Moral and humane: patients' libraries in early nineteenth-century American mental hospitals

"Moral treatment" designates a period in American psychiatry in the first half of the nineteenth century when retreats and asylums, following the example of the York Retreat in England, began to offer humane care to the mentally ill. Patients had a close and personal relationship with the hospital superintendent or the resident physician; positive behavior was rewarded and patients were expected to exercise self-control. Moral treatment was marked by a well-ordered daily routine in which patients followed a therapeutic regimen of work and leisure activities. Reading was regarded as both therapeutic and recreational, and was highly recommended. For this reason, retreats and asylums maintained book collections and considered library services an important aspect of the patients' therapeutic program. This paper examines patients' library activities in eight early nineteenth-century mental hospitals where moral treatment was practiced.