THE PROFESSIONALIZATION OF MEDICAL SUPERINTENDENTS AND THE TREATMENT OF THE POOR IN THE UNITED STATES: THE ISSUE OF INCURABILITY, 1840-1870
Abstract
Recent efforts to analyze developments within the asylum movement and with the physicians in charge (the medical superintendents) point to a need for a more complex theoretical framework by which to analyze these events. The concept of professionalization as developed by Magali Sarfatti Larson is introducted in this dissertation as one important aspect of such a theoretical understanding. Professionalization is interpreted as the collective effort by an occupational group to achieve social mobility by establishing control over the market in which their services are to be provided. To test the validity of this concept, the issue of incurability, is examined. The hypothesis is that as a strategy, the professionalization project will be found to influence policies and practices of the Association of Medical Superintendents with regard to the treatment of the incurable insane. Three sets or networks of relationships (superintendents' interaction with patients, charity groups, and the medical profession) are isolated as having a direct impact or bearing on the professionalization efforts of the Association and their handling of incurables. A market economy is viewed as the environment or context in which these events transpire and have meaning. There are four major research findings: (1) the poor and immigrant insane were more likely to classified as incurable; (2) though medical superintendents in principle supported equal treatment policies for all the insane (rich or poor, acute or chronic), they engaged in an admissions policy which resulted in excluding the poor from the asylum; (3) the suggestion of an alternative arrangement by which the chronic insane would be isolated in cheaply constructed units, was initiated by legislative bodies, medical societies, and charity associations. Their suggestion of a policy of segregation reflected, in part, their own professional interests. And (4) the concept of professionalization with its implications of process and class interest is useful in explaining the paradoxes and dilemmas posed by the issue of incurability.
Degree
Ph.D.
Subject Area
Social research
Off-Campus Purdue Users:
To access this dissertation, please log in to our
proxy server.