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"Help the patients to help themselves:" social relations of the Kings Park Psychiatric Center, 1914-1965
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Stanton, H. Robyn. "Help the patients to help themselves:" social relations of the Kings Park Psychiatric Center, 1914-1965. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/t3-gq7k-3963

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Title"Help the patients to help themselves:" social relations of the Kings Park Psychiatric Center, 1914-1965
NameStanton, H. Robyn (author); Caplan, Karen (chair); Rutgers University; Graduate School - Newark
Date Created2019
Other Date2019-05 (degree)
SubjectHistory of medicine, History, Psychiatric hospitals -- New York (State) -- Kings Park -- History, Kings Park Psychiatric Center -- History
Extent1 online resource (ii, 97 pages)
DescriptionThe former Kings Park Psychiatric Center in Kings Park, New York was founded in 1885 as an extension of the Kings County Lunatic Asylum in a conscious effort to provide a more suitable environment for the mentally ill. This humanitarian foundation served as a catalyst for what would become a self-sustaining community. A common identity was forged between the hospital and the town of Kings Park - an identity which manifested itself in the form of a mutually beneficial relationship that developed and persisted throughout the institution's 111 years of operation. Drawing upon collections of local and regional newspapers and oral histories in conjunction with annual reports and state and federal legislation, this study explores the interconnectivity between the former state hospital and the community as it extended to the patient population. Specifically, the hospital's administrative and spatial arrangement allowed members of the lay public to form both direct and indirect connections with the mentally ill. Such localized dynamics are often obscured in institutional histories surrounding the lived experiences of mental hospitals in 19th- and 20th century America and are deserving of their own analysis. These relationships were encouraged and amended by the hospital's administrative operations, local infrastructure, economic interdependency, and social functions taking place within the public and institutional sphere. This paper also builds upon previous narratives chronicling the hospital's past, while emphasizing that the history of the Kings Park Psychiatric Center should be read as an evolving relationship between the hospital, the community and the patients they served and supported. Unearthing these social relations additionally allows the historical narrative associated with the Kings Park Psychiatric Center to incorporate itself in the broader histories of mental health care services at the state and national level across the twentieth century.
NoteM.A.
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
Genretheses, ETD graduate
Persistent URLhttps://doi.org/doi:10.7282/t3-gq7k-3963
LanguageEnglish
CollectionGraduate School - Newark Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.
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