Download or read book The Popular Feeling Towards Hospitals for the Insane (Classic Reprint) written by Isaac Ray and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2018-10-02 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Popular Feeling Towards Hospitals for the Insane Whatever reason may exist against the introduction of visitors to the galleries, may be urged with tenfold force' against the admission of the domestics. In short, I do\ dot see how the peace and order of an establishment can be maintained a single day, if the employees of every description are to be constantly mixed up together, to idle away their time, to circulate gossip, and partici pate in one another's bickerings and dissensions. In every institution, I presume, there may be found practices which are connected with some peculiar views or system of the superintendent, that cannot fairly be tested by any conventional notions of propriety. There may be, therefore, some reason for the somewhat preva lent practice of allowing patients, both male and female, to leave the wing at their pleasure, and have free access to the centre-house andgrounds, where they roam about at will, but to me it seems to be subversive ofall discipline, as well as of that privacy and seclusion which are supposed to be necessary to the restoration of the disordered mind, as I am sure they are to the maintenance of that kind of propriety which regards every unnecessary exposure of the insane as an unnecessary evil. The only benefit I have ever heard claimed for the practice, that of making patients more contented, because less restricted by locks and bolts, I have thought more fanciful than real, and at best I doubt if enough is gained by it to compensate for the real mischief that must arise from it. I see not how we can pretend to rely on moral treatment in the work of restoration, while we expose our patients every hour to such communications as they may receive from do mestics and visitors. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.