Abstract
Physicians specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of insane people (alienists) emerged in the early 19th century and offered their expertise for the courts to consider in judgments of mental competence. In the Oliver Smith will case (1847), the competency of an attesting witness was contested on the issue of insanity. Four well-known alienists testified at trial. Although the insanity of the witness could have been viewed in broader terms, the experts used a narrow definition of insanity based primarily on the presence of delusions. These opinions were only partially consistent with contemporaneous medical notions of insanity and the broad definition of criminal responsibility. We suggest three explanatory factors for the narrow definition related to available medical knowledge, courtroom restrictions including the case itself, and mid-19th-century relationships between mental medicine and the law.
Highlights
Nineteenth-century alienists were forerunners to psychiatrists— physicians who devoted themselves especially to the understanding and treatment of insanity
As ample experience with insane inmates admitted to the proliferating lunatic asylums accumulated, men like Haslam (Zilboorg, 1944), Georget (Goldstein, 1987), Prichard (1837/1973), Ray (1838/1962), von Feuchtersleben (1845/1976), and Winslow (1854) were eager to offer their opinions in judicial proceedings involving insanity (Ray, 1839)
We describe the mental malady of the attesting witness, and the medical experts’ testimonies and opinions, followed by a brief summary of the lawyers’ arguments and the verdict, and compare the experts’ testimonies with contemporaneous medical notions of insanity including their own published works on that subject
Summary
Nineteenth-century alienists were forerunners to psychiatrists— physicians who devoted themselves especially to the understanding and treatment of insanity. The decisive evidence was based on the fact that 11 months before the will was made, the witness was declared insane by Dr Woodward, Superintendent of the Worcester State Asylum (Anonymous, 1847, 1848; Boyden, 1847 [HeinOnline 2008]; Brown, 1862).
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