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The architecture of psychological management: the Irish asylums (1801–1922)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Markus Reuber
Markus Reuber*
Affiliation:
Institute of History of Medicine, University of Cologne, Germany
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr Markus Reuber, Department of Neurology, University Hospital, Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham NG7 2UH.
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Synopsis

This analysis examines some of the psychological, philosophical and sociological motives behind the development of pauper lunatic asylum architecture in Ireland during the time of the Anglo–Irish union (1801–1922). Ground plans and structural features are used to define five psycho-architectonic generations. While isolation and classification were the prime objectives in the first public asylum in Ireland (1810–1814), a combination of the ideas of a psychological, ‘moral’, management and ‘panoptic’ architecture led to a radial institutional design during the next phase of construction (1817–1835). The asylums of the third generation (1845–1855) lacked ‘panoptic’ features but they were still intended to allow a proper ‘moral’ management of the inmates, and to create a therapeutic family environment. By the time the institutions of the fourth epoch were erected (1862–1869) the ‘moral’ treatment approach had been given up, and asylums were built to allow a psychological management by ‘association’. The last institutions (1894–1922) built before Ireland's acquisition of Dominion status (1922) were intended to foster the development of a curative society.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 26 , Issue 6 , November 1996 , pp. 1179 - 1189
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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