Thesis ID: CBB001567340

Rest and Restitution: Convalescence and the Public Mental Hospital in England, 1919--39 (cited 2011)

unapi

Previous histories have tended to look beyond the asylum for innovations in early twentieth-century mental healthcare. In contrast, this thesis appraises the mental hospital as the nexus for a new approach to convalescent care and makes the case for a more integrated conception of institutional and community care in the interwar period. Despite a concentration of convalescent facilities in certain areas, this study argues that the period between 1919 and 1939 witnessed the emergence of a more standardised and coordinated model of care that traversed institutional boundaries.  Consequently, it challenges a prevailing view that sees asylum care as separate from developments in borderline care in this period. It is demonstrated that public mental hospitals after 1919 widely added new convalescent villas within their grounds, whilst voluntary organisations diversified and extended their community-based cottage homes. This thesis explores the reasons for this expansion and seeks to explain the functions it served those who planned, managed and utilised mental convalescent homes.  It is argued that those with professional interests in the mental hospital focused on the `modern¿ convalescent villa partly as a strategic response to the low status of mental hospitals in the 1920s, as well as to alleviate overcrowding, and oversee recovery in managed and healthful environments. The spatial and rhetorical connection between the admission hospital and the convalescent villa allowed these interests to claim they formed part of a broader movement of mental hygiene and early treatment.  In contrast, patient representations of cottage homes offer an alternative perspective of convalescence as a holiday and break from social demands.  Particular attention is paid to the case of the London County Council.  The analysis focuses on descriptions of convalescent homes found in organisational records. These are compared with plans and photographs to make sense of the uses such homes served. ]]>

...More

Description Defense date not indicated; cited by UMI in 2011. Cited in ProQuest, UMI Dissertations Publishing. Proquest Document ID: 1442479556.


Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001567340/

Similar Citations

Book Jane Freebody; (2023)
Work and Occupation in French and English Mental Hospitals, c.1918-1939 (/isis/citation/CBB236489700/)

Article Kashin, Konstantin; Pollock, Ethan; (2013)
Public Health and Bathing in Late Imperial Russia: A Statistical Approach (/isis/citation/CBB001201406/)

Article Miller, Edgar; (2013)
“Pauper Lunatics and their Treatment,” by Joshua Harrison Stallard (1870) (/isis/citation/CBB001320339/)

Article Jennifer Farquharson; (2018)
Health and hierarchy: soldiers, civilians and mental healthcare in Scotland, 1914–34 (/isis/citation/CBB324761166/)

Article Lovett, Lisetta; (2007)
Thomas Bakewell (1761--1835): Madhouse Keeper and Moral Therapist (/isis/citation/CBB000831674/)

Book Claire Hilton; (2017)
Improving Psychiatric Care for Older People: Barbara Robb’s Campaign 1965-1975 (/isis/citation/CBB657852750/)

Article McCrae, Niall; (2014)
Resilience of Institutional Culture: Mental Nursing in a Decade of Radical Change (/isis/citation/CBB001214406/)

Article Thifault, Marie-Claude; (2010)
Les stéréotypes sexuels de l'enfermement asilaire au Québec, au tournant du 20e siècle (/isis/citation/CBB001024900/)

Article Kelly, Brendan D.; (2008)
Poverty, Crime and Mental Illness: Female Forensic Psychiatric Committal in Ireland, 1910--1948 (/isis/citation/CBB000930668/)

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 Boschma, Geertje; (2008)
A Family Point of View: Negotiating Asylum Care in Alberta, 1905--1930 (/isis/citation/CBB000933083/)

Book Beier, Lucinda McCray; (2008)
For Their Own Good: The Transformation of English Working-Class Health Culture, 1880--1970 (/isis/citation/CBB001230307/)

Authors & Contributors
Hilton, Claire
Thabane, Motlatsi
Farquharson, Jennifer
Jane Freebody
Carpenter, D T
Wallis, Jennifer
Concepts
Psychiatric hospitals
Mental disorders and diseases
Public health
Psychiatry
Health care
Therapeutic practice; therapy; treatment
Time Periods
20th century, early
19th century
20th century, late
Places
England
Québec (Canada)
Alberta, Canada
Lesotho
Dublin (Ireland)
Georgia (U.S.)
Institutions
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