CONCEPTS OF MENTAL ILLNESS, HEALTH AND TREATMENT: SELECTED IDEAS THAT SHAPED AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC NURSING, 1900-1960.
Contributors: University of Texas at Austin.
Published: 1988
Number of pages: 825
Subjects: Health Sciences, Mental Health.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: This study was a historical analysis of selected ideas important in the development of American psychiatric nursing from 1900 to 1960. These ideas were conceptions of mental health, of mental illness, and of treatment that influenced psychiatric nurses through effects upon their intellectual discourse, nursing roles, educational preparation, and clinical practice. The author examined such influences as Adolf Meyer, the Emmanuel Movement, psychoanalysis, mental hygiene, dynamic psychiatry, and psychosomatic medicine. The impact of somatic treatments and non-somatic treatments (e.g. milieu and group therapy) upon psychiatric nursing was also analyzed. The study included discussion of nurse authors such as Effie Taylor, Harriet Bailey, Helena Render, and Hildegard Peplau. The conceptualization of the nurse-patient relationship was a recurring theme throughout the study.

The study resulted in four conclusions. One, with the exception of the nurse-patient relationship, psychiatric nurses derived their ideas from other disciplines, primarily psychiatry. Two, psychiatric nurses became increasingly concerned with the definition and the analysis of their field. An early emphasis upon personal virtues and intuition of the nurse was replaced by a more reasoned and systematic scrutiny of psychiatric nursing. Three, the documents examined in this study reflected the formal knowledge of academics and the extent of its transmission to practitioners remains an open question. Four, the documents also revealed the needs and the values of educators more than those of rank-and-file practitioners.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-06, Section: B, page: 2121.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN, 1988.

School code: 0227.