A Patient’s Tale of Incarceration in a Victorian Lunatic Asylum
Using the archival admissions records and the case history of a patient at a British asylum in the 1870s, the author compares two genres. The first of these is two medical certificates written and signed by two physicians attesting that the patient was of <em>unsound mind</em&am...
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Universidad de Murcia
2011-06-01
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doaj-e20027ffc18f4c43a133b9ed4377fc802020-11-25T00:48:25ZengUniversidad de MurciaInternational Journal of English Studies (IJES)1578-70442011-06-0111111410.6018/ijes.11.1.137071A Patient’s Tale of Incarceration in a Victorian Lunatic AsylumCarol BerkencotterUsing the archival admissions records and the case history of a patient at a British asylum in the 1870s, the author compares two genres. The first of these is two medical certificates written and signed by two physicians attesting that the patient was of <em>unsound mind</em> and needed to be confined and treated. The second genre is the patient’s oral testimony to <em>Parliament’s Select Committee on Lunacy Laws</em> (1877), a narrative he delivered the year following his release from the asylum. Both genres are legal texts; however, it is the patient’s narrative of personal experience, as transcribed in the committee report, that allows the reader a glimpse of the misery imposed by confinement in a “lunatic” asylum. The two medical certificates have considerably more illocutionary force, however; as speech acts they most often resulted in confinement until the patient was determined to have recovered, was transferred to another asylum, or died.<br>Utilizando el archivo de registros de admisión y la historia clínica de un paciente en un psiquiátrico británico de los años 1870, se comparan dos géneros. El primero consiste en dos certificados médicos escritos y firmados por dos psiquiatras certificando que el paciente estaba <em>mentalmente incapacitado</em> y necesitaba confinación y tratamiento. El segundo género se trata del testimonio oral del paciente ante el <em>Parliament’s Select Committee on Lunacy Laws</em> (1877), pronunciado al año siguiente de su alta. Ambos géneros son textos legales, sin embargo, es la narración de la experiencia personal del paciente, transcrita en el informe del comité, lo que permite obtener una visión de las miserias impuestas por el encierro en un sanatorio de <em>lunáticos</em>. Los certificados médicos tienen una fuerza ilocutiva considerablemente mayor, pero como actos del habla resultaban en la reclusión del paciente hasta que se determinaba su recuperación, su traslado a otro sanatorio o fallecía.http://revistas.um.es/ijes/article/view/137071genrenarratives of personal experiencecase historymedical certificatesTicehurst House Asylummental patientinsanity |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Carol Berkencotter |
spellingShingle |
Carol Berkencotter A Patient’s Tale of Incarceration in a Victorian Lunatic Asylum International Journal of English Studies (IJES) genre narratives of personal experience case history medical certificates Ticehurst House Asylum mental patient insanity |
author_facet |
Carol Berkencotter |
author_sort |
Carol Berkencotter |
title |
A Patient’s Tale of Incarceration in a Victorian Lunatic Asylum |
title_short |
A Patient’s Tale of Incarceration in a Victorian Lunatic Asylum |
title_full |
A Patient’s Tale of Incarceration in a Victorian Lunatic Asylum |
title_fullStr |
A Patient’s Tale of Incarceration in a Victorian Lunatic Asylum |
title_full_unstemmed |
A Patient’s Tale of Incarceration in a Victorian Lunatic Asylum |
title_sort |
patient’s tale of incarceration in a victorian lunatic asylum |
publisher |
Universidad de Murcia |
series |
International Journal of English Studies (IJES) |
issn |
1578-7044 |
publishDate |
2011-06-01 |
description |
Using the archival admissions records and the case history of a patient at a British asylum in the 1870s, the author compares two genres. The first of these is two medical certificates written and signed by two physicians attesting that the patient was of <em>unsound mind</em> and needed to be confined and treated. The second genre is the patient’s oral testimony to <em>Parliament’s Select Committee on Lunacy Laws</em> (1877), a narrative he delivered the year following his release from the asylum. Both genres are legal texts; however, it is the patient’s narrative of personal experience, as transcribed in the committee report, that allows the reader a glimpse of the misery imposed by confinement in a “lunatic” asylum. The two medical certificates have considerably more illocutionary force, however; as speech acts they most often resulted in confinement until the patient was determined to have recovered, was transferred to another asylum, or died.<br>Utilizando el archivo de registros de admisión y la historia clínica de un paciente en un psiquiátrico británico de los años 1870, se comparan dos géneros. El primero consiste en dos certificados médicos escritos y firmados por dos psiquiatras certificando que el paciente estaba <em>mentalmente incapacitado</em> y necesitaba confinación y tratamiento. El segundo género se trata del testimonio oral del paciente ante el <em>Parliament’s Select Committee on Lunacy Laws</em> (1877), pronunciado al año siguiente de su alta. Ambos géneros son textos legales, sin embargo, es la narración de la experiencia personal del paciente, transcrita en el informe del comité, lo que permite obtener una visión de las miserias impuestas por el encierro en un sanatorio de <em>lunáticos</em>. Los certificados médicos tienen una fuerza ilocutiva considerablemente mayor, pero como actos del habla resultaban en la reclusión del paciente hasta que se determinaba su recuperación, su traslado a otro sanatorio o fallecía. |
topic |
genre narratives of personal experience case history medical certificates Ticehurst House Asylum mental patient insanity |
url |
http://revistas.um.es/ijes/article/view/137071 |
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AT carolberkencotter apatientstaleofincarcerationinavictorianlunaticasylum AT carolberkencotter patientstaleofincarcerationinavictorianlunaticasylum |
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