Historical Background Clinical Psychology PDF

Historical Background Clinical Psychology Origins of the Field In the 1700s and 1800s, the mentally ill were generally viewed and treated much more unfavorably than they are today. The mentally ill were understood to be possessed by evil spirits. Or, they were seen as deserving of thei...

Historical Background Clinical Psychology Origins of the Field In the 1700s and 1800s, the mentally ill were generally viewed and treated much more unfavorably than they are today. The mentally ill were understood to be possessed by evil spirits. Or, they were seen as deserving of their symptoms as a consequence of some reprehensible action or characteristic. Origins of During this time, numerous individuals of various professional backgrounds from Europe and North the Field America assumed the challenge of improving the way people with psychological problems were regarded and treated. William Tuke (1732–1822) Tuke devoted much of his life to improving these conditions. York Retreat → a residential treatment center where the mentally ill would always be cared for with kindness, dignity, and decency Patients received good food, frequent exercise, and friendly interactions with staff. Became an example of humane treatment, and soon similar institutions opened throughout Europe and the United States.  What William Tuke was to England, Philippe Pinel was to France—a liberator of the mentally ill Pinel worked successfully to move mentally ill individuals out of dungeons in Paris, Philippe where they were held as inmates rather than Pinel (1745– treated as patients. 1826) He created new institutions in which patients were not kept in chains or beaten but, rather, were given healthy food and benevolent treatment.  Pinel advocated for the staff to include in their treatment of each patient a case history, ongoing treatment notes, and an illness classification of some kind—components of care that suggested he Philippe was genuinely interested in improving these individuals rather than locking them away. From Pinel’s Treatise on Insanity in 1806, we get a Pinel sense of his goal of empathy rather than cruelty for the mentally ill: (1745– “To rule [the mentally ill] with a rod of iron, as if to shorten the term of an existence 1826) considered miserable, is a system of superintendence, more distinguished for its convenience than for its humanity or success” Eli Todd (1769–1833) Todd was a physician in Connecticut in 1800, a time when only three states had hospitals for the mentally ill. Todd had learned about Pinel’s efforts in France, and he spread the word among his own medical colleagues in the United States. Eli Todd (1769–1833) Todd was able to raise funds to open The Retreat in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1824. Todd ensured that patients at The Retreat were always treated in a humane and dignified way. He and his staff emphasized patients’ strengths rather than weaknesses, and they allowed patients to have significant input in their own treatment decisions. Dorothea Dix (1802– 1887) In 1841, Dorothea Dix was working as a Sunday school teacher in a jail in Boston, where she saw firsthand that many of the inmates were there as a result of mental illness or retardation rather than crime. She would travel to a city, collect data on its treatment of the mentally ill, present her data to local community leaders, and persuade them to treat the mentally ill more humanely and adequately. Dorothea Dix (1802– 1887) She repeated this pattern again and again, in city after city, with remarkable success. Her efforts resulted in the establishment of more than 30 state institutions for the mentally ill throughout the United States Lightner Witmer and the Creation of Clinical Psychology At the time Witmer received his doctorate, psychology was essentially an academic Lightner Witmer (1867–1956) was born in discipline, a field of research. It had almost Philadelphia and earned an undergraduate none of the applied functions that degree in business at the University of characterize the field today. In short, in the Pennsylvania. He eventually received his late 1800s, psychologists didn’t practice doctorate in psychology in 1892 in psychology, they studied it Germany under Wilhelm Wundt Lightner Witmer and the Creation of Clinical Psychology In 1896, he founded the first psychological clinic at the University of Pennsylvania, where he had returned as a professor This was the first time that the science of psychology was systematically and intentionally applied to people’s problems. Decades later, though, clinical settings would certainly proliferate. By 1914, there were about 20 psychological clinics in the United States, most of which were modeled on Witmer’s Lightner Witmer and the Creation of Clinical Psychology In addition to establishing his clinic, Witmer also founded the first scholarly journal in the field (called The Psychological Clinic) in 1907. Witmer authored the first article, titled “Clinical Psychology,” in the first issue. This article included the first known publication of the term clinical psychology, as well as a definition of the term and an explanation of the need for its existence and growth