Ideology and mental health care - two historical perspectives

Two dominant caring ideologies have prevailed in mental health care over the past two centuries and are observable in modern nursing theory and practice. The first is grounded in philosophy and focuses on such issues as: "What is it to be human?"; "How should the good life be lived?" and "What conditions enable human beings to realise their potential?" The best example of this humanistic approach can be seen in the care that was provided at the York Retreat in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The second ideology is the result of the rise of biological psychiatry during and after the Second World War. Psychiatric nurses serving in the forces worked alongside doctors as autonomous practitioners and brought their considerably extended expertise back to their civilian work. This paper examines the ethos of the York Retreat and the innovative work of nurses during the Second World War and shows how they have influenced mental health nursing today.