Review Of Andrew Harper's Mental Illness

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Another key pamphlet of the period on mental illness in the late eighteenth century is Andrew Harper, who followed on from Arnold’s work, he produced a ‘Treatise on the Real Cause and Cure of Insanity; in Which the Nature and Distinctions of this Disease Are Fully Explained and the Treatment Established on New Principles’ which was published in London in 1789. This pamphlet expresses the need for pre-tests before patient’s admittance to madhouses and asylums, to gain the correct diagnosis, in the hope the patient’s condition does not worsen under the caregiving of these institutes and that they are given the right course of treatment if possible. Harper comments in the pamphlet, ‘the custom of immediately consigning the unfortunate… to the cells of bedlam… is certainly big when ignorance and absurdity. At the same time, it destroys all the obligation of humanity, robs the sufferer of every advantage’ . He explained that doing this, would help to recover and cure the mentally ill patient in the quickest and best possible way. …show more content…

Harper was a well-known face in the world of psychiatry, this resulted in this pamphlet being well received and it did help to make change in opinion of the mentally ill which subsequently helped lead to an increase in the quality of life for mentally ill people in early modern