The moral treatment of the insane : a lecture / by W.A.F. Browne.

  • William A. F. Browne
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The moral treatment of the insane : a lecture / by W.A.F. Browne. 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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    contem])t, abridges liis ijidulgcnces, and makes him feel that mis- fortune has positively reduced him to an inferior caste. Ji)r. Eox’.s plan was to catch the most simj)lc, unsophisticated bum])kin, grown on the wilds of Dartmoor, and lick him into shape, and the shaj)c tlmt he wanted. Ilis experienee was that the raw material of well- disposed country lads was readily moulded into a dutiful, respectful, and kind guardian, who could learn ultimately to act as a companion and as a servant, as a master and a nurse. The English Commis- sioners have instituted a register which records the services and qualifications of persons entitled to employment. Rewards and prizes for length of servitude and other merits have been instituted. They have been promoted to higher situations and greater responsi- bility. A psychologist of good standing at one time hmited his selection to self-educated men, members of Mechanics'’ Institutes, and of logical cast of thought. But in this experiment his sub- ordinates turned out students and philosophers, in place of sensible servants; they devoted themselves to treatises on the human mmd; they speculated on the nature of the cases, and argued as to the course pursued; while the rules were neglected, the rooms unswept, the patients riotous and degraded. He subsequently essayed tem- ])erance, then communion with the Chm’ch, and ultimately service in the army, as guarantees for a certain amount of self-control and regularity of conduct, with varying success. At present most phy- sicians disregard more recondite qualifications, and are content with good temper, presence of mind, and sobriety, wliich are invaluable, but do not stand the evil effects, the tear and wear, of constant con- tact w'ith the insane. Esquhol appointed cured patients as nurses. He believed that they would be trained, and softened, and elevated by suffering. But even where restoration is complete, there often remain a callousness and indifference, or a sense of wrong, which frustrated the scheme. They were not sure of their position; they dreaded the contempt of those whom they formerly resembled; then- original disposition, out of which their insanity may have sprung, came into operation; they were hard, harsh, exacting, petty tyrants, and sus- jjicious. The same observation has been repeatedly made since. It is surely not Utopian to expect that, ere long, a training and clinical school may be formed for this class of superuitendeiits, and already has an example been given by the delivery of a series of lectures for their especial behoof and instruction. Eormcrly all lunatics were confided to monastic institutions, but were there mingled with ‘Mools, imbeciles, libertines, drunkards, extravagant,^'’ somewhat after the manner of the House of Refuge in Edinburgh. So recently as 1845, large asylums in Erauce were ex- clusively under the care of nuns, and in Belgium the i)racticc now prevails. Out of this has originated the cnqffoymcnt of religious