Alienation Revisited

Abstract

In 1956 moral treatment announced its comeback in the asylum. Or rather T. P. Rees, the Medical Superintendent of Warlingham Park Hospital, announced it. In a presidential address delivered to the Royal Medico-Psychological Association (RMPA) he maintained that, although there had been real advances in scientific treatment, probably the most important change from the patients’ point of view had been the return of moral treatment to the mental hospital.⁵³⁷ For Rees, the modern progressive mental hospital had returned to the view of the insane epitomized by moral treatment. Patients were ‘normal people who had lost their reason as a result of having been exposed to severe psychological and social stresses’. What mattered was the creation of the right ‘atmosphere’ for their care and treatment.