by amy r.

Member since:
September 1, 2006

Revolutionary Father of Modern Psychiatry - Thomas Kirkbride!

October 17, 2009 11:03 PM EDT

views: 233 | comments: 32

I was posting about this the other day here. I could not find this article that I had penned for a website I write on. It had since been taken down, but I found the cached version through google...so here goes!!!/p>

Kirkbride buildings were developed around the mental health therapeutic approach which was known as Moral Treatment. At the end of the ninteenth century, these beautiful, picturesque buildings were erected as a safe haven for the suffering population of the mentally ill. Mental health care had finally come to the realization that a smelly dungeon wasn’t going to cure anyone, so they paid great attention to creating a thoroughly therapeutic backdrop for these patients and built these hospitals on grounds away from the outside so these people could get well in their own safe environment. Kirkbride was a pioneer and I for one think he was fucking awesome! Of course our favorite party, the Republic*nts didn’t think we should spend money on mentally ill people. They figured we could just thrust them into the streets where they could be homeless and unproductive. That’s why you see so many people today walking the streets talking to themselves making a living as a hooker or a panhandler. Way to go Reagan!!! God bless his soul, wait, did he have one? Few of these gorgeous structures have been preserved, which I think is gross.

Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride was a founding member of the AMSAII the predecessor of the American Psychiatric Association. He was secretary, then later, president. Whence, Kirkbride Plan was popularized and implemented. He had a huge influence on the psychiatric community. Kirkbride was a founding member of the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane (AMSAII) —forerunner of the American Psychiatric Association—serving first as secretary, then later as president. Through this association and in his writings, Kirkbride promoted a standardized method of asylum construction and mental health treatment, popularly known as the Kirkbride Plan, which significantly influenced the entire American asylum community during his lifetime.

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He was loved but some, hated by many, respected by all. He fought for what he believed in and was the first notable doctor to realize you can’t treat an ailing person like shit. Somebody actually hated him enough to try and kill him. But, those who he treated had a great deal of respect for him. Dr. Kirkbride married a patient he had treated when his wife died. This goes to show he truly believed mental patients were people of true self worth, and they were sick, not crazy. He died in 1883 at the ripe age of 74. He actually lived on the grounds of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane at the time of his death.

Tags: thomas kirkbride, wonderful doctors, people who made history, history, medical science, founders of medical science, medical health care, influential people, influential men, great men, great people, intelligent people, nobel peace prize, humanitarian

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Comments: 32

Kushal Poddar Oct 17, 2009, 11:07pm EDT

Thank you. I really enjoyed this essay.

October walks

amy r. Oct 18, 2009, 12:52am EDT

Your welcome. I am glad you enjoyed reading it.

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Visionaerie B. Oct 17, 2009, 11:14pm EDT

Psychiatry is basically a pseudo-science, and mental illness (as described by Dr. Thomas Szasz) is a fraud -- after all, if you can't isolate where a "disease" is found, it doesn't exist! Definitely patients deserve much better care -- and not to be drugged and put away. Also read the work of Dr. Peter Breggin, and check out the free DVDs from Citizens Committee on Human Rights. I think it's definitely a crime against humanity what the drug companies and a lot of psychiatrists are doing to people -- there is a very strong link between SSRI drugs and homicides / suicides. Some of the drugs were also developed in conjunction with the CIA. Also check out a book called 'Mind Control' by Peter Schrag. My niece is in this field and I don't think she grasps the full implications of what we are up against. Hopefully this will help inform more and also to do further research. Like why is barbaric shock treatment still being administered? Thanks for posting this!

amy r. Oct 18, 2009, 12:54am EDT

Your welcome. I prefer to call them "conditions" or "afflictions", even "disorders", because the only one that can be classified as a disease is schizophrenia since it actually eats away at the brain tissue, but you are correct for the most part. There is too much medicating and not enough of anything else. If you have to take something, amen, take it, but if you can go without it, kudos, you know.

Gary (The Eclectic) Timothy Oct 18, 2009, 1:45am EDT

Visionaerie: Psychiatry is basically a pseudo-science, and mental illness (as described by Dr. Thomas Szasz) is a fraud -- after all, if you can't isolate where a "disease" is found, it doesn't exist!

If you actually believe this, then you are a classic case in point of the dire need for qualified psychiatrists and psychologists. Just what the heck is your definition of disease? To say that mental illness is a fraud is patently ridiculous and indicates a great naivete, ignorance, and lack of experience.

Not being able to specifically isolate where a disease is found is NOT the same as saying that it will never be isolated. So, Alzheimer's disease doesn't exist? The brain is an organ. As such, it can malfunction like any other organ. If your blood pH is off by just a little bit, you are in serious trouble. And if the balance of chemicals in your brain is off, you will suffer behavioral changes.

amy r. Oct 18, 2009, 2:16am EDT

I believe it exists. Do we call it a disease, maybe not, but some do. I call it a disorder. Yes, it exists, I have it. People who outright deny that these disorders cause behavioral changes would be mistaken. All technicalities aside, yes, it is a medical condition and should be treated as thus.

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Karen E. Oct 18, 2009, 12:50am EDT

This was an excellent essay and I learned so much. I was unaware of this Doctor's work.

amy r. Oct 18, 2009, 12:56am EDT

Thanks, I first stumbled upon him when I was researching the history of Olde Salem Village in Danvers, Massachusetts. Where the gallows were located, on one of the judges farms in the Salem With Trials (crucible), stood Danvers State Hospital. Prior to that it was a prison, hence why the tunnel system was already built. IT was just a bonus to run into Dr. Kirkbride's work. It happened by accident, because the structures Mental Health Hospitals of yesteryear adhered by were known as "Kirkbride Buildings". Isn't that beautiful, I thought "Kirkbride" was an architect for many years, when in fact he was a doctor! So interesting!!!

Karen E. Oct 18, 2009, 12:58am EDT

Mental Health care has had a troubled past and to learn about those devoted to ease this suffering is heartening.

amy r. Oct 18, 2009, 1:01am EDT

Its nice to hear that it was so far back, too. He looked at these people as humans. The science may have not been there, but he was way ahead of his time!

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libramoon C. Oct 18, 2009, 1:10am EDT

http://research.exercisingyourmind.com/2009/03/19/the-fool-on-the-hill-an-essay-sharply-critical-of-the-psychiatric-industry-the-lancet.aspx?ref=rss
The fool on the hill

amy r. Oct 18, 2009, 1:18am EDT

This doctor didn't do excessive lobotomies and the such. He actually offered what would be now known as cognitive therapy and tried to make them comfortable.

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Ed Da Head Toker Oct 18, 2009, 1:45am EDT

A very interesting and informative essay.
While helping with mental health day here in Missouri about 5-7 years ago, I was able to see some of the "treatment chairs" with removable bed pan's from under the chairs.
These chairs were made out of iron, black as coal. with lef and arm restraints.
Some come equiped with an iron support for the iron"half cup" that would go over the head of the restrained "patient."
I am soo glad that the treatments have gotten a little bit better.

amy r. Oct 18, 2009, 2:17am EDT

There have been a few very dark periods in medicine. They did what they thought they were supposed to, I think, but then realized it was overkill, which I suppose is an understatement. Lobotomies were pretty much a last ditch resort, but they would perform them if things went on for long enough.

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Randolph H. Oct 18, 2009, 8:11am EDT

Look up Clifford Beers, who wrote "a mind who found itself", in the 1900's and started the mental hygiene society, later the mental health association. He was a Yale man who ended up in a sanitarium. He recovered and spent the rest of his life advocating for the mentally ill and changing mental institions. very few people know about Clifford Beers.

amy r. Oct 18, 2009, 12:08pm EDT

Thank you, I certainly will. Nobody hears about the few good practitioners who did make a difference. One bad apple spoils the whole bunch as they say, but there are really more bad apples than good ones these days, I am afraid. Thanks for reading and thanks for the introduction to Clifford Beers.

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Johnice R. Oct 18, 2009, 9:46am EDT

Amy, as a Psychologist (retired) I thought your essay to be quite thorough and shared a balanced view of the time and Dr. Kirkbride's work. I have always been drawn to those of the past who practiced "Client/patient centered" methods, theories and therapies.

amy r. Oct 18, 2009, 12:07pm EDT

I think its beautiful that at some point that early in history somebody actually cared about treating their clients. It was before the insurance driven industry and before the pharmaceutical companies learned how to be corrupt.

Johnice R. Oct 18, 2009, 12:15pm EDT

We do agree on that and I also believe it is that which makes us Human in the nicest way---empathy and patience with and for others is a virtue!

amy r. Oct 18, 2009, 3:14pm EDT

Absolutely. I concur :)

Johnice R. Oct 18, 2009, 3:36pm EDT

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Richard Thuss Oct 18, 2009, 10:15am EDT

Ah, but Amy, did you ever walk into one of those buildings when they were occupied. I did, I had to work inside one for a few days, and I can assure you that you would not be wishing they were still around. If there is a hell, it was living inside one of those institutions.

amy r. Oct 18, 2009, 12:06pm EDT

My grandparents live at the bottom of the hill at Danvers State Hospital. It has since been torn down and some wings turned into condos. I sure as heck would not want to live there. I can not imagine the hospital is fun, my son has been in one three times in the last year, less than a year. Mental illness runs in my family. One of my friend's moms lived in Tewksbury State in Massachusetts and it was hell. Simply stated, at the turn of the century, Dr. Kirkbride gave the most human care plan available at the time. Was it hell preceding and proceeding, yes, but this man tried to make a difference and I thought that was a happy footnote in history. It was kind of like the mindset was there, but he just did not have all the scientific tools to continually pay for and implement quality care. It was more the government who ruined this type of system. Its like the "unworthies" are thrown to the wayside and its sad. Everyone is important and if everyone is healthy we can all make valid contributions to society. At the time, these buildings were state of the art, maybe not anymore, but they were at one time.

Richard Thuss Oct 18, 2009, 12:32pm EDT

Amy: Thanks for that insight. I only saw the horror of those places, and never knew the original intent. Thanks again

amy r. Oct 18, 2009, 12:53pm EDT

Your welcome. Its horrifying how something so good, nurturing, and therapeutic and be turned into a terrifying nightmare. I have heard of the horrors. My friend's mother used to be a patient at Danvers State, the facility that "Session 9" was filmed in, she said it was horrible. The screams were not easy to drown out and she became very religious as a result of that place. It scared the wits out of her. That facility is supposed to be haunted, no wonder with all that sad, suffering, negative energy. Her son used to go visit her there and he said it gave him the creeps. They are both not alive now and probably could have used another stay at a therapeutic facility (a humane one) before her death as she really needed help and needed monitoring, but they only keep you for like a week now and try to boot you out especially if you are on state medical care. Its a terrible travesty what has happened to the whole mental health care system and you obviously started to see its decline in your own experience. Now its almost completely fallen apart and needs fixing! Thanks very much for reading!

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lynn a. Oct 18, 2009, 10:45am EDT

Amy, this was a great article. I have believed from the get go that closing the mental institutions was a big mistake and terribly, terribly cruel not only to the patients, but to society at large. I think of the crimes that have been committed because people in need of medication were not able to know they had to take it, or didn't have it. Sometimes, it is far kinder to think for people when their thinking gets fuzzy. In a way I think people are punished for being mentally ill, and what better way than to throw them on the street with no money, no food, inappropriate clothing. And statistics do bear out that the violently ill have caused immeasurable suffering to those families they have caused harm to by attacking a member or member(s). Sometimes people really do need to be in a hospital and confined for their own safety as well as others, and we should see to it. I know it costs money, but it is the morally right thing to do.

amy r. Oct 18, 2009, 12:48pm EDT

Its very true. Sometimes its for their own good and the good of their families and the good of society and often, its not necessary forever, but a good facility will keep them out more than in, I believe, in my opinion. It runs in my family and I have seen it. I've seen the violence that can come when you are hallucinating and think everyone is out to get you. Its terrifying and sometimes being removed from society until you are well in an understand, nurturing, and therapeutic environment is a good idea. You hear about the abuse and things that go on in those hospitals, but with close family supervision and frequent visits that can be reduced. I'm sure these people are abused and mistreated out in the streets when they have to sell their bodies, too. Its only the bad stories people hear about. There is so much good done by practitioners that care that many ignore. Thanks for reading! I agree with you 100%....

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René Allen Oct 29, 2009, 11:07pm EDT

A very good Article Amy. Thank you for sharing this information with us all.

amy r. Oct 30, 2009, 4:34pm EDT

You are very welcome. I really thought it was a light in the dark for that time. The fact that this man married a woman who was hospitalized at one time, one point for humanity!

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CyberGwen ! Nov 4, 2009, 10:16pm EST

A very forward thinking guy. I have to disagree with you blaming Reagan for deinstitutionalization though. It really started with the Community Mental Health in 1963 with Kennedy.

amy r. Nov 5, 2009, 11:16pm EST

There are tons of errors that contributed to the downfall of the mental health care system. I'm only 31, so I am simply observing what I have noticed in my lifetime. Its sad, but what I really wanted to convey is that there are good doctors and medical professionals who are not just all about greed. I also think things are broken and need a serious fixing.

CyberGwen ! Nov 6, 2009, 12:56pm EST

I totally agree with you, our attitude about mental health, as a society, needs to change. There have been so many changes and for those I am grateful.

I am not that much older than you are, but I had to do a paper on deinstitutionalization, so I had a leg up in the discussion. I didn't mean to jump all over you:)

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