Chapter “The Root of All Evil is Inactivity”

This chapter focuses on the varied responses of French psychiatrists to new theories of patient occupation emerging after World War I (1914–18)

"The root of all evil is inactivity": The response of French psychiatrists to new approaches to patient work and occupation, c.1918-1939

"The root of all evil is inactivity": The response of French psychiatrists to new approaches to patient work and occupation, c.1918-193

"Crises of Confidence and Identity" Occupational Therapy during the 1960s and 1970s according to Students and Tutors of Dorset House

This study is based on a series of oral history interviews with occupational therapists who were either students or tutors at the Dorset House School of Occupational Therapy between 1956 and 1980. The research period saw occupational therapy change its focus from the teaching of arts and crafts to long-stay hospital patients to enabling people to live independent lives. During the transition period, many newly-qualified occupational therapists lacked confidence about their role and questioned the relevance of their training. The study analyses the experiences of the Dorset House alumni and the issues they faced

Work and Occupation in French and English Mental Hospitals, c.1918-1939

This open access book demonstrates that, while occupation has been used to treat the mentally disordered since the early nineteenth century, approaches to its use have varied across different countries and in different time periods. Comparing how occupation was used in French and English mental institutions between 1918 and 1939, one hundred years after the heyday of moral therapy, the book is an essential read for those researching the history of mental health and medicine more generally. It provides an overview of the legislation, management structures and financial conditions that affected mental institutions in France and England, and contributed to their differing responses to the new theories of occupational therapy emerging from the USA and Germany during the interwar period

Chapter “The Root of All Evil is Inactivity”

This chapter focuses on the varied responses of French psychiatrists to new theories of patient occupation emerging after World War I (1914–18)

“WHAT DID THEY DO ALL DAY?” PATIENT WORK, PSYCHIATRY AND SOCIETY IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND, c.1918-1939

This study compares patient occupation in English and French mental hospitals between 1918 and 1939, a period that witnessed the transfer of new ideas concerning occupational therapy from Germany and the USA. Examining the different socio-economic, cultural and medical influences on patient occupation in both metropolitan and provincial mental hospitals, the study assesses the varied rationale for its prescription by psychiatrists. It is argued that the different professional trajectories of French and English psychiatry led to different responses to the new theories of occupation. It is also argued that for the new methods of occupational therapy to be successfully introduced, certain conditions had to be met. These conditions, which included medical directorship of institutions, skilled nursing, a focus on active treatment rather than custodial care, favourable staff to patient ratios, adequate financial resources, and freedom from overcrowding, were met differently in France and England. The comparative methodology utilised in this study has suggested that French psychiatry’s close alliance with the more prestigious discipline of neurology led to an interpretation of mental disorder that did not embrace psychological methods of treatment, such as occupation, for acutely ill patients. In France, occupation in the form of work around the hospital remained the preserve of the chronically ill and convalescent patients, and continued to be regarded as an essential means of offsetting institutional running costs, as it had been before World War I. In England, on the other hand, occupational therapy was welcomed as an effective means of re-educating the mentally ill and of engaging patients at all stages of their illness

Work and occupation in French and English mental hospitals, c.1918-1939

This open access book demonstrates that, while occupation has been used to treat the mentally disordered since the early nineteenth century, approaches to its use have varied across different countries and in different time periods. Comparing how occupation was used in French and English mental institutions between 1918 and 1939, one hundred years after the heyday of moral therapy, the book is an essential read for those researching the history of mental health and medicine more generally. It provides an overview of the legislation, management structures and financial conditions that affected mental institutions in France and England, and contributed to their differing responses to the new theories of occupational therapy emerging from the USA and Germany during the interwar period. -- Provided by publisher

Clinical features of the pathogenic m.5540G>A mitochondrial transfer RNA tryptophan gene mutation

AbstractMitochondrial DNA disease is one of the most common groups of inherited neuromuscular disorders and frequently associated with marked phenotypic and genotypic heterogeneity. We describe an adult patient who initially presented with childhood-onset ataxia without a family history and an unremarkable diagnostic muscle biopsy. Subsequent multi-system manifestations included basal ganglia calcification, proteinuria, cataract and retinitis pigmentosa, prompting a repeat muscle biopsy that showed features consistent with mitochondrial myopathy 13 years later. She had a stroke with restricted diffusion change in the basal ganglia and internal capsule at age 44 years. Molecular genetic testing identified a previously-reported pathogenic, heteroplasmic mutation in the mitochondrial-encoded transfer RNA tryptophan (MT-TW) gene which based on family studies was likely to have arisen de novo in our patient. Interestingly, we documented an increase in the mutant mtDNA heteroplasmy level in her second biopsy (72% compared to 56%), reflecting the progression of clinical disease

Drama: social dreaming in the twenty-first century

This chapter illuminates the practice of a group of highly experienced drama teachers working with children and pre-service education students. The case studies chosen for inclusion here look at two very distinctive approaches to drama practice---a drama workshop, based on a rich and compelling 'pre-text', Fox, winner of the 2001 Children's Book Council Award; and the development of a multi-layered dramatic event redolent with iearnlng possibilities across a number of disciplines. The case studies are framed with a brief overview of some key principles of drama education: the place of dramatic play; dramatic elements; and embodied iearning; and a series of questions, activities, and provocations designed to broaden and extend the way the newcomer to drama teaching might think about possible applications of drama in the classroom