"Elaborately conceived, grandly constructed insane asylums—ranging in appearance from classical temples to Gothic castles—were once a common sight looming on the outskirts of American towns and cities. Many of these buildings were razed long ago, and those that remain stand as grim reminders of an often cruel system. For much of the nineteenth century, however, these asylums epitomized the widely held belief among doctors and social reformers that insanity was a curable disease and that environment—architecture in particular—was the most effective means of treatment." summary courtesy of Goodreads
This subject has long been an interest of mine and I really enjoyed this book. The author goes through history, explaining how "therapeutic design" developed over the decades. The author does spend a fair amount of the book on the Kirkbride design (named for Dr. Thomas Kirkbride) was used for a long time, across the United States until interest in his plan and design had started to decline. I have always found it interesting how architectural design of these places was so closely tied to theories of treatment, and it also explains why by the end of the century, Kirkbride's design had fallen out of favor (since the medical focus was on a more neurological approach that didn't consider architecture to be relevant to treatment).
