Essay on the Classification of the InsaneAllen, M. (Physician)
Science
Essay on the Classification of the Insane
Allen, M. (Physician)
Mental illness
As I have shown, we always endeavour most sedulously (especially in the
first instance begin with) to act on this principle. We treat nearly all
on their arrival as if they came merely as visitors, and never alter our
conduct until they cease to behave as other people; and then they cannot
but blame themselves for their confinement or any change of treatment
that their conduct renders necessary, and which must therefore be always
sufficiently gross, even in their own estimation, to justify the change.
As classification must be based on these moral views, there is
necessarily included in this Essay much that will fail to be more
minutely considered under the Essay, Moral Treatment, and much more that,
it may at present appear, I have, altogether omitted—such as the obvious
necessity of separating the vociferous, the dirty, the epileptic, &c.
from the more rational, delicate, and nervous.
One principle is very important, hereafter to be enforced, which is, that
some must be classed so that bad habits may be prevented by the constant
presence of others to call forth the sense of shame to restrain them.
In fact, this plan of treatment should embrace every means conducive to
the cure of its objects, such as domestic quiet, and the removal of every
possible annoyance; and we are, above all things, carefully to avoid
every appearance of restraint, and to adopt as little of the reality as
is compatible with the security of the violent, dangerous, and
discontented, who must be restrained, and if possible, without exciting
or increasing their diseased state. We must do every thing we can to
soothe and comfort the disappointed and melancholy, and diligently labour
to heal the broken-hearted; we must ascertain causes and effects, and
remove or counteract them; we must strive to correct or cure wrong
notions and impressions; we must cultivate and strengthen better feelings
and principles, and discourage all that is bad, or allow it to die away
for want of nourishment and exercise: for such purposes the
superintendant must be armed with medical and moral means at all points,
and be above selfish considerations. To describe all this in detail,
would be to write volumes. It is evident then, that every variety of
suitable treatment should be adopted, according to the nature and
circumstances of the case.
All this is not to be done by mechanism, nor by the strictest attention
to any plan which some cold rules prescribe. Acts of Parliament can
never make these places what they ought to be, and which it is of the
first importance they should be; I mean places for the voluntary
seclusion of an exhausted mind, or nervous invalid, and in every case as
institutions not so much for the confinement, as for the cure, of the
insane.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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