A Life Apart: The Experience of Women and the Asylum Practice of Charles Doherty at British Columbia’s Provincial Hospital for the Insane, 1905–15

Abstract

Abstract. Much of the study completed on psychiatry's treatment of women, has, understandably, focused on periods when the profession was particularly interested in female insanity. This article examines the asylum lives of women when their treatment was not of particular interest. During the 10-year period that Dr. Charles Edward Doherty was head of British Columbia's Provincial Hospital for the Insane, women were excluded from the reforms that character-' ized his tenure. Instead, women's experiences were shaped largely by the care of nurses and the atmosphere of the ward itself. On the ward, nurses and patients interacted to interpret asylum olicy. In the absence of directed intervention, the informal psychiatry of war cl ' life is clearly visible through the case files of patients, and is shown to be as shaped by patient resistance, compliance, and influence as it was by the dictates of the medical superintendent.Resume. La plupart des etudes qui ont et6 faites sur le traitement psychiatrique des femmes se sont concen.bees, et olt le comprend, sur des pQiodes au cours desquelles la profession etait particuli&rement interess6e par l'alitsnation mentale feminine. Le pr&nt article examine les vies des femmes 1 l'asile quand leur traitement ne faisait pas l'objet d'un interet particulier. Durant la I periode de 10 ans oh le Dr Charles Edward Doherty fut le directeuf du British Columbia's Provincial Hospital for the Insane, les femmes etaient exclues des r6formes qui caracteridrent l'exercice de ses fonctions. En lieu et place de cela, les exp6riences des femmes etaient constitub largement par le soin des infirmieres et par llatmosph&re de la salle du service elle-meme. En ce lieu, les infirmj&res et les patients interagissaient pour interprdter la politique de l'asile. En l'absence d'intervention dirigee, la psychiatrie informelle de la vie de salle est tri% clairement visible 1 travers les dossiers de cas des patient-et l'on voit