Alabama 811 | Know What's Below.

On This Day In Alabama History: Mental Health Pioneer Peter Bryce Died

| August 14, 2018 @ 5:00 am

By Alabama NewsCenter Staff

August 14, 1892

A native of South Carolina, Peter Bryce in 1860 became the first superintendent of what was then called the Alabama Insane Hospital (AIH) in Tuscaloosa and served for 32 years. Consistent with the predominant belief of the time, Bryce practiced “moral treatment,” which held that insanity was caused by the interplay of genetics and environmental/social factors and that these factors should be filtered out to give the mind time to “heal,” leading patients to an understanding and acceptance of “right” behavior. This was considered preferable to the forced idleness that previously characterized mental healthcare. When Bryce died at the age of 58, he was buried on the grounds of AIH, which was later renamed Bryce Hospital.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.

Please visit Alabama News Center for the Full Article

Tags:

Category: ALL POSTS, Partner News Stories

About the Author ()

Alabama News Center tels the stories of the people and businesses powering the states of Alabama, striving to make Alabama a wonderful place to live and work.

Comments are closed.