Chapter 2

Question 1

What were the two major arguments of asylums?

Answer 1

Moral treatment and social control..

Question 2

What is the argument of social control?

Answer 2

Asylums are to remove “problematic people” from society, form of social control, psychiatric are agents of control not care, framed mental illness as abnormal/antisocial, asylums not a solution but a PRECURSOR, critiqued as places of confinement, not curing, hidden agenda that was succeeding.

Question 3

What is the argument of moral treatment?

Answer 3

Asylums are treatment of mental illness, rather than restraint and punishment and attempt to restore mental health. Goal - end dehumanizing treatment, have a calm environment, new skills, work, recreational activities. Few lived to this standard.

Question 4

What is the approach of whig history?

Answer 4

-misrepresentative
-oversimplification
assumes human progress is inevitable and positive, evolving but always improving
-focusing on key figures and events (life doesn’t necessarily get better and women and marginalized groups are often underrepresented)

Question 5

What is a social history approach?

Answer 5

considers key achievements and notable figures and the daily lives of ordinary people and how they have experienced it

Question 6

What was “madness”?

Answer 6

An elastic concept that helped explain range of unusual, bizarre, or irrational human behaviours

Question 7

What were the ways madness was explained?

Answer 7

• demonic possession
• misfortune in love
• health injuries

Question 8

What were the ways madness was treated?

Answer 8

• Trepanning
• religious ceremonies
• beatings
• counter spells

Question 9

What is medicalization?

Answer 9

Process where condition becomes understood as something that should be treated by physicians

Question 10

What were some factors that contributed to the medicalization of mental illness?

Answer 10

• challenged to the authority and power of the church
• the scientific revolution - idea that science could solve problems and explain the natural world
• the enlightenment - skepticism about religion, focus on rationality
• increased urbanization - increased visibility of people who appeared mad and perceived as dangerous —> public attention, incarceration, institutional care
• increase in not blaming victims

Question 11

When were asylums developed

Answer 11

19th century - large state run institutions or mental hospitals

Question 12

What is the eugenics movement and what did it cause in regards to mental illness?

Answer 12

• Wiping out “inferior” genes
• forced sterilization and lifelong institution

Question 13

What were some ways people in the 19th century thought mental illness was physical?

Answer 13

• genes
• lesions

Question 14

What was Sigmund Freud’s treatment techniques?

Answer 14

Help patients access and understand their unconscious thoughts and urges (ex: dream analysis, free association, psychoanalysis)

Question 15

In what ways was Freud’s work influential?

Answer 15

• Extended definition of mental distress (included more ‘mild” forms of anxiety and obsessions)
• moved treatment from hospitals to private offices
• childhood experiences influence our mental health in adulthood (interpersonal relationships)
• modern treatments for mental illness (psychotherapy)

Question 16

What was the psychoanalysis informed attachment theory?

Answer 16

Good mothering = foundation for emotional health and healthy relationships

Question 17

What were some critiques of psychoanalytic theory in early 20th century?

Answer 17

• lack of research/scientific rigour in development of theory
• heavy emphasis on childhood sexuality
• promoting sexist stereotypes

Question 18

What was the patients’ rights movement?

Answer 18

• advocating for patient rights
• working to destigmatize mental illness
• improve access to treatment
• part of larger rights movements (civil rights, human rights..)

Question 19

What is deinstitutionalization?

Answer 19

• process where many large state run hospitals were closed in favour of individuals accessing treatment in the community

Question 20

What led to deinstitutionalization?

Answer 20

• consumer groups advocating for greater patient autonomy and self determination (drew attention to poor conditions)
• physicians seeing hospitalization potentially or inherently harmful
• intro to psychopharmaceuticals in 1950’s

Question 21

How did the intro to psychopharmaceuticals lead to deinstitutionalization?

Answer 21

• optimistic that patients could be treated in community
• decreased use of shock therapies and psychosurgery

Question 22

What were some limits of deinstitutionalization?

Answer 22

• lack of community based services developed to meet the needs of patients leaving institutions