Article ID: CBB000772507

Soldiers in Psychiatric Therapy: The Case of Northfield Military Hospital 1942--1946 (2007)

unapi

This article discusses the psychiatric therapeutics of Northfield military psychiatric hospital and suggests that treatment in Northfield was characterised by ideals of citizenship typical of the period and inextricably linked to the military. The two Northfield experiments, for which Northfield has become famous, glorified the group as a social unit and promoted adaptation to the needs and values of society as the route to mental health. In the context of the Second World War, such adaptation meant accepting the duties of a soldier. In the published writings regarding the first Northfield experiment, the psychiatrist Wilfred Bion emphasised his military role in returning patients to their units, a job which he thought was best conducted by men like himself who had experience of leading men into battle. Writing about the second experiment, Tom Main emphasised the importance of including military staff in every aspect of the hospital life from therapy to administration. Some Northfield psychiatrists were less content with this strongly military approach and this led to the conflict which ended the first experiment and continued to spark disagreements throughout the hospital's existence. Keywords: Bion; citizenship; Foulkes; group; Main; military; Northfield; psychiatry; Rickman; Second World War

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB000772507/

Similar Citations

Book Taylor, Steven J.; (2009)
Acts of Conscience: World War II, Mental Institutions, and Religious Objectors (/isis/citation/CBB001231795/)

Article Gillian Allmond; (2017)
Liberty and the individual: the colony asylum in Scotland and England (/isis/citation/CBB034575395/)

Book Melling, Joseph; Forsythe, Bill; (2006)
The Politics of Madness: The State, Insanity and Society in England, 1845--1914 (/isis/citation/CBB000774000/)

Article Wallis, Jennifer; (2013)
The Bones of the Insane (/isis/citation/CBB001320330/)

Article Jones, Edgar; Wessely, Simon; (2010)
British Prisoners-of-War: From Resilience to Psychological Vulnerability: Reality or Perception (/isis/citation/CBB001030545/)

Article Stefanie Caroline Linden; (2021)
When war came home: air-raid shock in World War I (/isis/citation/CBB531471852/)

Book Tyquin, Michael; (2006)
Madness and the Military: Australia's Experience of the Great War (/isis/citation/CBB000930993/)

Article Villasante, Olga; (2010)
“War Neurosis” during the Spanish Civil War (1936--39) (/isis/citation/CBB001232232/)

Book Barbara Taylor; (2015)
The Last Asylum: A Memoir of Madness in our Times (/isis/citation/CBB936823533/)

Article Smith, Cathy; (2012)
“Visitation by God”: Rationalizing Death in the Victorian Asylum (/isis/citation/CBB001232197/)

Article Andrews, Jonathan; (2012)
Introduction: Lunacy's Last Rites (/isis/citation/CBB001232189/)

Authors & Contributors
Taylor, Steven J.
Allmond, Gillian
Cowan, Colin
Rebecca Ayako Bennette
Wynter, Rebecca
Wessely, Simon
Concepts
Psychiatry
Mental disorders and diseases
Psychiatric hospitals
Psychology and war
Medicine and the military; medicine in war
World War I
Time Periods
20th century, early
19th century
20th century
20th century, late
Places
England
Germany
Great Britain
Birmingham (England)
Scotland
United States
Institutions
University of Birmingham (United Kingdom)
National Health Service (Great Britain)
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment