Collection: Documents - Catalog Card

EXCERPT: So long as insanity is treated as a crime, instead of a misfortune, as our present system practically does thus treat it, the protection of our individual liberty imperatively demands such an enactment. Many contend that every person is insane on some point. On this ground, all persons are liable to be legally imprisoned, under our present system; for intelligent physicians are everywhere to be found, who will not scruple to give a certificate that an individual is a Monomaniac on that point where he differs from him in opinion! This Monomania in many instances is not insanity, but individuality, which is the highest natural development of a human being....