History Of Child Psychiatry
How soon can a child go mad?” asked Henry Maudsley in his 1895 textbook The Pathology of Mind, “Obviously not before it has got some mind to go wrong, and then only in proportion to the quantity and quality of mind which it has”, alluding to the widespread belief, even at the end of the 19th century, that children’s minds were not developed and stable enough to be able to show much psychopathology.
The history of child psychiatry—a term that can mean a collection of services, a body of knowledge, and a profession is inextricably linked to the history of childhood; recognising childhood as a distinct period of development is a prerequisite to acknowledging child psychiatry as a discipline (a full chapter, J.9, is dedicated to the history of childhood in this book). Thus, the history of child psychiatry is interlocked with our understanding of development, child-rearing practices, the place of children in society, and with non-medical fields such as juvenile justice and education. For example, some...