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History Post-confederation (1867-)

Remembrance of Patients Past

Life at the Toronto Hospital for the Insane, 1870-1940

by (author) Geoffrey Reaume

Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Initial publish date
Aug 2009
Category
Post-Confederation (1867-), Native American
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781442610750
    Publish Date
    Aug 2009
    List Price
    $45.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442659162
    Publish Date
    Dec 2000
    List Price
    $33.95

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Description

In Remembrance of Patients Past, historian Geoffrey Reaume remembers previously forgotten psychiatric patients by examining in rich detail their daily life at the Toronto Hospital for the Insane (now called the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health – CAMH) from 1870-1940. Psychiatric patients endured abuse and could lead monotonous lives inside the asylum's walls, yet these same women and men worked hard at unpaid institutional jobs for years and decades on end, created their own entertainment, even in some cases made their own clothes, while forming meaningful relationships with other patients and some staff.

 

Using first person accounts by and about patients – including letters written by inmates which were confiscated by hospital staff – Reaume weaves together a tapestry of stories about the daily lives of people confined behind brick walls that patients themselves built.

About the author

Geoffrey Reaume is assistant professor, critical disability studies, York University, and the author of Remembrance of Patients Past: Patient Life at the Toronto Hospital for the Insane, 1870-1940.

Geoffrey Reaume's profile page