Treatment FAQ

why did moral treatment die out in the 19th century in occupational therapy

by Mr. Freddie Haley DVM Published 2 years ago Updated 2 years ago

Because these patients were not amenable to insight therapy, they were not curable. They had best remain in the institution. The dream of moral treatment died because of a combination of overcrowded hospitals along with the advent of eugenics and Freud around the turn of the twentieth century.

Full Answer

What happened to moral treatment in the 19th century?

Aug 01, 1989 · Abstract. Many scholars associate the 19th-century practice of moral treatment with occupational therapy practice. A more thorough understanding of moral treatment is therefore relevant for occupational therapists. This article considers moral treatment within the contexts that shaped both its characteristics and the course of its practice—the medical …

Is moral treatment relevant to occupational therapy?

Unfortunately, during the 19th century, in the U.S., moral treatment almost became extinct in the chaos and aftermath of the Civil War. It became less of a priority and there seemed to be no one to carry on the ideas and insightful philosophies from Tuke and Pinel.

How did the moral treatment movement influence the field of psychology?

Unfortunately, during the 19th century, in the U.S., moral treatment almost became extinct in the chaos and aftermath of the Civil War. It became less of a priority and there seemed to be no one to carry on the ideas and insightful philosophies from Tuke and Pinel.

What is the history of occupational therapy?

Feb 02, 2021 · Because these patients were not amenable to insight therapy, they were not curable. They had best remain in the institution. The dream of moral treatment died because of a combination of overcrowded hospitals along with the advent of eugenics and Freud around the turn of the twentieth century.

What was moral treatment?

Moral treatment was a product of the Enlightenment of the late eighteenth century. Before then people with psychiatric conditions, referred to as the insane, were usually treated in inhumane and brutal ways. In France, England, and the United States, people who cared for the insane began to advocate for more kindly treatment.

Who was the first person to advocate moral treatment?

In the United States, the first proponent of moral treatment was Benjamin Rush. A Philadelphia physician, Rush had been one of the signers of the American Declaration of Independence. For Rush, the hustle and bustle of modern life contributed to mental diseases.

Who founded the York Retreat?

Around the same time that Pinel called for his reforms, William Tuke, an English Quaker, founded the York Retreat for the care of the insane. Rejecting traditional medical intervention, Tuke emphasized the rural quiet retreat where insane people could engage in reading, light manual labor, and conversation.

What was the second half of the nineteenth century?

The second half of the nineteenth century saw important changes in the institutional and intellectual models that had launched psychiatry. Most dramatically, the prevailing optimism about the therapeutic effect of the asylum gave way to deep pessimism as asylum populations swelled with chronic patients demonstrably impervious to moral treatment (Lantéri-Laura 1972, Scull 1979, Rothman 1971). At about the same time, psychiatrists abandoned their earlier conception of insanity as a curable psychological or psychosomatic disorder and theorized it as an irreversible brain condition and often as a product of ‘degeneration.’ This degeneration was defined as a pathological departure from the norm initially caused by a noxious environment, poor nutrition, or alcoholism, and subsequently transmitted in the Lamarckian manner through heredity, becoming more severe with each generation. Every European nation had its fin-de-siècle theorists of degeneration: Bénédict-Augustin Morel and Valentin Magnan in France, Cesare Lombroso in Italy, Henry Maudsley in Britain, Richard von Krafft-Ebing and Max Nordau in Austria (Pick 1989).

What is the principle of art and crafts?

This principle suggests adoption of the arts and crafts value of aesthetically beautiful things made by humans. The movement conceived such things as those that were consistent with nature and useful to humanity.

Who is Benjamin Rush?

Benjamin Rush was a physician and also Surgeon General of the Continental Armies. 47 He is also recognized today as the father of American psychiatry. He was well acquainted with enlightenment philosophy and moral treatment ideas.

What are the reservations of Levinas and Derrida?

Levinas and Derrida share the post-structuralist reservations about moral discourse. This may seem a bit odd, particularly in the case of Levinas, whose major works are recognizably moral tracts. However, the central theme of many of those tracts is the worry that direct moral accounting will do more harm than good to the attempt to construct a moral life. Like the post-structuralists, the deconstructionists use the term ‘ethics’ instead of ‘morality,’ but the use to which they put that term is quite different. I want to discuss Levinas’ view in more detail, and then show how Derrida’s views are closely aligned with his.

Who was the first physician to use moral treatment?

A key figure in the early spread of moral treatment in the United States was Benjamin Rush (1745–1813), an eminent physician at Pennsylvania Hospital. He limited his practice to mental illness and developed innovative, humane approaches to treatment. He required that the hospital hire intelligent and sensitive attendants to work closely ...

What is moral treatment?

Moral treatment. Moral treatment was an approach to mental disorder based on humane psychosocial care or moral discipline that emerged in the 18th century and came to the fore for much of the 19th century, deriving partly from psychiatry or psychology and partly from religious or moral concerns. The movement is particularly associated ...

What was the moral treatment of the Enlightenment?

Moral treatment developed in the context of the Enlightenment and its focus on social welfare and individual rights. At the start of the 18th century, the "insane" were typically viewed as wild animals who had lost their reason. They were not held morally responsible but were subject to scorn and ridicule by the public, sometimes kept in madhouses in appalling conditions, often in chains and neglected for years or subject to numerous tortuous "treatments" including whipping, beating, bloodletting, shocking, starvation, irritant chemicals, and isolation. There were some attempts to argue for more psychological understanding and therapeutic environments. For example, in England John Locke popularized the idea that there is a degree of madness in most people because emotions can cause people to incorrectly associate ideas and perceptions, and William Battie suggested a more psychological approach, but conditions generally remained poor. The treatment of King George III also led to increased optimism about the possibility of therapeutic interventions.

What does "moral" mean in French?

At that time "moral", in French and internationally, had a mixed meaning of either psychological/emotional (mental) or moral (ethical). Pinel distanced himself from the more religious work that was developed by the Tukes, and in fact considered that excessive religiosity could be harmful.

Who was the Italian physician who ruled the world in 1785?

Under the Enlightened concern of Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo in Florence, Italian physician Vincenzo Chiarugi instituted humanitarian reforms. Between 1785 and 1788 he managed to outlaw chains as a means of restraint at the Santa Dorotea hospital, building on prior attempts made there since the 1750s. From 1788 at the newly renovated St. Bonifacio Hospital he did the same, and led the development of new rules establishing a more humane regime.

Who was William Tuke?

An English Quaker named William Tuke (1732–1822) independently led the development of a radical new type of institution in northern England, following the death of a fellow Quaker in a local asylum in 1790.

Who was George Combe?

George Combe (1788–1858), an Edinburgh solicitor, became an unrivalled exponent of phrenological thinking, and his brother, Andrew Combe (1797–1847), who was later appointed a physician to Queen Victoria, wrote a phrenological treatise entitled Observations on Mental Derangement (1831). George and Andrew Combe exerted a rather dictatorial authority ...

Access Options

You can be signed in via any or all of the methods shown below at the same time.

My Profile

The email address and/or password entered does not match our records, please check and try again.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9