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“Distraction from Hurtful Thoughts”
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Oswald, Ute (2021) “Distraction from Hurtful Thoughts”. Medizinhistorisches Journal, 56 (1-2). pp. 30-57. doi:10.25162/mhj-2021-0002 ISSN 1611-4477.
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.25162/mhj-2021-0002
Abstract
British madhouses and asylums in the nineteenth century were often portrayed as places of wrongful confinement, lacking compassion and effective therapeutics. Yet many of these institutions were run by medical men who actively engaged with their patients, offering a varied recreational activities programme in a domestic setting aimed at recovery and rehabilitation. As part of the recently-established moral treatment regime, these included balls, sports fixtures, drama, music and art. This paper will investigate to what extent both patients and staff perceived and experienced these activities as agents of cure. Using voices from various stakeholders, it will highlight the multi-faceted nature and terminology of healing in the context of recreation. The impact of the various entertainments on patients will be discussed together with the largely unexplored relationship between leisure and material culture as part of this healing process; after all, as patients engaged in activities, they appropriated objects and surroundings, fostering social interactions amongst each other, with staff and with the wider public.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
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Divisions: | Faculty of Arts > History | ||||
SWORD Depositor: | Library Publications Router | ||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Medizinhistorisches Journal | ||||
Publisher: | Franz Steiner Verlag GmbH | ||||
ISSN: | 1611-4477 | ||||
Official Date: | March 2021 | ||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 56 | ||||
Number: | 1-2 | ||||
Page Range: | pp. 30-57 | ||||
DOI: | 10.25162/mhj-2021-0002 | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
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