Asylum on the Hill : History of a Healing Landscape /

This well-written, accurately researched historical work tells the story of the Athens Lunatic Asylum. Built in southeastern Ohio after the Civil War, the asylum was considered the "gold standard" of the moral treatment philosophy of the 19th century. Ziff, a psychiatric historian and mental health counselor, describes the institution's origins as well as the patients, families, caretakers, and treatment within the therapeutic community. This is a work that brings the reader inside the life and times of patient care in Ohio. Asylum on the Hill is highly readable, enlightening, and for those who currently work in the field of psychiatry, the story is familiar and somewhat poignant. In the early 20th century, moral treatment was dismissed in favor of "scientific" management. Nonetheless, many of the institution's ideals and approaches to care remain feasible. The Athens Lunatic Asylum remains today as a complex of buildings called "The Ridges." This fascinating book will be informative to a wide range of readers in psychiatry, as well as to the general reader. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through professionals; general audiences. D. B. Hamilton emerita, Western Michigan University