by Gerald N. Grob

About the author: Gerald N. Grob is the Henry Sigerest Professor of History of Medicine at Rutgers University. He is the author of many books on mental illness, including The State and the Mentally Ill, Mental Institutions in America, Mental Illness and American Society, From Asylum to Community, and The Mad Among Us.

In mid-nineteenth-century America, the asylum was widely regarded as the symbol of an enlightened and progressive nation that no longer ignored or mistreated its insane citizens. The justification for asylums appeared self-evident: they benefited the community, the family, and the individual by offering effective psychological and medical treatment for acute cases and humane custodial care for chronic cases. In providing for the mentally ill, the state met its ethical and moral responsibilities and...