I was wondering in anyone could direct me to any good resources on finding information on Historical Women in insane Ayslums? I need to do a research paper for my Women's Studies class and any help anyone could offer would be much appreciated!! Thank you!!

-- Katie Hartsock (kt8219@hotmail.com), November 02, 2002

Answers

You probably need to refine your question a bit. One approach would be to look at women like Dorothea Dix who reformed the nature of the asylums. Dix and others like her are routinely discussed in anthologies on women in the history of psychology. Check the following:

Stevens, Gwendolyn & Gardner, Sheldon (1982). The women of psychology. Vol. I. Pioneers and innovators. Vol. II. Expansion and refinement. Cambridge, MA: Schenkman.

O'Connell, Agnes N. & Russo, Nancy Felipe, Eds. (1980). Eminent women in psychology: Models of achievement. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 5, 144pp.

Furumoto, Laurel & Scarborough, Elizabeth (1986). Placing women in the history of psychology. American Psychologist, 4, 35-42.

Scarborough, Elizabeth & Furumoto, Laurel. (1987). Untold lives: The first generation of American women psychologists. New York: Columbia University Press.

O’Connell, Agnes N. & Russo, Nancy Felipe. (1983). Models of achievement: Reflections of eminent women in psychology. Vol. 1. New York: Columbia University Press.

O’Connell, Agnes N. & Russo, Nancy Felipe. (1988). Models of achievement: Reflections of eminent women in psychology. Vol. 2. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

O’Connell, Agnes N. & Russo, Nancy Felipe. (Eds). (1990). Women in psychology: A bio-bibliographic sourcebook. New York: Greenwood Press.

Another angle would be to examine asylums for women, such as the one at Salpetriere at which Charcot studied his allegedly "hysterical" subjects. Psychopathology textbooks often include such discussions

Another approach would involve historically significant women who have been mentally ill, such as the poet Sylvia Plath. You'll find a lot of such accounts if your search by Plath's name, and also if you search for mental illness and autobiography.

-- Hendrika Vande Kemp (hendrika@earthlink.net), November 04, 2002.