Abstract
“THE Mentally I11 in America” outlines the history from the earliest times of the attitude towards the insane of their fellow men, particularly in the United States. The author has spent a great deal of time on literary research, and the result has well repaid the time spent. Benjamin Rush, Dorotha Dix and Clifford Beers, names very familiar to English-speaking psychiatrists and others concerned in the care and treatment of the mentally sick, come in for prominent mention, as well they deserve. The detail given is extraordinary and makes a fascinating study; but the author presents mental hygiene with a stupendous task when he posits the goal toward which mental hygiene must strive as “a world of peace and freedom, from which the twin specters of war and insecurity will be banished, a world of equal opportunity, where people will be freed from stunting inhibitions and guilt feelings arising from outworn prejudices and taboos. …”What an objective, and how hopeless it seems in the present state of society the world over!
The Mentally III in America
A History of their Care and Treatment from Colonial Times. By Albert Deutsch. Pp. xvii + 530 + 8 plates. (New York: Columbia University Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1946.) 26s. 6d. net.
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FLEMING, G. The Mentally III in America. Nature 160, 279 (1947). https://doi.org/10.1038/160279c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/160279c0