Biomedical subjects

A S Luchins

Publications and source records attributed to A S Luchins.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1993

Social control doctrines of mental illness and the medical profession in nineteenth-century America.

Social control doctrines of mental disorders have influenced a generation of psychologists and have shaped attitudes and discussions about how to treat the mentally ill. In light of the failure of deinstitutionalization as a public policy and the contemporary concern with the medical or biological bases of psychiatric disorders, this paper re-examines social control doctrines. Reviewing mid-nineteenth century statistical accounts, the author challenges claims of social control theorists and shows that in recent years some former social control advocates and revisionists have "recanted" and criticized their earlier use of the concept of social control, particularly the characterization of the asylum as a "total institution."

Health Policy↗

PubMed1989

Moral treatment in asylums and general hospitals in 19th-century America.

Moral treatment, a therapeutic approach that emphasized character and spiritual development, and called for kindness on the part of all who came in contact with the patient, flourished in American mental hospitals during the first half of the 19th century. Many of its essential features also existed then in the treatment of physical illness in American general hospitals. Changing social and welfare services and advances in scientific medicine contributed to a subsequent decline in moral treatment and to a divergence between the therapeutic approaches of the two kinds of hospitals. In recent years, there has been a gradual convergence in their treatment modes. Contemporary social and welfare services are contrasted with traditional moral treatment.

Deinstitutionalization↗

PubMed1988

The rise and decline of the American asylum movement in the 19th century.

This paper traces the history of the American public asylum from the 1840s through the late 19th century. The focus is on social factors that contributed to the establishment of public institutions at the urging of reformers, the attempts to model them on the architecture and "moral treatment" offered by the best private institutions, the crowding of the asylums, the growing criticism aimed at the asylums and their superintendents, and the effects of calls for other approaches and for scientific management. Knowledge of the asylum's history may be useful today, as we stand at the crossroads in the treatment of the mentally ill.

History, 19th Century↗

PubMed1984

Psychotic patients' impressions of a person from written descriptions.

The present study examined the impressions of personality formed from written descriptions of behavior by over 200 hospitalized male schizophrenics, tested individually when they seemed in contact with reality. One description was of extrovert (E) behavior by a youth named Jim; another was of his introvert (I) behavior in similar settings. Combined communications gave one description immediately after the other. After 150 patients read one of the communications, they were generally willing and able to respond to a 36-item questionnaire about Jim. This also occurred when 96 patients were asked to answer it before any communication, on the basis of their expectations about Jim; 56 subsequently received a communication, followed by readministration of the questionnaire. Patients' responses, before or after the communications, revealed few pathological signs and, like those of normal Ss, could usually be classified as E or I. Patients had less differential effects, and far fewer I responses than normal Ss. Patients and normals showed preconceptions of Jim as extrovertive. Results were discussed in light of the projective hypothesis and other theories.

Communication↗

PubMed1979

Geometric problem solving related to differences in sex and mathematical interests.

Sex differences in Einstellung Effects were confounded by attitudinal factors. Hypothesizing that this was the case for spatial visualization and restructurization, we compared male and female college students' solutions of three elementary geometric problems. Used by Max Wertheimer to study productive thinking, they call for a Gestalt, spatial approach. In group administration to 86 calculus students, males did somewhat better than females, but the reverse held in classes where most women majored in mathematics. Individual administration to 200 Ss, balanced for sex and major, showed that female mathematics majors had more solutions than other females: e.g., 51 percent more compared to 26 percent sex differences. Four hints were available for restructuring each problem. The percentage needing all four hints was highest for male nonmathematics major and next highest for female mathematics majors (e.g., 75 and 23 percent, respectively). Embarrassment at needing hints in such "easy problems" and ego-involvement were factors. Thus, sex differences were less pronounced than differences related to mathematical abilities and interests and to task-and ego-concerns.

Adult↗

PubMed1970