The architecture of psychological management: the Irish asylums (1801-1922)

This analysis examines some of the psychological, philosophical and sociological motives behind the development of pauper lunatic asylum architecture in Ireland during the time of the Anglo-Irish union (1801-1922). Ground plans and structural features are used to define five psycho-architectonic generations. While isolation and classification were the prime objectives in the first public asylum in Ireland (1810-1814), a combination of the ideas of a psychological, 'moral', management and 'panoptic' architecture led to a radial institutional design during the next phase of construction (1817-1835). The asylums of the third generation (1845-1855) lacked 'panoptic' features but they were still intended to allow a proper 'moral' management of the inmates, and to create a therapeutic family environment. By the time the institutions of the fourth epoch were erected (1862-1869) the 'moral' treatment approach had been given up, and asylums were built to allow a psychological management by 'association'. The last institutions (1894-1922) built before Ireland's acquisition of Dominion status (1922) were intended to foster the development of a curative society.