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History (4,530 posts)

Comparing premodern melancholy/mania and modern trauma: An argument in favor of historical experiences of trauma

Historians and psychiatrists have repeatedly looked to both real and imagined individuals of the past, like Achilles and Samuel Pepys, and found evidence that they were suffering from symptoms of trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder. The assumptions that allow such historical “diagnoses” have, however, recently been called into question by philosophers such as Ian Hacking, anthropologists like Allan Young and psychiatrists such as Patrick Bracken.

An interdisciplinary meeting

This picture shows P.H.N.’s, nutritionists, nurse midwives, head group leaders of the institute and mental health consultants reviewing lesson plans, schedule of activities, the midwife certificate of registration, and birth certificate.

National Human Services Assembly


www.nassembly.org

Executives of twelve leading national social work organizations began regular monthly meetings in 1920. Formally organized in 1923, the National Social Work Council (NSWC) held meetings and conferences until 1945 when, upon revision of its by-laws, the Council expanded its functions and became the National Social Welfare Assembly.

Anna Freud (1895-1982)


Adoption History Project

In the Hampstead Nursery shelter during World War II, where Anna Freud and Dorothy Burlingham observed firsthand the damage done to children by separation and lack of attachment.

Melbourne conference of the Australian Council of Social Service (1966)


NAA A1501, A6546/1 | C Bottomley

Mr S D Gokhale, Assistant Secretary General of the International Conference of Social Work, for South-East Asia and the Western Pacific Region, believes many of Australia’s social and welfare services could be adapted to Asian needs. Mr Gokhale has been in Melbourne for the fourth annual conference of the Australian Council of Social Service. Mr Gokhale (right), seen at the Melbourne conference of the Australian Council of Social Service, with the Secretary-General of the Australian Red Cross, Mr L G Stubbings (centre), and member of the Parliament for Papua New Guinea, Mr Lepani Watson, a former social worker.

Sophie van Senden Theis (1885-1957)


Adoption History Project

Sophie van Senden Theis (left) bringing Martha to Jessie Taft (right). Also pictured are Bobby Ueland (the adopted son of Elsa Ueland, another leading social worker) and Taft’s adopted son, Everett. Sophie was the first genuine adoption professional and researcher in the history of the United States. She was best known for her pioneering outcome study, How Foster Children Turn Out, published in 1924, in which Theis documented what had become of 910 children placed in homes by the New York State Charities Aid Association between 1898 and 1922. It was the first large-scale inquiry of its kind, became the prototype for many later outcome studies, and is still cited as a landmark in the history of adoption research.

The sun rises in the west


California: Federal Art Project | Library of Congress

Poster for Federal Theatre Project presentation of “The Sun Rises in the West” at the Mayan Theatre, showing a plow among weeds and a dilapidated farm building.

Will You Be a Free Man or Chained


United States Army. Social Hygiene Division | Images from the History of Medicine

During the First World War, a tension developed between “social hygiene” reformers, who condemned illicit sexual behavior and emphasized education as the key to fighting venereal diseases, and more pragmatic medical officers who promoted prophylactic stations for the treatment of venereal diseases on military bases. This 1918 poster illustrates a common message promoted by social hygienists, who worked vigorously to close down red-light districts in American cities and to educate soldiers about refraining from sexual activity.