Superintendent's Office Desk
DimensionsOverall: 78 × 169.5 × 92 cm (0.78 × 1.7 × 0.92 m)
Credit LineGift from St. Joseph's Health Care London, 2008
Object number2008.005.250
Label TextServing from 1877 until his death in 1902, Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke was the London Asylum’s second medical superintendent. An advocate of Moral Therapy, Bucke’s objective was to “rehumanize” patients by giving them a sense of freedom on the grounds and then through occupational therapy a sense of purpose. Among the numerous changes he made to the Asylum he had the hospital’s window’s window bars removed and the front doors enlarged. During his tenure Dr. Bucke greatly reduced the use of mechanical and chemical restraints at the asylum. He ordered the canvas strait jackets be cut up, reduced the use of wrist and hand restraints to almost zero and found alternatives to drugs and alcohol for calming patients.
"In the twenty-three years that I have been in charge of this institution, I have demonstrated […] that neither chemical restraint, nor seclusion, nor any form of mechanical restraint is necessary in the management of lunatics." (R.M. Bucke “Report to Citizens,” 1898)
NameDesk
