[DOC] Faces of Hope: Babies Born on 9/11 by Christine Naman at Arts-Photography

Description

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. In The Architecture of Madness; Carla Yanni tells a compelling story of therapeutic design; from America’s earliest purpose—built institutions for the insane to the asylum construction frenzy in the second half of the century. At the center of Yanni’s inquiry is Dr. Thomas Kirkbride; a Pennsylvania-born Quaker; who in the 1840s devised a novel way to house the mentally diseased that emphasized segregation by severity of illness; ease of treatment and surveillance; and ventilation. After the Civil War; American architects designed Kirkbride-plan hospitals across the country. Before the end of the century; interest in the Kirkbride plan had begun to decline. Many of the asylums had deteriorated into human warehouses; strengthening arguments against the monolithic structures advocated by Kirkbride. At the same time; the medical profession began embracing a more neurological approach to mental disease that considered architecture as largely irrelevant to its treatment. Generously illustrated; The Architecture of Madness is a fresh and original look at the American medical establishment’s century-long preoccupation with therapeutic architecture as a way to cure social ills. Carla Yanni is associate professor of art history at Rutgers University and the author of Nature’s Museums: Victorian Science and the Architecture of Display.