Unfortunate Folk Essays on Mental Health Treatment, 1863-1992

In this collection of 15 studies, medical students at the University of Otago examine aspects of the early and modern history of mental health institutions in New Zealand and attitudes toward patients as unfortunate aliens to the world of reason. The final section looks at broader trends including that country's professionalisation of psychiatry, women psychiatrists, and changing ideas about the mentally ill. Photographs feature asylums and special schools and their patients and staff in various periods.

Barbara Brookes is an associate professor in the history department, University of Otago. One of her research interests is the history of medicine and her work in this field has acted as a catalyst for students. She has supervised several of the students whose work appears in this book. Jane Thomson is an independent editor who worked with Michael Reilly on another volume of student essays, When the Waves Rolled in Upon Us: Essays in Nineteenth-Centry Maori History, also published by University of Otago Press.