Five cardinal questions on administrative psychiatry / by J. Mundy.

  • Mundy, Jaromir, Freiherr von, 1822-1894.
Date:
1861
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Five cardinal questions on administrative psychiatry / by J. Mundy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    FIVE CARDINAL QUESTIONS ON ADMINfSTRATIVE PSYCHIATRY.* “ Non progredi est regredi.” We have in two previously published papersf promised to discuss the following questions, and now attempt to fulfil the promise in the following pages. The questions are : 1. What false ideas are still prevalent among the public at large in relation to lunatic asylums and their superintendents and psy- chological physicians in general ? 2. Are the mode and description of state supervision and control, as exercised over asylums, sufficient and satisfactory ? 3. To what persons, and under what conditions, shall the privi- lege be exclusively conceded to establish, superintend, and carry on establishments for the insane ? 4. Ought lunatic asylums to be entrusted to religious corpora- tions ? 5. May not families of position and competency be lawfully per- mitted to retain the charge and management of their mentally afflicted relatives, under the “patronal or family regime^^? I. The first question renders it necessary for us at the outset to fix the signification and precise meamng of the phrase “ public at large,” so as to obviate any misconception. * It is right to state that the learned author of this paper has, with one or two exceptions, visited the asylums of every country on the continent of Europe, and that it is the intention of the following pages to convey the result of his impressions on those asylums. Dr. Mundy has now commenced an investigation into the state of our own asylums, and we trust that he will he able to pass a more favorable judgment upon us than he has done upon our continental fellow-labourers; but we must expect severe criticism from one who is opposed to the asylum system generally, and is a zealous advocate of the Gheel system at large. Tlie maxim, however, is sound—“fas est ah hoste doceri.” “ Rien n’est si dangereux qu’un ignorant ami; Mieux vaudrait un sage ennemi.” —[Rd-] + See in the ‘Journal de Mcdecine de Bruxelles,’ 1860, the article “ T,a folie du suicide et le suicide du Comte Etienne Szchenyi,” p. 193, and in connexion with Question IV, the ‘ Correspondenz-matt,’ 1860, p. 303.