Thomas Story Kirkbride
Encyclopedia
- This article is about the American PhysicianPhysicianA physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
Thomas Story Kirkbride. For the BritishGreat BritainGreat Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
writer, see Thomas StoryThomas StoryThomas Story was an English Quaker convert and friend of William Penn, whose writings were very influential to Quakers. In 1698, he visited colonial America, lectured to Quakers there, and held positions in the Pennsylvania colony.-Early life:...
.
Thomas Story Kirkbride (July 31, 1809 - December 16, 1883) was a physician, advocate for the mentally ill, and founder of the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane
Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane
The Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane, also known as The Superintendents' Association, was organized in Philadelphia in October, 1844 at a meeting of 13 superintendents, making it the first professional medical specialty organization in the U.S...
(AMSAII), a precursor to the American Psychiatric Association
American Psychiatric Association
The American Psychiatric Association is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the most influential worldwide. Its some 38,000 members are mainly American but some are international...
.
Early career
Born into a Quaker family in Morrisville, PennsylvaniaMorrisville, Pennsylvania
Morrisville is the name of some places in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania:*Morrisville, Bucks County, Pennsylvania *Morrisville, Greene County, Pennsylvania...
, Kirkbride began a study of medicine in 1831 under Dr. Nicholas Belleville, of Trenton, New Jersey
Trenton, New Jersey
Trenton is the capital of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Trenton had a population of 84,913...
when he was eighteen. After receiving a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
in 1832, Kirkbride originally sought to become a surgeon, and had his own practice from 1835 to 1840.
Psychiatry
In 1840 Kirkbride was asked to become superintendent of the newly established Pennsylvania Hospital for the InsaneThe Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital
The Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital, or Kirkbride's Hospital, was a psychiatric hospital located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that operated from its founding in 1841 until 1997...
. He accepted for largely practical reasons, as his training and experience interning at Friends' Asylum
Friends Hospital
Friends Hospital, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is recognized as one of the premier mental hospitals in the United States.Founded by Quakers in 1813 as "The Asylum for Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason," and later known as the "Frankford Asylum for the Insane," it was the first...
and at Philadelphia's Pennsylvania Hospital
Pennsylvania Hospital
Pennsylvania Hospital is a hospital in Center City, Philadelphia, affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania Health System . Founded on May 11, 1751 by Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Bond, it was the first hospital in the United States...
provided him with the necessary background for the position. As Superintendent he became one of the most prominent authorities on mental health care in the latter half of the nineteenth century.
In 1844, Kirkbride helped to found AMSAII, serving as secretary, then later as president from 1862 to 1870. Kirkbride pioneered what would be known as the Kirkbride Plan
Kirkbride Plan
The Kirkbride Plan refers to a system of mental asylum design advocated by Philadelphia psychiatrist Thomas Story Kirkbride in the mid-19th century.-History:The establishment of state mental hospitals in the U.S...
, to improve medical care for the insane, as a standardization for buildings that housed the patients.
Kirkbride's influential work, On the Construction, Organization, and General Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane with Some Remarks on Insanity and Its Treatment, was published in 1854, and again in 1880. Kirkbride had been influenced by the Quaker-founded York Retreat in England whose leader, Samuel Tuke, had published an account entitled, Practical Hints on the Construction and Economy of Pauper Lunatic Asylums (York, England, 1815). The Tuke family had instituted in their hospital a "moral treatment" approach to care for patients, which centered upon humane and kindly behavior. The Superintendents’ Association
Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane
The Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane, also known as The Superintendents' Association, was organized in Philadelphia in October, 1844 at a meeting of 13 superintendents, making it the first professional medical specialty organization in the U.S...
made efforts to institute this approach in their hospitals.
Kirkbride's ideas brought about mixed feelings in both patients and peers. Some in the medical community saw his theories and ideas as stubbornly clinging to ideals that hindered medical progress, while others supported his ideas, and saw them change the treatment philosophy for the mentally insane. In his patients, he sometimes inspired fear and anger, even to the point that one attempted to murder him, but he also believed that the mentally ill could be treated, and possibly cured, and Kirkbride actually married a former patient after his first wife died.
Kirkbride died of pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
on December 16, 1883 at his home at the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane.