Thomas Story Kirkbride

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Thomas Story Kirkbride

Thomas Kirkbride, M.D. From the collections of the National Library of Medicine.
Born July 31, 1809(1809-07-31)
Morrisville, Pennsylvania
Died December 16, 1883 (aged 74)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Nationality American
Occupation Physician
Known for Superintendent of Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane

Thomas Story Kirkbride (July 31, 1809 - December 16, 1883) was a physician, an alieniest, advocate for the mentally ill, founder of the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane (AMSAII), a precursor to the American Psychiatric Association [1], as well the first Superintendent of the Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital. Dr. Kirkbride is regarded as being one of the fathers of American Psychiatry, along with that of Dr. Benjamin Rush. He is best remembered for the design of 19th century psychiatric hospitals, which bear his name.

Early Life

Thomas Kirkbride was born into a Quaker family in a farmhouse in Morrisville, PA. Both brancehes of his family were some of the earliest English settlers of the Delaware Valley region, who came to the Americas with William Penn in the late 17th century. His father's parents were of the country of "Kirkbride' in Cumberland County, England. Upon Settling in America they established a plantation in lower Bucsk County, which remainsed family property until it was sold in 1867. His father, John Kirkbride (d.1864), built the house which Thomas lived in as a child on the family estate. His mother, Elizabeth Story, was a resident of Newtown Township.

After attending a local private school in his neighborhood in Morrisville, he attended a classical school in Trenton, NJ, across the river from his home. Afterwards, he spent a year specialized in Mathetmatics in a school in Burlington, NJ. After this intial preliminary education, he spent a year on his father's farm in Morrisville, which he later related was beneficial for his long-term health. During this time he read a treatise by Dr. Nicholas Belleville, a French surgeon who had come to the United States with Lafayette during the American Revolution, and who was residing in Trenton, NJ. In 1831, Thomas Kirkbride began his medical education under Dr. Belleville, when he was eighteen.[2][3] After receiving a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1832, Kirkbride did his residency at Friends Hospital in Philadelphia. Follwong which, he was briefly employed at Pennsylvania Hospital as part of their regular medical staff, from 1833-185. It was originally his intention to become a surgeon, and shortly thereafter he had his own practice in Philadelphia, lasting from 1835 until 1840.[2][3]

In 1839, he married Ann West, daughter of Joseph R. Jenks, a wealthy Philadelphia merchant, and Manager of Pennsylvania Hospital. SHe woudl bear him a daughter and a son, before her death in 1862.

Psychiatry

In 1840 Kirkbride was asked to become superintendent of the newly established Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane.[3] He accepted for largely practical reasons, as his training and experience interning at Friends' Asylum and at Philadelphia's Pennsylvania Hospital provided him with the necessary background for the position.[2] As Superintendent he became one of the most prominent authorities on mental health care in the latter half of the nineteenth century.[1][2]

In 1844, Kirkbride helped to found AMSAII, serving as secretary, then later as president from 1862 to 1870.[4] Kirkbride pioneered what would be known as the Kirkbride Plan, to improve medical care for the insane, as a standardization for buildings that housed the patients.[5]

Kirkbride's influential work, On the Construction, Organization, and General Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane with Some Remarks on Insanity and Its Treatment, was published in 1854, and again in 1880.[2] Kirkbride had been influenced by the Quaker-founded York Retreat in England whose leader, Samuel Tuke, had published an account entitled, Practical Hints on the Construction and Economy of Pauper Lunatic Asylums (York, England, 1815). The Tuke family had instituted in their hospital a "moral treatment" approach to care for patients, which centered upon humane and kindly behavior.[2] The Superintendents’ Association made efforts to institute this approach in their hospitals.[2]

Kirkbride's ideas brought about mixed feelings in both patients and peers.[4][2] Some in the medical community saw his theories and ideas as stubbornly clinging to ideals that hindered medical progress,[4] while others supported his ideas, and saw them change the treatment philosophy for the mentally insane.[5] In his patients, he sometimes inspired fear and anger, even to the point that one attempted to murder him,[4] but he also believed that the mentally ill could be treated, and possibly cured, and Kirkbride actually married a former patient after his first wife died.[4][2]

Kirkbride died of pneumonia on December 16, 1883 at his home at the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane.[4]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 [1]
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 The Art of Asylum-Keeping: Thomas Story Kirkbride and the origins of American Psychiatry by Tomes, Nancy, University of Pennsylvania Press
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 [2] Kirkbride's Hospital, University City Historical Society, by Richard E. Greenwood
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named bio
  5. 5.0 5.1 [3], Building as Cure, by Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, TALA

External links