A Quiet Haven: Quakers, Moral Treatment, and Asylum Reform (review)

Books109 A Quiet Haven: Quakers, Moral Treatment, and Asylum Reform. By Charles L. Cherry. Rutherford, Madison, Teaneck: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. London and Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1989. 240 pp., illus. $35. This work is a highly informative and intelligent survey of Quaker attitudes toward mental illness, and of Friends' largely successful attempt to put those attitudes into practice in two innovative institutions, York retreat and Friends Hospital . It covers a considerable time span, from the early activities of George Fox in curing the mentally ill, to nineteenth century controversies about the concept of "moral insanity." It also treats the development of these attitudes and techniques of treatment in the different social environments of northern England and the United States. Cherry's thesis is that the Quakers' view of mental illness should be understood less in terms of Friends' social and economic position than in terms of their religious beliefs. Summarizing the work of early theorists, primarily Michel Foucault and Andrew Scull, Cherry argues that these thinkers fail to consider "the religious background and tradition both of Quaker philosophy and Quaker benevolence. It is these factors . . . more than any abstract social manipulation, that . . . made [Friends] sensitive to the concept of mental illness" (p. 22). Having chosen to focus on Friends' psychology and spirituality, Cherry concentrates on the original doctrine ofthe Inner Light, the early Quakers' sensitivity to accusations of religious enthusiasm, and Friends' subsequent isolation and exclusivity during the eighteenth century. The most creative aspect of Friends' approach to mental illness was the policy of appealing to the voice of reason within the sick individual. William Tuke, founder of York retreat in 1792, designed the institution to provide the maximum possible stimulus for the rational and moral capacities of the patient. By compasssionate treatment, attention to individual differences, opportunities for social interaction and different forms of physical therapy (including music and baths, as well as limited use of bleeding, etc.), it was hoped that patients would gradually learn to assert rational control over their wayward impulses and terrors. Perhaps the most curious element of this regimen was the institution of regular tea parties, at which patients might re-adapt themselves to the quiet pleasures of social decorum and thereby gain a stronger sense of self. The asylums established by Friends in England and America were extremely successful, and were widely publicized and imitated on both continents. However, the doctrine of moral insanity became problematic during the nineteenth century for several reasons. Because of the expense of individualized and civilized treatment , the possibilities of expansion were limited. Moreover, the rate of cures was not encouraging to doctors and administrators, who began to theorize about the incapacity of certain inferior people to respond to the blandishments of water therapy and tea parties. Somatic theories of mental illness also acquired new legitimacy, and treatment of the mentally ill therefore became more focussed on physical treatment and simple custodial care. In these developments, Quaker leaders were disadvantaged by the absence of a true theoretical framework for their policies. Having been activated by compassion and religious faith in the light within the individual, they were unable to withstand the pressure of new professional groups who theorized about the effects of poverty or the possibilities of incurable hereditary diseases. This is not an anecdotal or social history of insanity, and the reader will look in vain for an analysis of the social background of mental patients, of extended descriptions of life inside the mental hospitals, or of the actual feelings of the 110Quaker History mentally disturbed; their familial relationships, their attitude toward prayer, their own sense of the relation between personal guilt and the judgment of the Meeting. This is unfortunate, for given the vast amount of material in Quaker archives, there is surely a wealth of literary evidence that would open up this world for the reader. Nevertheless, Charles Cherry has provided us with an immensely interesting account of the leaders of the movement, if not of the patients themselves, and his book will be a valuable addition to libraries of both scholars and non-scholars interested in the history of psychology and religion. Rutgers UniversityPhyllis Mack Guide to the Records ofPhiladelphia Yearly Meeting. Compiled...