The Borderlands of Insanity, and Other Allied Papers (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1875 Excerpt: ... would be a tendency to lodge such boarders as near as possible to the asylum, --to make a colony close to its doors. Now this may very well satisfy the superintendent, who would wish to retain his dominion, and to maintain a certain kind of modified restraint upon the actions of the patients; but we contend it would be an unnecessary encroachment upon their liberty, and therefore injurious to them mentally, inasmuch as they would still feel themselves to be under the depressing influence of the prison from which they had been liberated; they would be a kind of ticket-of-leave lunatic, and would partake of the ticket-of-leave man's dreads and suspicions. Of course, where convalescent cases were thus lodged out of the asylum, as near a contiguity to it as possible would be advantageous, for the sake of the physician's constant attendance; but the chronic lunatic may very well dispense with his visits. Supervision by a paid staff of inspectors we hold to be indispensable in such a freeair system; and we believe it to be the most practicable and the most advantageous, both for the sake of the lunatic and for the sake of the asylum itself. The visitation of private patients at present is a mere delusion, once a year being the average amount of visits paid to them. In the case of pauper boarders they would demand more careful supervision than even the better class of patients: hence a large increase of the inspectors is indispensable. It would require time to get such a system into working order, but it would, when once established, be so elastic, that no new rules or regulations would be demanded. The office of such inspectors should not only be that of supervision, but they should also have the duty of distributing the patients. We do not think that the cottage..