This is an old revision of the document!
1. It’s interesting to see the use of both moral treatment and narcotics explained, how were both able to be “effective”? By subduing patients to that extent, how were they then able to keep up with a more normal routine or conversation with doctors and other patients.-Margie Jones
2. A more trivial question, but one I think still worth asking is why were the rates of constipation so high with those who were diagnosed with a mental illness? What was thought to be the correlation there?-Margie Jones
1. “During Kirkbride’s superintendency, no more than sixteen out of the more than 8,000 admitted to the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane brought suits alleging wrongful confinement. Yet, this small minority of court cases had a damaging effect far out of proportion to their number. Not only did they place a tremendous strain on the superintendent and his officers by forcing them to make frequent, wearying court appearences; they also created unfavorable newspaper publicity for the hospital, which undercut the therapeutic image Kirkbride had labored so long to establish.” (252) I know this is borderline a block quote, but I found it very implicitly informative as to Tomes's perspective of those who chose to speak out against the asylum and Kirkbride. Tomes was dismissive of those who presented their qualms against the asylum system and Kirkbride. Tomes appears to view these previous patients as nothing more than thorns in the side of Kirkbride. I was surprised by the degree of pessimism and invalidity Tomes expressed toward the patients and their claims. - Joey Welch