New Jersey State Hospital at Trenton
Encyclopedia
The Trenton Psychiatric Hospital is a state run mental hospital
located in Trenton
and Ewing, New Jersey
. It previously operated under the name New Jersey State Hospital at Trenton and originally as the New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum.
Founded by Dorothea Lynde Dix on May 15, 1848, it was the first public mental hospital in the state of New Jersey, and the first mental hospital designed on the principle of the Kirkbride Plan
. The architect was the Scottish-American John Notman
.
Under the Hospital's first superintendent, Dr. Horace A. Buttolph, the hospital admitted and treated 86 patients. In 1907, Dr. Henry Cotton
became the medical director. Believing that infections were the key to mental illness, he had his staff remove teeth and various other body parts that might become infected from the hospital patients. Cotton's legacy of hundreds of fatalities and thousands of maimed and mutilated patients did not end with his leaving Trenton in 1930 or his death in 1933; in fact, removal of patients' teeth at the Trenton asylum was still the norm until 1960.
Mental Hospital
Mental hospital may refer to:*Psychiatric hospital*hospital in Nepal named Mental Hospital...
located in Trenton
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...
and Ewing, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. It previously operated under the name New Jersey State Hospital at Trenton and originally as the New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum.
Founded by Dorothea Lynde Dix on May 15, 1848, it was the first public mental hospital in the state of New Jersey, and the first mental hospital designed on the principle of 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...
. The architect was the Scottish-American John Notman
John Notman
John Notman was a Scottish-born American architect, who settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is remembered for his churches, and for popularizing the Italianate style and the use of brownstone.-Career:...
.
Under the Hospital's first superintendent, Dr. Horace A. Buttolph, the hospital admitted and treated 86 patients. In 1907, Dr. Henry Cotton
Henry Cotton (doctor)
Henry Andrews Cotton, MD was an American psychiatrist and the medical director of New Jersey State Hospital at Trenton in Trenton, New Jersey between 1907 and 1930...
became the medical director. Believing that infections were the key to mental illness, he had his staff remove teeth and various other body parts that might become infected from the hospital patients. Cotton's legacy of hundreds of fatalities and thousands of maimed and mutilated patients did not end with his leaving Trenton in 1930 or his death in 1933; in fact, removal of patients' teeth at the Trenton asylum was still the norm until 1960.
See also
- Kirkbride PlanKirkbride PlanThe 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...
- Henry Cotton (doctor)Henry Cotton (doctor)Henry Andrews Cotton, MD was an American psychiatrist and the medical director of New Jersey State Hospital at Trenton in Trenton, New Jersey between 1907 and 1930...
- Human experimentation in the United StatesHuman experimentation in the United StatesThere have been numerous experiments performed on human test subjects in the United States that have been considered unethical, and were often performed illegally, without the knowledge, consent, or informed consent of the test subjects....
- Willowbrook State SchoolWillowbrook State SchoolWillowbrook State School was a state-supported institution for children with intellectual disabilities located in the Willowbrook neighborhood of Staten Island in New York City from the 1930s until 1987....
- Greystone Park Psychiatric HospitalGreystone Park Psychiatric HospitalGreystone Park Psychiatric Hospital refers to both the former psychiatric hospital and the historic building that it occupied in Parsippany-Troy Hills Township .A new facility was built on the large Greystone campus and bears...
, the second "lunatic asylum" opened in New Jersey (1876). - Madhouse: A Tragic Tale of Megalomania and Modern MedicineMadhouse: A Tragic Tale of Megalomania and Modern MedicineMadhouse: A Tragic Tale of Megalomania and Modern Medicine is a 2005 book by the distinguished psychiatric sociologist Andrew Scull which discusses the work of controversial psychiatrist Henry Cotton at Trenton State Hospital in New Jersey in the 1920s...
External links
- Trenton Psychiatric Hospital, New Jersey Department of Human Services, Division of Mental Health Services
- http://www.rootsweb.com/~asylums/trenton_nj/
- http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/156/12/1982
- http://www.forgottenphotography.com