Introduction

In this course, we consider some of the issues raised by Howard Mitchell who has made a special study of Lennox Castle Hospital, about ten miles from Glasgow at Lennoxtown. His study is the subject of the video clips that accompany this block. Lennox Castle Hospital belongs to the period of the 1920s and 1930s when separate provision for people with learning difficulties was being developed following the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act. In this course tries to make sense of the history of Lennox Castle, and of institutional life in general, through the testimony of those who experienced institutions as inmates and as nurses, as well as through Erving Goffman's model of the 'total institution'. It examines the social bases of segregation, the professionalization of staff in asylums and institutions, and campaigns for change in the treatment of those segregated from society in institutions.