What would bring a physician to conclude that sterilization is
appropriate treatment for the mentally ill and mentally
handicapped? Using archival sources, Ian Robert Dowbiggin documents
the involvement of both American and Canadian psychiatrists in the
eugenics movement of the early twentieth century. He explains why
professional men and women committed to helping those less
fortunate than themselves arrived at such morally and
intellectually dubious conclusions.
Psychiatrists at the end of the nineteenth century felt
professionally vulnerable, Dowbiggin explains, because they were
under intense pressure from state and provincial governments and
from other physicians to reform their specialty. Eugenic ideas,
which dominated public health policy making, seemed the best
vehicle for catching up with the progress of science. Among the
prominent psychiatrist-eugenicists Dowbiggin considers are G. Alder
Blumer, Charles Kirk Clarke, Thomas Salmon, Clare Hincks, and
William Partlow.
Tracing psychiatric support for eugenics throughout the interwar
years, Dowbiggin pays special attention to the role of
psychiatrists in the fierce debates about immigration policy. His
examination of psychiatry's unfortunate flirtation with eugenics
elucidates how professional groups come to think and act along
common lines within specific historical contexts.
General
Imprint: |
Cornell University Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Series: |
Cornell Studies in the History of Psychiatry |
Release date: |
June 1997 |
Authors: |
Ian R. Dowbiggin
|
Dimensions: |
155 x 235 x 22mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Hardcover
|
Pages: |
288 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-8014-3356-6 |
Categories: |
Books >
Medicine >
Other branches of medicine >
Psychiatry
|
LSN: |
0-8014-3356-8 |
Barcode: |
9780801433566 |
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