Attending madness : at work in the Australian colonial asylum / Lee-Ann Monk.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Monk, Lee-Ann.

Series:

Clio medica (Amsterdam, Netherlands) ; 84.

Wellcome series in the history of medicine.

Clio medica, 0045-7183 ; 84

The Wellcome series in the history of medicine

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Psychiatric aides--Australia--History--19th century.

Psychiatric aides.

Psychiatric hospital care--Australia--History--19th century.

Psychiatric hospital care.

Psychiatric hospitals--Australia--History--19th century.

Psychiatric hospitals.

Australia--Social conditions--19th century.

Australia.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (273 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; New York : Rodopi, 2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

He is what we would call a very good attendant, who would not run away or flinch from any patient, but would try to have his orders carried out if possible. Such was the view of William Coady, attendant to the insane in the British settler colony of Victoria, Australia in the 1870's. This book is a history of William Coady’s occupation, a history asylum work and workers in nineteenth-century Australia. It considers not only who attendants were and why they worked in the asylum, but also how they and others variously defined the very good attendant. Colonial asylum advocates imagined the attendant as an archetype, drawing on ideas from Britain about the nature of insanity and its treatment. In exploring the articulation of these ideas in a specific colonial context and their effect on the colonial asylum workplace, Lee-Ann Monk makes an important contribution to the international history of the asylum. She also opens new dimensions in the history of this occupation, on which the fate of patients very much depended, by analysing attendants’ efforts to construct an occupational identity and give meaning to their work, thus providing new insights into their sense of themselves and their occupation.

Contents:

Preliminary material / Editors Attending Madness

Dedication / Editors Attending Madness

Acknowledgements / Editors Attending Madness

Abbreviations / Editors Attending Madness

Introduction / Editors Attending Madness

An Asylum for the Safe Custody and Proper Treatment of the Insane / Editors Attending Madness

A Proper Man to Have Charge of Lunatics / Editors Attending Madness

We Have Always Conducted Ourselves Independently / Editors Attending Madness

Artisans of Reason / Editors Attending Madness

Proper Instructions: Excellent Attendants / Editors Attending Madness

A Different Class of Attendants / Editors Attending Madness

You Have to be Firm and Determined with Them / Editors Attending Madness

Some of Us are Married Men and Have Families / Editors Attending Madness

I Would Not Give an Ounce of Practical Experience for a Pound of Theory / Editors Attending Madness

Select Bibliography / Editors Attending Madness

Index / Editors Attending Madness.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 229-245) and index.

ISBN:

94-012-0601-5

1-4356-7767-6

OCLC:

433453737