This podcast carries on from last week’s, asking: Were Bethlem’s staff negligent and cruel? Did it do little to cure its inmates? The conclusion is that Bethlem was for centuries a troubled institution dominated by recurring scandals. It was a Bedlam in all senses of the word, potentially ‘brutal, cold, dark, and dirty’. Yet this needs to be balanced with a strong imperative to help sufferers and a more recent history, since the mid-nineteenth century, which was a model of good psychiatric practice.
Image of the week: William Norris, 1815
Full Bibliographic Record: Wellcome Library Catalogue L0011319
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