Isolation and mental illness in Vridsløselille 1859-1873: A new perspective on the breakthrough of the modern penitentiary

Scandinavian Journal of History

Volumn 29, Issue 1, 2004, Pages 1-25

  Smith, Peter Scharff ^a,b  

^a Danish Institute for Human Rights

^b Danish Institute for Human Rights   (Denmark)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 28744457827     PISSN: 03468755     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03468750310003091     Document Type: Review

References (35)

1. and Chr. Trydc, Cellestraffens Indvirkning paa Forbrydernes mentelle Sundhedstilstand (1871), pp. 23 f
2. See also F. Bruun, Beretning fra kontoret for Fœngselsvœsenet om Straffeanstalternes Tilstand i Tidsrummet fra 1ste Januar 1858 til 31te Marts 1863 (1868), p. 105
3. P. Scharff Smith, "A Religious Technology of the Self. Rationality and Religion in the Rise of Modern Penitentiary", Punishment & Society, vol. 6, no. 2 (2004)
4. P. Scharff Smith, "Del modcrne fængselsvæsens genncmbrud i Danmark: Opdragelse, moral og fængselskommissionen af 1840", Fortid og Nutid, no. 2 (2002), pp. 103-133
5. See also P. Scharff Smith, Moralske hospitaler. Det modcrnc fængselsvæscns gennembrud 1770-1870, Copenhagen 2003
6. Most investigations of solitary confinement report a variety of (particularly mental) damage. See, e.g., Isolationsundersøgeben (1994)
7. both by H. Steen Andersen, T. Lillebæk & D. Sestoft; I. Koch, "Isolationens psykiske og sociale følgevirkninger", in S. Ganes et al, eds. Umennskelighedens ansigter. Temabog om tortur, dødstraf isolationsfœngsling og Amnesty Internationals lœgegrupper (1983)
8. S. Grassian "Psychopathological Effects of Solitary Confinement", American Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 140, no. 2 (1983)
9. There are exceptions, see for example, Ivan Zinger, Cherarni Wichmann and D.A. Andrews "Segregation. The psychological effects of 60 days in administrative segregation", Canadian Journal of Criminology, January (2001)
10. J. C. Prichard, A Treatise on Insanity and Other Disorders Affecting the Mind (London, 1835)
11. "Survey of the clinical occurrence of the most important mental diseases for the use of doctors and students." Cf. J. Mø llerhøj, Hysteriens historie i Darnmark 1875-1918 (thesis, Department of History, Århus University, 2000), p. 60
12. Ch. Graugaard & P. Hertoft, "Hjerne og sexuel afvigelse - historiske og moderne nedslag", Psyk og Logos (1997, 18), pp. 435-456; see p. 439
13. See J. Fabricius Møller, "Nerver", in C. Due-Nielsen, ed. Historie og Historiografi. Festskrift til Inga Floto (Copenhagen, 2002)
14. F. Lange, Om Arvelighedens Indflydelse i Sindssygdommene (1883)
15. S.J. Gould, The Mismeasure of Man (London, 1992 (1981))
16. A. Kelstrup, Galskab, Psykiatri, Galebevœgelse - en skitse of galskabens og psykiatriens historie (Copenhagen, 1983)
17. V. Munck (trans. J. Clausen & P. Fr. Rist), Memoirer og Breve: Fœngselsprœsten Pastor Vilhelm Muncks optegnelser (Copenhagen, 1972 (1905- 1927))
18. Germany seems to have been a pioneer in the study of "prison psychoses", which could be caused by, among other tilings, isolation. From the 1850s and for the rest of the century there were numerous empirical studies of prisoners and mental illness in German prisons; cf. P. Nitsche & C. Wilmanns, The History of the Prison Psychoses (New York, 1912)
19. The examples are taken from the more detailed description in Peter Scharff Smith, Moralske hospitaler: Det moderne fœngselsvœsens gennembrud 1770-1870 (Copenhagen, 2003), pp. 221-232. The categorization of isolation symptoms is inspired by recent research on the harmful effects of isolation, see pp. 215-221
20. Smith, Moralske hospitaler, pp. 222 f., where other physiological reactions are described
21. See, e.g.. LAK. VS, case file no. 27/65, Wiberg's report for the financial year 1864-1865
22. Louis Pio, Erindringer fra Redaktionskontoret og Fœngslet (Copenhagen, 1975 (1877)). p. 68
23. LAK, VS, case file no. 27/65, Wiberg's report for the financial year 1864-65
24. LAK, VS, case file no. 157/63, Wiberg's report for the financial vcar 1863-1864
25. F. Bruun, Om Fuldbyrdelse af Strafarbeide (1867), p. 59
26. D. Garland, Punishment and Welfare (2001 (1985)), e.g. pp. 14 and 31 f
27. E. Kampmann, "Fængselsvæsenets udvikling gennem tiderne", in Ch. Gjerløv. ed. Dansk Politistat (1934), pp. 117 ff
28. On the view of the scicntification of masturbation, see R. A. Spitz, "Authority and Masturbation", in The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, vol. 21 (1952)
29. and also F. Bøge, "Hænderne over dynen: Den borgerlige onani-diskurs i Danmark i slutningen af 1700-tallet", Den Jyske Historiker no. 48 (1988)
30. For a deeper study of the relationship between modern prisons and the view of masturbation, see P. Scharff Smith, "Fængselshistorie, onani og sindssygdom: 1800-tallets modcrne fængselsvæsen og kampen mod kriminelle danskeres slette moral", in C. Due-Nielsen, ed. Historie og Historiografi: Festskrift til Inga Floto (Copenhagen, 2002)
31. See also Thomas W. Laqueur, Solitary Sex. A Cultural History of Masturbation, (New York, 2003)
32. For example, at the construction of Vestre Prison in 1895, see E. Carlé, Københavns fœngsler i 100 år (Nyborg, 1995). Among other things, radial exercise yards were built here. On the significance of isolation, see also pp. 41 f
33. V Kildemoes, Statsfœngslet i Vridsløelille (1959), pp. 22 f
34. E. Roy Calvert, "Prisons of Denmark", Howard Journal, June 1929, pp. 301-306
35. cited here from N. K. Teeters, World Penal Systems: A Surety (1944), p. 89