A Refuge of Cure or Care: The Sensory Dimensions of Confinement at the Worcester State Hospital for the Insane

(Hardback)

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In A Refuge of Cure or Care: The Sensory Dimensions of Confinement at the Worcester State Hospital for the Insane, Madeline Kearin Ryan analyzes the therapy model of the nineteenth-century asylum. Because the five senses were believed to provide a direct conduit into a persons mental condition, the curative force of the Hospital was thought to reside in its command over sensory experience. Ryan examines how the institution was designed to target each of the five senses as a mode of therapy, and conversely, how that well-intentioned design materialized in the haphazard realm of institutional practice. In doing so, Ryan seeks to reconcile the disjuncture between the benevolent promise of the asylum model and its ultimate failure in a way that captures the complex power dynamics and heterogeneity of actors within the institution.

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A Refuge of Cure orCare provides a considerable amount of new material and analysis that would contribute both to the fields of history and archaeology. It discusses an area of increasing interest in the discussion of sensory aspects of the asylum. Madeline Kearin Ryan's research also highlights previously overlooked elements of asylum history, including race, class, and beliefs about human nature and overindulgence. Ryan builds on Australian and English research in the sensory area and presents a highly detailed original analysis, offering considerable insights into many aspects of the patient experience as part of moral management.

A Refuge of Cure or Care: The Sensory Dimensions of Confinement at the Worcester State Hospital, by Madeline Kearin Ryan, examines the inherent contradictions between the psychiatric theory of the asylum and the reality of its application in nineteenth century institutions. Ryan outlines a unique phenomenological perspective on the materiality of the asylum, evaluating the 'sensorial assemblage' of the asylum as both lived experience and modality of treatment. Ryan contextualizes historical socio-cultural views of psychiatry with deeply personal sensory experiences, providing a roadmap of sorts for a sensorial approach that will undoubtedly have wide-ranging applications in historical archaeology.

Author Bio

Madeline Kearin Ryan is archivist at the Worcester Historical Museum.