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The lunatic asylum, insane asylum or mental asylum was an institution where people with mental illness were confined. It was an early precursor of the modern psychiatric hospital . Modern psychiatric hospitals evolved from and eventually replaced the older lunatic asylum.
Lunatic is a term referring to a person who is seen as mentally ill, dangerous, foolish, [1] [2] or crazy—conditions once attributed to "lunacy". The word derives from lunaticus meaning "of the moon" or "moonstruck".
A psychiatric hospital, also known as a mental health hospital, a behavioral health hospital, or an asylum is a specialized medical facility that focuses on the treatment of severe mental disorders. These institutions cater to patients with conditions such as schizophrenia , bipolar disorder , major depressive disorder , and eating disorders ...
Thomas Story Kirkbride, creator of the Kirkbride Plan. The establishment of state mental hospitals in the U.S. is partly due to reformer Dorothea Dix, who testified to the New Jersey legislature in 1844, vividly describing the state's treatment of lunatics; they were being housed in county jails, private homes, and the basements of public buildings.
The most notable of these were the County Asylums Act 1808 and the Lunatic Asylums Act 1853 (16 & 17 Vict. c. 97). The Lunacy Act itself was amended several times after its conception, including by the Lunatic Asylums, etc. Act 1846 and the Lunatic Asylums Act 1847. Both of these versions were repealed by the County Asylums Act 1853. [4]
From 1848 in England, the Alleged Lunatics' Friend Society campaigned for sweeping reforms to the asylum system and abuses of the moral treatment approach. In the United States, The Opal (1851–1860) was a ten volume Journal produced by patients of Utica State Lunatic Asylum in New York, which has been viewed in part as an early liberation ...
In its day, the asylum was a state-of-the-art facility and considered a better alternative than life among the general public for its residents.
Central State Hospital, originally known as the Central Lunatic Asylum, is a psychiatric hospital in Petersburg, Virginia, United States.It was the first institution in the country for "colored persons of unsound mind".