Disable Madman
Part II
The European Reform
In 1793 Philippe Pinel took charge of the Salpetriere and Becetre asylums in Paris, the turning point of method in the management of inmates. Pinel found that if inmates were not neglected and brutalized they behaved normally. Pinel discovered “that insanity was curable in many instances, by mildness of treatment and attention to the state of the mind exclusively…” Thus Pinel resorted to “the management of the mind” by talking to his patients and listening to their complaints. He got to know them and appreciate them, saying “I have never met, except in romances, with fonder husbands, more affectionate parents, more impassioned lovers, more pure and exalted patriots, than in the lunatic asylum, during their intervals of calmness and reason.”
In his 1801 book, Traite Medico-Philosophic sur l’alienation mentale, Pinel envisioned building a helpful asylum for the mad, serviced by medics schooled in…
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I think insanity is mostly confusion in the mind, that it can be helped by talking to the confused person in a forthright way.