Rogers, Carl Ransom - Historical Context
Historical Context
When he wrote his landmark book, Medical Inquiries and Observations upon the Diseases of the Mind, in 1812, Philadelphia physician Benjamin Rush could not have known that he would one day become known as "the father of American psychiatry." Rush, a pious and charitable Pennsylvania physician, had advocated for some time for better treatment of the mentally ill. When he wrote his book, he was 67 years of age, and he had lived through enough adventure to fill several lifetimes. An early fighter against slavery, a patriot in the Revolutionary War, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Rush's battle to defeat the great yellow fever epidemic of 1793 in the United States' then-capitol, Philadelphia, probably earned him more fame and controversy in his lifetime than the book he wrote just one year before he died.
In fact, much of the controversy surrounding...
[The entire page is 1806 words long]
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