title: Crimes, follies and misfortunes in the history of australasian psychiatry.
abstract: The value of the study of Australian psychiatric history is discussed. The administration of the lunatic asylums during the first 120 years of settlement and some of the prevailing conditions are reviewed. A number of famous persons, both doctors and patients, are mentioned and the progress of the practice of psychiatry is followed. Some important psychiatric aspects of Australian history which might have been more thoroughly studied are described. In particular these are crime and punishment, alcoholism, and the crises associated with transportation, malnutrition and the gold rush. Lastly, it is suggested that a number of historical researches associated with psychiatry need to be undertaken before the important existing connections with the past are lost.
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000266:history*