Soanes, Stephen. (2009) Reforming asylums, reforming public attitudes : J. R. Lord and Montagu Lomax's representations of mental hospitals and the community, 1921–1931. Family & Community History, Vol.12 (No.2). pp. 117-129. ISSN 1463-1180

Abstract

J.R. Lord and Montagu Lomax offered competing visions of the relationship between mental hospitals and the community in a decade when asylums were subjected to extensive official and public scrutiny. The background of both men arguably informed their divergent outlook on mental hospitals. Lomax's work targeted reform at mental hospitals, through public and governmental intervention. Lord, however, advocated a leading role for mental hospitals in community mental health, and called for reform of public attitudes and laws inhibiting mental hospital development. This paper suggests that Lord effectively inverted Lomax's core arguments, selectively focusing on aspects of social service and aftercare to present a more positive picture of mental hospitals. Targeting different (public/professional) audiences, Lord and Lomax each based their case for reform on a particular perspective of the public. It is argued that to appreciate their respective attitudes to asylums one must also consider their representations of the public.

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