Trae, handling books over 500 years old with her heart pounding..
Alan, ex soldier himself – reading about Shell Shock and how they could tell if people were “malingering – trying to pull the wool”
Everyone was making notes on such a random series of topics – but the main thing was we were here, we got this far and the feeling was great to be part of this world history – it was so much more than we imagined.
Seeing a booklet, produced in 1975, around the year my own brother was sectioned under the Mental Health Act of 1959, printed in MossSide called Your Rights As A Mental Patient and discovering there were now only three copies in academic libraries and non in Manchester Public library – seeing the crude hand printed humble leaflet, with hand drawn cartoons – holding it in my hands almost moved me to tears.
I also read an article from 1772 about the York Asylum. The account of a public meeting, led by the Archbishop to discuss a proposal for an Asylum was movingly compassionate and well supported by the public and the parishes – with subscriptions of £2500 immediately collected to begin building what would be only the third asylum in the country. Already mad people were being referred to as requiring “expert” care BUT that physicians and doctors should NOT be paid for treating them, so long as the patients were paupers…..so they could no longer exploit them …. those were the days!
Tomorrow Royal Bethlem Hospital – the first Asylum in England….
AK
