William Tuke:
Changing the Face of Psychological
Care
by
Rob Hutchinson
website
www.ispectrummagazine.com
W
so successful that it caused a
fundamental shift in the laws
relating to mental illness and
its treatment. The following is
the story of The Retreat and
William Tuke, both of which
played a defining part in revolutionizing age old attitudes
to mental illness and serving
as a model for how asylums
should be run.
illiam Tuke, a Yorkshire
Quaker, opened ‘The
Retreat’
in
York,
England, in 1796. Tuke was
one of the first to view mental illness as a disease from
which a sufferer could actually
recover, reflected in his treatment of patients with sympathy and dignity rather than
disgust. The Retreat became
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