Featured Speakers
From Incarceration to Therapeutics in the Friends’ Asylum: Treating Philadelphia’s ‘Insane’ in the 19th Century
Dr. Darin Hayton
Associate Professor of the History of Science
Haverford College
Date: Tuesday, October 5, 2021
From prisons to asylums, iron was an essential material in institutions that sought to confine people, to incarcerate individuals deemed dangerous to society and, perhaps secondarily, themselves. Iron protected sane, rational people, by depriving the insane and irrational from the freedom of movement. In the early nineteenth century, Philadelphia Quakers established a new asylum just north of the city, the Friends’ Asylum. They imagined this asylum as an institution that rehabilitated patients, who could then return to society. For these Quakers, the asylum was no longer a place of confinement but was, instead, a home that sought restore people to their natural state of sanity. Central to their restorative program and to their asylum was iron.
By looking closely at the attention the Quakers paid to iron in the process of planning and constructing the Friends’ Asylum we can see how they recast iron from a material of imprisonment into a material of emancipation. Although they seem to deploy iron in traditional ways — e.g., as locks and shackles, on windows — their conception of the metal transformed it into an essential element of their therapeutics.
If we listen in on their planning meetings, their negotiations with local craftsmen and carpenters, and correspondence with the U.S. patent office, if we watch as they build their asylum, and if we linger as they begin admitting patients, we can begin to understand how they created a new material, a sort of therapeutic iron.
Mental Health and Academics: Tips and Strategies for College Students
Date: Tuesday, October 5, 2021
Health sciences students face extreme levels of anxiety, stress, depression, and more, often affecting their performance in the classroom or their relationships both inside and outside of school. For all students, college life comes with new challenges, risks, and responsibilities which can increase the risk for mental health problems.
Whether you have a diagnosed condition or not, your mental health should not impact your right to an education. This panel brings together experts and scholars who will share their stories, tips for self-care, and resources for more assistance. You'll meet the following people:
Janie Egan, MPH, CHES, Mental Well-Being Program Coordinator, Temple University Wellness Resource Center
Hannah Roach, Lewis Katz School of Medicine, Class of 2023
Janet A. Castellini, MSS, LCSW., Personal Counseling Services for the Lewis Katz School of Medicine
Jen Rowe, MA, LPC, Student Services Coordinator, Disability Resources and Services
#FreeBritney: A Case Study in Care vs. Custody
This event has been canceled.
Giving Asylum to Those Who Need It
Dr. Dominic Sisti
Director of the Scattergood Program for Applied Ethics in Behavioral Health Care; Assistant Professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy
University of Pennsylvania
Date: Thursday, October 7, 2021
The history of psychiatric confinement in the US and Europe is punctuated with scenes of dungeons, snake pits, and hellholes. While the aims of historic reformers like Dorthea Dix were ethically laudable, their vision was quickly overtaken by social and financial forces that transformed the early asylums into custodial institutions used to warehouse hundreds of thousands of people suffering with various mental, physical, and intellectual disabilities. In theory, the widespread closure of psychiatric institutions was generally welcomed. In practice, however, the loss of psychiatric hospitals—coupled with unmet investments in community psychiatry—led to new significant social, juridical, and healthcare challenges. In this talk, Dr. Sisti will discuss how deinstitutionalization and mass incarceration are related and how racism in both criminal justice and psychiatry accelerated the criminalization of mental illness. He will present ideas for addressing this ongoing and catastrophic failure of our society to care for our most vulnerable citizens.