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10 - Welsh Psychiatry during the Interwar Years, and the Impact of American and German Inspirations and Resources

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2012

Pamela Michael
Affiliation:
Bangor University, Bangor (Wales, UK)
Volker Roelcke
Affiliation:
Giessen University, Germany
Paul J. Weindling
Affiliation:
Oxford Brookes University
Louise Westwood
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
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Summary

In assessing German and American influences on “British” psychiatry in the interwar years it is important to recognize that the British Isles comprise four nations: England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Scotland and Ireland operated under separate legislative and administrative structures regarding care of the insane, but England and Wales were under one and the same jurisdiction. Although there were significant differences between England and Wales in terms of history, culture, language, economy, and social structure, both were subject to the same laws and administration for poor law and lunacy. Therefore it is difficult to discuss Welsh psychiatry as a distinct entity. However, a focus on changing provisions and treatments for the mentally ill in Wales during the interwar years does make it possible to explore the influence of German and American psychiatry at a sub-national level and counterbalances the tendency of much medical historiography to focus on the English metropolis and on unrepresentative institutions such as the Maudsley Hospital.

The Cardiff City Mental Hospital

By the time of the First World War there were five county or joint-counties asylums in Wales, most of them dating from the middle of the nineteenth century. These Victorian-style asylums had accumulated large populations of chronic, long-stay patients, making change and modernization difficult to implement, so that efforts were concentrated on ensuring basic standards of care and provision.

Type
Chapter
Information
International Relations in Psychiatry
Britain, Germany, and the United States to World War II
, pp. 197 - 217
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2010

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