Isolating Madness: Photographs from Seacliff Lunatic Asylum, 1887-1907

<p>Frederic Truby King (1858-1938) is an eminent figure in New Zealand history. His name continues to flourish in contemporary society, due in part to its affiliation with the Royal New Zealand Plunket Society. However, the general populace is still relatively unaware of the time that King spent employed as the medical superintendent of Seacliff Lunatic Asylum, on the remote outskirts of Dunedin. The prevailing image of King during this period is of a single-minded physician, whose career was in a state of acceleration towards the establishment of Plunket. But historians like Barbara Brookes and Catherine Coleborne have rightly started to establish this epoch as significant in its own right. This thesis extends their work by engaging with previously unpublished casebook photographs of patients in King’s care, taken between 1887 and 1907, from the restricted Seacliff Lunatic Asylum archives. Through six case studies, this thesis draws connections between these photographs and the paradigms established by such internationally renowned photographers as Hugh W. Diamond and James Crichton-Browne. It then discusses some distinctive photographs that appear unique to this institutional environment, images that challenge our preconceived notions of psychiatric institutions and their functions. This visual history complicates, and sometimes even challenges, the argument about psychiatric institutions and disciplinary power proposed by Michel Foucault and John Tagg, by demonstrating the diverse forms of photography that can occur within a single institution. This study is part of a growing body of research on the Seacliff Lunatic Asylum archives. In using a largely untapped source of photographic history, this project will contribute to future research on similar topics.</p>

Isolating Madness: Photographs from Seacliff Lunatic Asylum, 1887-1907

<p>Frederic Truby King (1858-1938) is an eminent figure in New Zealand history. His name continues to flourish in contemporary society, due in part to its affiliation with the Royal New Zealand Plunket Society. However, the general populace is still relatively unaware of the time that King spent employed as the medical superintendent of Seacliff Lunatic Asylum, on the remote outskirts of Dunedin. The prevailing image of King during this period is of a single-minded physician, whose career was in a state of acceleration towards the establishment of Plunket. But historians like Barbara Brookes and Catherine Coleborne have rightly started to establish this epoch as significant in its own right. This thesis extends their work by engaging with previously unpublished casebook photographs of patients in King’s care, taken between 1887 and 1907, from the restricted Seacliff Lunatic Asylum archives. Through six case studies, this thesis draws connections between these photographs and the paradigms established by such internationally renowned photographers as Hugh W. Diamond and James Crichton-Browne. It then discusses some distinctive photographs that appear unique to this institutional environment, images that challenge our preconceived notions of psychiatric institutions and their functions. This visual history complicates, and sometimes even challenges, the argument about psychiatric institutions and disciplinary power proposed by Michel Foucault and John Tagg, by demonstrating the diverse forms of photography that can occur within a single institution. This study is part of a growing body of research on the Seacliff Lunatic Asylum archives. In using a largely untapped source of photographic history, this project will contribute to future research on similar topics.</p>

Democracy Compromised: A Study of Adiga’s The White Tiger

The paper tries to underscore that how one of the oldest democracies of the world is exposed to corruption. Corruption has brought India not only to halt but also dragging it backward. Corruption in India stems from the connection between bureaucrats, politicians and criminals. Adiga writes that there are mainly three diseases in India typhoid, cholera and election fever of which election is the worst. Election is the very fountainhead of all types of corruption. Voters casting their votes for money or even for a bottle of liquor are a common practice in many cities of India. Politicians before election make many promises but once government is formed they forget the promises. Balram Halwai, the protagonist, owes his success to the bribe that he gave to political institutions. In corruption police stands second to none. Taking hefty amount of bribe, they protect the big-wigs from legal proceedings. They harass and arrest mostly the have-nots and the honest. The police are totally rotten in Delhi, the capital of India. “If they see you without a seat belt, you’ll have to bribe them a hundred rupees”, says Balram. The police appointed with a view to control crime and maintain law and order promotes crime by taking bribe. Corruption in education system has crippled the poor. The mid-day meal of the students is taken home by the teacher of the school. Balram’s school teacher sells the uniform of the students in the neighbouring villages to earn profit. He is carried to the hospital, where no doctor is present saved a ward boy. The ward boy tells Balram that the doctor might come in the evening only when Balram gives him ten rupees bribe. Balram asks a person who is beside him “why isn’t a doctor here uncle”. The man answers that the doctor gives a fat amount of bribe to higher officials to get that job and after getting the job the bribes government medical superintendent one third of their salary to mark their attendance. The corruption in health department costs the life of Balram’s father. Blaram’s father has been suffering from tuberculosis. He is carried to the hospital, where no doctor is present saved a ward boy. The ward boy tells Balram that the doctor might come in the evening only when Balram gives him ten rupees bribe. Balram asks a person who is beside him “why isn’t a doctor here uncle”. The man answers that the doctor gives a fat amount of bribe to higher officials to get that job and after getting the job the bribes government medical superintendent one third of their salary to mark their attendance. People lose their confidence in their politicians and civil servants. The largest democracy of the world is being compromised.

ADOPTION OF OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH PRACTICES AMONG HEALTH CARE WORKERS IN KENYAN PUBLIC REFERRAL HOSPITALS

among health care workers in Kenyan public referral hospitals, especially to establish the place of health care worker training, personal protective equipment, occupational safety and health standards in influencing adoption of occupational safety and health practices.Methodology: The cross-sectional survey research study was based on data from 80 medical staff collected using a structured questionnaire from Baringo county referral hospital in Kenya. Data was diagnostically screened to determine Measure of Sampling Adequacy through Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) and Bartlett’s test of sphericity for detection of adequacy of correlations between the variables. Factor analysis was used as a dimensions reduction technique to identify predictors and principal components that accounted most for adoption of occupations safety and health practices among health care workers while Wald Chi-square test of model fit was used to determine if predictors in the principal components significantly influenced adoption of occupational safety and health practices while regression analysis was used to determine the relationship between principal components established through factor analysis.Findings: The study concluded that from the total of 20 factors under study, seven factors accounted most in determining adoption of occupational safety and health practices among health care workers in Kenyan public referral hospitals; they are staffed capacity building through training, implementation of safety and health guidelines, wearing of safety gear, provision of standard operating procedures on PPEs, training needs analysis, provision of information to staff on guidelines and sensitization on risks.Unique contributions to practice and policy: The study recommends that, County Executive Committee member for health through the Medical Superintendent should make necessary budgetary allocations towards staff training, organize and implement specialized training in occupational safety and health for their staff as a matter of priority. The medical superintendent should put in place a robust mechanism that ensures consistent implementation of safety and health guidelines in their facilities. He should further cause an audit of PPEs and ensure deficits on PPEs are included in the next and subsequent financial year procurement plan. The Human Resource Officers should on continuous basis utilizing continuous education approach, organise staff sensitization particularly to sensitize staff on wearing of safety gear, standard operating procedures on PPEs and preview of applicable guidelines and sensitization on risks.

Medical Tourism Opportunities in India: A Study on the Multispecialty Hospitals of Kolkata

Indian hospital sector is now witnessing cut-throat competition to remain competitive and to attract patients from the foreign countries, they have to change their conventional systems towards more customer-centric approach. Due to the presence of considerable number of super-specialty hospitals, Kolkata is gradually becoming a preferred place in the field of medical tourism in India. Patients from African and Middle East counties are now coming here due to experienced and skilled medical and paramedical staffs, and facilities at an affordable price. The objective of this article is to examine the roles and initiatives of hospital management team in the process of retention of patients. We are also proposing certain strategies based on the value creation strategy for the medical tourism—which will ultimately contribute factors of this aspect. As a part of the qualitative study, we have collected data onto 80 respondents comprising doctors, nurses, supporting staffs and medical superintendent of different private hospitals in Kolkata. The results of this qualitative study indicate that different professional hospital management staffs need to behave like a united team with same organizational goal.

The ‘report of a nightmare’: hallucinating conflict in the political and personal frontiers of Ulster during the IRA border campaign of 1920–22

The influence of the ‘new psychology’ was less notable in early-twentieth-century Ireland than elsewhere. Nonetheless, the personal narratives of patients can be used to unravel the meaning of warfare and conflict. This chapter exploits a 1940 article published by the former medical superintendent of the Downpatrick District Asylum, Michael J. Nolan, of a ‘case of acute systematized hallucinosis’. His article provided a detailed journal account of an extended period of hallucination authored by a patient in the immediate aftermath of his disturbance during the War of Independence. Nolan’s article was also distinguishable by its focus on the actual substance of hallucinatory experience. The patient recounted a hallucinatory episode in which a battle took place in his sickbed between an army of cockroaches and an army of hairs. These phantasmagorical battalions clearly functioned as proxies for the participants of the ‘real’ conflict raging beyond the doors of the asylum. His hallucinations were also deeply coloured by his personal relations with, and violent impulses towards, two women, one Protestant and the other Catholic. This chapter critically analyses in an ethnographic frame this account of a hallucinatory episode and the psychiatric discourse which enfolded and structured it.

Daniel Frederick Rambaut: ‘Rugbanian’ and innovative Resident Medical Superintendent

Daniel Frederick Rambaut was a prominent asylum doctor in the late 19th and early 20th century. Of Irish and Huguenot origins, his career brought him from the Richmond Asylum in Dublin to the Resident Medical Superintendent position at the largest private hospital in England. In his student years at Trinity, he was a central figure in a groundbreaking rugby match.

Disease, danger and death: illness and injuries among staff of Monaghan District Asylum (1869–1950)

ObjectiveThe purpose of this paper has been to investigate the vulnerability of staff in an Irish district lunatic asylum (1869–1950) to infection and injury as exemplified by the records of Monaghan District Asylum (renamed Monaghan Mental Hospital in 1924 and St Davnet’s Hospital in 1954). Some comparisons with other Irish district asylums are included.MethodsThe Minutebooks of Monaghan District Asylum, located in St Davnet’s Complex, Monaghan, were sampled in December of each year from 1869 to 1950 with the sampling extended outwards as required. In addition, the reports on the District, Criminal and Lunatic Asylums in Ireland (1869–1921) and the annual reports of the Inspector of Mental Hospitals (1923–2013) were surveyed for comparisons.ConclusionsStaff in Monaghan District Asylum were vulnerable to infection from contagious diseases including typhoid, tuberculosis and Spanish influenza. As with other Irish district asylums, overcrowding was the norm and isolation facilities were either absent or inadequate. The close proximity of staff to patients in an overcrowded and frequently insanitary institution placed them at increased risk of contracting disease. Moreover, staff at all levels, from resident medical superintendent to attendant, were, on occasion, at risk of injury from patients. The Monaghan experience would seem to indicate that any consideration of staff patient relationships within asylums should be nuanced by a consideration of the risks posed to staff due to their occupation.