The objective of this thesis is to examine the pauper lunatic asylums of later Victorian England and assess the value of the psychological medicine which was carried on there. Broadly, it asks psychiatric, rather than strictly historical, questions in that it considers the benefits accruing to individual patients as being of central importance, whilst also evaluating the advantages gained by the medical profession and by outside society. After an introductory chapter there follows an analysis of medical theory on insanity. This considers the function of theory and assesses its usefulness in handling the problems posed by those labelled "insane". The third chapter analyses theories of treatment. It looks first at somatic therapies - electricity, showers and drugs - then considers what "moral treatment" had by then become, concluding with an overall interpretation of therapy in this period. In the section examining psychological medicine in practice, the first chapter is a reconstruction of asylum function using asylum admission registers. It shows mortality, lengths-of-stay, proportions of cures and so on according to various factors. Some analysis of patients' problems is also attempted. The following chapter pursues this theme with a study of asylum life as it affected the patient and, by implication, his or her course of treatment. The last section sets psychological medicine in its social contexts, first of professionalisation, with the advantages accruing to doctors and attendants and the conditions under which this branch of medicine operated, then of social provision. Asylums were supported by county rates and their patients by the Poor Law authorities and their influence on the enterprise is considered. It concludes that psychological medicine was self-defeating in its own terms because of the dominative nature of the relationship between the asylum and the patients. The perception of the patient as individual sufferer was occluded by a perception of him or her as social deviant. Thus the essential ingredient of the restoration of " normal" self-control - that the "self" be known and its needs recognised - was absent. The alternative to restoration, continued incarceration, was nevertheless socially acceptable and so persisted.

Cette thèse a pour objectif de questionner les raisons de la croissance aiguë des occurrences du mot latin “pauper” dans les capitulaires et les canons conciliaires produits à l’époque carolingienne, surtout entre les années 755 et 840. En alliant les outils technologiques de recherche à la masse des données textuelles importantes, disponible grâce à numérisation des sources, nous avons organisé notre étude autour de trois principes: i) la recherche des occurrences et fréquences d’utilisation de “pauper”, tenant en compte les différentes significations à attribuer à ce terme; ii) la nature de la documentation dont le mot apparaît; et iii) le contexte historique englobant les deux points précédents. En somme, la question essentielle est de découvrir ce que phénomène peut nous dire sur la structure social et les systèmes de représentation de la société carolingienne entre les VIIIe et IXe siècles?Plus que chercher pour les “vrais” pauperes – donc notre choix de ne pas traduire ce mot par son correspondant francophone plus proche, “pauvre” –, nous croyons que lacroissance de l’emploi du terme “pauper” dans les capitulaires et textes conciliaires carolingiens n’est pas seulement un témoin statistique de l'appauvrissement du royaume ou des abus seigneuriaux vus à ce moment-là. En effet, ces mesures normatives en rapport aux pauperes s’inscrivent dans deux logiques complémentaires: une est la pratique chrétienne dela caritas, associée dès les débuts du haut Moyen Âge aux évêques mais incorporées auministerium royale par les carolingiens, principalement en forme d’aumône. L’autre c’est la rationalité politique, où la protection des pauperes contre les oppressions des puissants (laïcs et ecclésiastiques) a servi, pour les rois, à l'établissement d’une rhétorique légitimant leur exercice de pouvoir au regard de l’aristocratie, et pour les évêques, à un discours d’autoritésur les propriétés ecclésiastiques (désignées comme “res pauperum”). Ainsi, au-delà des indications exclusivement socio-économiques et religieuses (en suivant une historiographie traditionnel), nous croyons que le sujet du pauper a été, dans les capitulaires et canons conciliaires des années 755-840, aussi une question politique. / In “The pauperes in the carolingian age, 755-840” we intend to investigate what are the reasons for the expressive occurrences increase of the latin word “pauper” in capitularies and council texts produced during VIII and IX centuries. What does pauper mean? Why does it happen in these two normative documentary groups? What could this phenomenon tell us about the Carolingian society? Combining powerful search technologies with a massive amount of data, available thanks to digitalization, we intended to answer these questions beyond the parameters currently accounted by historiography. Rather than seeking for “real” pauperes – hence the option of not translating the termby his usual english counterpart, “poor” – we believe that the growth of the use of the word “pauper” in the Carolingian capitularies and council texts are not just statistical testimonials of kingdom impoverishment or seigneurial abuses. As a result from Carolingian princes and episcopate interests, the use of word “pauper” in capitularies and council texts represents not only a possible socio-economic transformation but also a shift in the political culture at that period, where the concern for pauper protection stood as a significative example. / Doctorat en Histoire, histoire de l'art et archéologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

"Impressed with the obvious quality of Peter Pauper Press publications, the author became interested in discovering the underlying philosophy of the Press, its origin and history, the types of books it publishes, and its contributions to the book world. Because the Peter Pauper Press is so personal a publishing house, it is not possible to write its history without writing also of Peter and Edna Beilenson, who publish, print, and design the Peter Pauper books"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "February, 1957." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts." / Advisor: Ruth H. Rockwood, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 48-50).

There have been many studies of Victorian asylums and their inmates, but the Edwardian asylum, and child inmates, have been largely unrepresented. This thesis attempts to redress these imbalances and contribute to the history of mental deficiency by describing the innovations, developments, and practices within the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum (WRPLA) and its annexe, Stanley Hall. As part of the Poor Law system Stanley Hall took in idiot and imbecile boys as young as three years, where, as part of the response of alienists towards mentally deficient children, an attempt was made to educate them to a degree of self- sufficiency. In this way Stanley Hall was an institution that went beyond its perception as a custodial establishment and practised new approaches to care, at a time when these boys were defined within the Poor Law under the universal category of 'lunatic'. This study focuses on the role of William Bevan Lewis, the Medical Superintendent of the WRPLA (1884-1910), and the 163 idiot and imbecile boys admitted to Stanley Hall between 1901 and 1910. Consideration is given to the early dissemination of knowledge from this asylum and its influence through the teaching and training of medical students and asylum medical officers. The function and operation of Stanley Hall and the 'experiences' of the inmates is explored through institutional records and the evidence of Bevan Lewis to the Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-minded (1905-1908). Stanley Hall pre-dated other mental deficiency colonies and anticipated the conclusions of the Royal Commission which recommended specialised care for mentally deficient children. Issues of care for this group were intensely debated during the Edwardian period leading to the Mental Deficiency Act (1913) that defined this group and influenced their care for almost another fifty years. The records of Stanley Hall demonstrate the individuality of the boys, and allow the analysis of the involvement of their families in the committal of their children. The subsequent involvement (or lack thereof) in the care of their children is also examined. The ultimate fates of the boys are considered, and an attempt made to bring the regime at Stanley Hall 'back to life'.

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