, even in cases of more flagrant mismanagement than are now commonly to be met with. Of all these matters the public are not altogether unsuspicious, and hence arises an evil of an oppo- site description: for the occasional detection of mistakes, and the dread of committing a beloved relative to a lunatic asylum; the opinion that to pronounce an individual insane is equivalent to pronouncing a sentence of separation from every friend, and an abandonment of all care of him to strangers; does really prevent in some instances such interference as the interests and comfort of families require; and those to whom temporary superintendence and slight restraint would be salu- tary, are allowed to ruin their fortunes, or to make a whole family wretched, because restraint, when once determined on, is seldom apportioned to the individual case, but is indiscriminate and excessive and uncertain in its termination.
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