Book Review: Ada English: Patriot and Psychiatrist
2015; Bridgewater State University; Volume: 16; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1539-8706
Autores Tópico(s)Interpreting and Communication in Healthcare
ResumoAda English: Patriot and Psychiatrist Brendan Kelly, 2014. Irish academic press: Kildare. 170 pages. photographs, appendix, index included. For decades, and even centuries, men have dominated the field of medicine in the country of Ireland. The underrepresentation of females in the medical sciences has been a topic of several research studies, debates, and political conversations. Despite the overpopulation of men in the many branches of medical science, throughout the pages of Ireland's history, several women have populated pursued the profession, impacting medical advancements and etching a permanent place in Ireland's history of medicine. Dr. Ada English, patriot and psychiatrist, is just one of Ireland's many remarkable women who contributed to the advancement of medicine, most notably in the branch of psychiatry, during an exceptionally challenging period in Ireland's history. In his work, Ada English: Patriot and Psychiatrist, Brendan Kelly, associate clinical professor of psychiatry at University College Dublin, highlights the accomplishments of Dr. English, bringing to light her contributions, politically and socially, to the field of psychiatry and asylum work. Her history, as told by Kelly, is intertwined with Ireland's political history, social history, and public health history. One of the first generation of female medical students in Ireland, Ada English completed her medical training in Dublin, and graduated a doctor from Royal University 1903. (1) English spent the beginning of her career deeply engaged in revolutionary politics, becoming a senior member Cumann na mBan a Republican women's paramilitary organization founded in 1914. (2) She also became involved politically in Ireland's revolutionary war, and dedicated herself to the cause of Irish nationalism to the point of court-martial and imprisonment in the Galway jail during the civil war. (3) Kelly notes that alongside her political involvement, and for the bulk of her medical career, English worked first as an assistant medical officer (and eventually resident medical superintendent) for the Ballinsloe District Asylum, where in addition to caring for her patients, she advocated for better mental health services and care of asylum patients. Kelly details English's accomplishments in asylum work in the later portions of Ada English. Utilizing numerous historical sources, he describes English's remarkable ability to care for asylum patients and her efforts to reform the treatment of patients in this field. Alongside her contributions, Kelly also provides readers with a brief, but detailed history of treatments used in Ireland's asylums during the end of the eighteenth century through the first half of the twentieth century. He also describes how English championed the movement for occupational therapy, as Ballinasloe, the asylum in which she worked for four decades, adopted this type of therapy during her time there. Kelly notes that English especially concerned that asylum patients should be gainfully occupied and worked to incorporate many activities, among them farming, to fulfill this need. (4) According to Kelly, Ada English developed occupational therapy to a high degree promoted sports, entertainment, and interaction for patients . (5) Through his exhaustive study, Kelly's work in Ada English Patriot and Psychiatrist demonstrates that English recognized Irelands monolithic asylum system and worked tirelessly to reform it over the course of her lifetime. (6) English also became associated with infant healthcare, and public health, though Kelly only mentions her involvement briefly during his biography. (7) Ada English: Patriot and Psychiatrist is not only a comprehensive examination of one women's contributions to field of psychiatry, but also serves as a brief history of the social and political events surrounding English's life, chief among them Irelands War of Independence. According to Kelly, throughout the war, and for most of the remainder of her life, English was very active on the political arena. …
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