“Of unsound mind”: a history of three Eastern Cape mental institutions, 1875-1910

This thesis investigates the origins, development and consolidation of a regional network of three publicly funded and regulated mental institutions in the colonial Eastern Cape, between the years 1875 to 1910. Fort England asylum in Grahamstown was established in 1875. Port Alfred asylum followed in 1889 and the Fort Beaufort institution was opened in 1894. Each asylum retained its own distinctive character and function based on the nature of its patient population. Although geographically dispersed the asylums were intimately connected to each other, forming one integrated system to treat and manage the mentally ill. This thesis critically examines the changing patterns of care in these Eastern Cape institutions, during an important period of social, economic and political change in the Cape Colony. It traces the social and ideological construction of mental illness that was shaped by the racial, class and gendered hierarchies of colonial society. Based on empirical research, this thesis draws on Foucault's insights into the character and uses of disciplinary power implicated in the production of 'regimes of truth' about the mentally ill. The Eastern Cape institutions provide an important record of the ways in which the power invested in psychiatric theory and practice was exercised in a colonial context. In a moment hailed for its reform and progress in the treatment and care of mental illness, strategies for the exclusion, regulation and control of black mental patients were expanded in these Eastern Cape institutions. The major legacy in the treatment of mental illness in the Eastern Cape was the establishment of a system of control for black patients that was to inform future policy decisions after Union.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Historical Studies

Year dc:date.issued

2001

Author dc:creator

• Swanson, Felicity

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Mager, Anne

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/9712

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/9712