Article ID: CBB001320330

The Bones of the Insane (2013)

unapi

This article examines alienist explanations for fracture among British asylum patients in the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries. A series of deaths in asylums came to light in the 1870s which, in placing the blame for such incidents on asylum staff, called for a response from the psychiatric profession. This response drew upon other medical fields and employed novel pathological techniques to explain why fractures occurred among the insane, in many cases aligning bone fragility with particular forms of insanity (namely, General Paralysis of the Insane). Although such research aimed to provide a medical explanation for the `fracture death', it also called into question the value of pathological research and the utility of quantitative measurement in understanding mental disease.

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Description A study of fractures among British asylum patients in the late 19th to early 20th centuries.


Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001320330/

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Authors & Contributors
Thabane, Motlatsi
Scrimgeour, David
Jane Freebody
Valeriano, Annacarla
Carpenter, D T
Thifault, Marie-Claude
Concepts
Psychiatric hospitals
Mental disorders and diseases
Psychiatry
Patients
Therapeutic practice; therapy; treatment
Medicine and society
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
20th century
20th century, late
18th century
Places
England
Scotland
Great Britain
Lesotho
Istanbul (Turkey)
Québec (Canada)
Institutions
Maudsley Hospital (England)
Toronto Hospital for the Insane
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