Takabayashi, Akinobu;
(2008)
The political economics of English psychiatry in the early twentieth century.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
The history of madness that has flourished over the past few decades has tended to concern itself with various aspects of institutionalisation, including that of the profession that would come to call itself psychiatry. As with the complementary literature on policy reform in this area, implicit in these accounts are attributions of humanitarian motives to the practice of psychiatrists. This thesis approaches the subject differently in order to challenge that assumption. It concentrates on the fledgling psychiatric profession in England around the turn of the twentieth century in order to bring out the political economic interests of those who sought to minister to the mentally challenged. It concentrates on the hitherto little-studied 1890 Lunacy Act, which it resurrects as pivotal in galvanizing the commercial interests of psychiatrists and as crucial to the subsequent development of the psychiatric profession through to the 1930s. The thesis explores the origins of the Act and its implications for the profession, before turning to the various rhetorical strategies deployed by psychiatrists in order to circumvent the Act's legal and commercial implications. The impact of the First World War on psychiatry is thus treated from a very different perspective than that usually derived from the focus on shell shock. The history and meaning of the reform of mental health legislation is also approached differently. The thesis draws on the membership of the Medico-Psychological Association for statistical and prosopographical qualification, and, in one chapter, focuses on the records of the Holloway Sanatorium in Surrey to instance the kinds of manoeuvres involved in admissions procedures to mental asylums consequent upon the 1890 Act. Throughout, the thesis seeks to illuminate the politics of a profession seeking to gain control of the private sector in the trade in lunacy.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | The political economics of English psychiatry in the early twentieth century |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This thesis has been digitised by ProQuest. |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10215460 |
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