Bedlam revisited : a history of Bethlem hospital 1634-1770
This thesis takes issue with a polemical historiography of Bethlem which has tended to 'view the hospital as a nadir in the history of psychiatry, and to accept, too uncritically, the distorted metaphor of 'Bedlam' for the reality. It argues that there was not the radical equivalency that some historians have posited between animalistic conceptions of the insane and the actual practices and policies pursued at early modern Bethiem. Nor was this paradigm of madness the only oae prevailing in the classical period, Bethlem patients also being regarded (e.g.) as 'objects of charity', requiring both mental and bodily relief. Rather than 'brutalized', it is sustained, the inmates of Bethiem were being managed and maintained, although inadequately and inefficiently. What modern commentators have disparaged as maltreatment and squalor at Bethlem, was not merely the result of an attitude to the mad as brutes, but was also the result of a lack of resources and a failure to measure up to the ideals of provision. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the squalor and brutality of Bethiem was neither as extreme, nor as undifferentiated, as has been alleged. The hospital is located comprehensively within the context of contemporary
Andrews, Jonathan
History
Bedlam revisited : a history of Bethlem hospital 1634-1770. This thesis takes issue with a polemical historiography of Bethlem which has tended to 'view the hospital as a nadir in the history of psychiatry, and to accept, too uncritically, the distorted metaphor of 'Bedlam' for the reality. It argues that there was not the radical equivalency that some historians have posited between animalistic conceptions of the insane and the actual practices and policies pursued at early modern Bethiem. Nor was this paradigm of madness the only oae prevailing in the classical period, Bethlem patients also being regarded (e.g.) as 'objects of charity', requiring both mental and bodily relief. Rather than 'brutalized', it is sustained, the inmates of Bethiem were being managed and maintained, although inadequately and inefficiently. What modern commentators have disparaged as maltreatment and squalor at Bethlem, was not merely the result of an attitude to the mad as brutes, but was also the result of a lack of resources and a failure to measure up to the ideals of provision. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the squalor and brutality of Bethiem was neither as extreme, nor as undifferentiated, as has been alleged. The hospital is located comprehensively within the context of contemporary
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