A Psychiatric Milestone

A Psychiatric Milestone, edited
by

Howard Townsend, Bronson Winthrop and R. Horace Gallatin This
eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no
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Title: A Psychiatric Milestone Bloomingdale Hospital Centenary,
1821-1921
Author: Various
Editor: Howard Townsend Bronson Winthrop R. Horace Gallatin
Release Date: March 14, 2005 [EBook #15365]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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PSYCHIATRIC MILESTONE ***

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[Illustration: THE NEW YORK HOSPITAL, DUANE STREET AND
BROADWAY
The building to the left was erected in 1808 for the exclusive use of
patients suffering from mental disorders.]
A PSYCHIATRIC MILESTONE

BLOOMINGDALE HOSPITAL CENTENARY
1821-1921
"Cum corpore ut una Crescere sentimus, pariterque senescere mentem."
--LUCRETIUS
PRIVATELY PRINTED
BY THE SOCIETY OF THE NEW YORK HOSPITAL
1921
ANNIVERSARY COMMITTEE
HOWARD TOWNSEND BRONSON WINTHROP R. HORACE
GALLATIN

PREFACE
The opening of Bloomingdale Asylum on June 1, 1821, was an
important event in the treatment of mental disorders and in the progress
of humanitarian and scientific work in America. Hospital treatment for
persons suffering from mental disorders had been furnished by the New
York Hospital since its opening in 1792, and the Governors had given
much thought and effort to securing the facilities needed. The treatment
consisted, however, principally in the administration of drugs and the
employment of such other physical measures as were in vogue at that
time. Little attempt was made to study the minds of the patients or to
treat them by measures directed specifically to influencing their
thoughts, feelings, and behavior, and what treatment of this character
there was had for its object little more than the repression of excitement
and disordered activity. The value and importance of treatment directed
to the mind had, indeed, been long recognized, but in practice it had
been subordinated to treatment of the actual and assumed physical
disorders to which the mental state of the patient was attributed, and, in
the few hospitals where persons suffering from mental disorders were
received, means for its application were almost or quite entirely lacking.
The establishment of Bloomingdale Asylum for the purpose of
ascertaining to what extent the recovery of the patients might be
accomplished by moral as well as by purely medical treatment marked,
therefore, the very earliest stages of the development in America of the
system of study and treatment of mental disorders which with
increasing amplification and precision is now universally employed.
A hundred years of growth and activity in the work thus established

have now been accomplished, and it seemed fitting to the Governors of
the Hospital that the event should be commemorated in a way that
would be appropriate to its significance and importance. It was decided
that the principal place in the celebration should be given to the purely
medical and scientific aspects of the work, with special reference to the
progress which had been made in the direction of the practical
usefulness of psychiatry in the treatment of illness generally, and in the
management of problems of human behavior and welfare.
Arrangements were made for four addresses by physicians of
conspicuous eminence in their particular fields, and invitations to
attend the exercises were sent to the leading psychiatrists, psychologists,
and neurologists of America, and to others who were known to be
specially interested in the field of study and practice in which the
Hospital is engaged. It was felt that, in view of the place which France
and England had held in the movement in which Bloomingdale Asylum
had its origin, it would add greatly to the interest and value of the
celebration if representatives of these countries were present and made
addresses. How fortunate it was, then, that it became possible to
welcome from France Dr. Pierre Janet, who stands pre-eminent in the
field of psychopathology, and from England Dr. Richard G. Rows,
whose contributions to the study and treatment of the war neuroses and
to the relation between psychic and physical reactions marked him as
especially qualified to present the more advanced view-point of British
psychiatry. The other two principal addresses were made by Dr. Adolf
Meyer, who, by reason of his scientific contributions and his
wonderfully productive practical work in clinical and organized
psychiatry and in mental hygiene, is the acknowledged leader of
psychiatry in America, and by Dr. Lewellys F. Barker, who, because of
his eminence as an internist and of the extent to which he has advocated
and employed psychiatric knowledge and methods in his practice, has
contributed greatly to interesting and informing physicians concerning
the value and importance of psychiatry