Week #8 Here is the link to a recent article about this weeks topic: Also, this short video is a good summary of St. Elizabeths history:
Author Archives: Bonnie Akkerman
Frances Farmer
(1913-1970) Week #7 The readings for Tuesday October 5th include the story of Frances Farmer. Farmer became a famous film star in the 1930’s and battled depression and binge drinking throughout her early career. She was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 1943 and her mother requested she be put in a mental institution. Ms. Farmer …
Post-Civil War Trauma and Depravation as the Cause of Suicide in 19th Century America
Here is the link to my proposal and annotated bibliography:
http://bonnieakkerman.com/?page_id=97
Sigmund Freud
The “Father” of psychoanalysis. Week #6.
Freud’s work was considered groundbreaking and some of his basic tenets are still used in modern therapeutic settings.
Here’s a link to Psychology Today’s strai…
Blackwell’s Island Apartments
While it may seem surprising, NYC converted the famous asylum into luxury apartments for a hefty price.
Here’s a link to the New York Post article from Jan. 28, 2021:
https://nypost.com/2021/01/28/meet-history-buffs-who-live-in-nycs-m…
Dorothea Lynde Dix – New England Reformer
Tag: histmental 2021 – Week 5 This week Parker and I are focusing on 19th Century Female Reformers and accounts of women in asylums. Dix was an interesting person and her involvement in social reform is often underrated. Her early life was filled with disappointments that she was able to overcome and in his 1998 …
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Race, Mental Illness, and the Civil War Era
This week’s discussion topic deals with race and Civil War era mental health issues. My topic is suicide in the 19th century and one of my sources is this text that I purchased from Amazon. It is well written without a bunch of technical jargon and covers many different topics faced by Civil War era …
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Civil War Veterans and Suicide
TAG:histmental2021 The research topic I have chosen is suicide in the 19th century . It was a surprise to me to find so much information on the high rate of suicide among Civil War veterans. I added this link which provides some interesting information about the emotional toll on survivors and their families with particular …
Benjamin Franklin as a pioneer for mental health.
Tag: histmental 2021 – Week #2 The Grob text mentions Ben Franklin’s colony-wide fund raising effort for a Philadelphia mental hospital ( pg. 19). Franklin was convinced that proper treatment could restore the mentally ill to proper health. Franklin was a student of the Enlightenment who would be called a “social justice warrior” in today’s …
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Eastern State – Virginia as a leader in asylum care
Eastern State Hospital is a psychiatric hospital in Williamsburg, Virginia. It is the oldest psychiatric hospital in this country. Built in 1773, it was the first public facility in the United States constructed solely for the care and treatment of the mentally ill. The original building had burned but was reconstructed in 1985. Percival Goodhouse was one of the …
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