Madness, Morality and Medicine: A Study of the York Retreat, 1796-1914

Abstract

This book is superb historical study of one of the most significant experiments in the treatment of mental illness, the York Retreat. It is part of the Cambridge History of Medicine series and details the theories and technologies of 19th-century psychiatry from the perspective of special setting for psychiatric care. It is not only important on its own merits but also provides basis for contemporary discussion on the nature of mental illness and effective psychiatric treatment. The York experiment in kind and firm moral reeducation of the insane was combination of the religious idealism of the founding Quakers and the conceptions of 19th-century medical psychiatry. The Quaker community was galvanized by young Quaker woman's death in the state-supported York asylum in 1790. Imbued with the religious perspective that a life is one's testimony, the York Retreat emphasized humane approaches to care and treatment of mentally