Essay on the Classification of the InsaneAllen, M. (Physician)
Science
Essay on the Classification of the Insane
Allen, M. (Physician)
Mental illness
I consider it a point of the very first importance, that truth should
never be violated; we must, therefore, on no account, at any time,
deceive them, and more especially in the first instance. If we begin by
destroying confidence, we destroy the basis on which alone all moral good
can be effected. Without truth there can be no confidence. It is quite
a mistake to suppose a system of deceit is necessary for the purpose of
more quietly accomplishing their removal from home. I can
conscientiously assert that my own experience proves the contrary, and
that I have not found in a tithe of the cases which I have had to manage,
any very great difficulty in persuading them willingly to accompany me,
more especially if I had sufficient time given me to ingratiate myself
into their good opinion and confidence, which I do, by fully explaining
the object of their removal, the treatment I intend to adopt, and the
means to be used to make them as happy as possible in the new
circumstances in which they are about to be placed. Whenever this was
done, and I found them in a state to understand it, which is the case in
a greater number of instances than most persons imagine, they have then
almost invariably been persuaded to come willingly, without using any
arts of deception.
I delicately, but candidly tell them, that they are considered to be
insane, that the disease has produced some change in their usual mode of
feeling and thinking, that the object of the proposed visit is their
good, and that if they will only go willingly along with me, I pledge
myself they shall be treated as visitors, unless their own conduct should
oblige me to act otherwise towards them. If after all the pains I take,
(and no pains can be too great to accomplish my object in this faithful
way,) they still refuse, I then tell them, that their going is a matter
quite settled, and cannot possibly be altered; that they may as well make
a merit of necessity, and like rational beings, go at once with
cheerfulness, and good-will, in order that they may still receive the
good which I have promised them.
If after such explanations they do consent to go willingly, or even
without much force, a grand point is accomplished; for in this case,
suppose after their arrival they grossly commit themselves, and justly
forfeit their claim to the treatment I have promised them, and I am
obliged to abridge them of the liberty they had really given them, they
then feel and often acknowledge the justice of any change in their
treatment, which is the result of their gross misconduct, and they exert
themselves with the hope of regaining the liberal privileges they have
forfeited, and thus from their desire to be considered and treated as
visitors, they put forth into operation what is of the greatest
importance, the valuable principle of self-control.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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