Dorothea Lynde Dix was a 19th century reformer who worked for over 40 years, from 1841 until her death in 1887, to improve the living conditions and the therapeutic climate for the mentally ill. A brief overview of her accomplishments as a reformer is followed by a summary of the coverage of her work in textbooks in the history of psychology. Argument is examined about whether her reform work deserves more attention. Some benefits of extended coverage of her work are considered.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AnninE. L.BoringE. G.WatsonR. I.Important psychologists, 1600–1967. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 1968, 4, 303–315.
2.
BartschK.VineyW.Dorothea Dix: Positive or negative influence on treatment of the mentally ill?Paper read at Rocky Mountain Psychological Association, April 30, 1981.
3.
BeachS. C.Daughters of the Puritans. Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1905.
4.
BernsteinM. D.RussoN. F.The history of psychology revisited or, up with our foremothers. American Psychologist, 1974, 29, 130–134.
5.
BockovenJ. S.Moral treatment in community mental health. New York: Springer, 1972.
6.
BoringE. G.A history of experimental psychology. (2nd ed.) Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1950.
7.
BradyJ. P. (Ed.) Classics of American psychiatry. St. Louis: Warren H. Green, 1975.
8.
DeutschA.The mentally ill in America. (2nd ed.) New York: Columbia Univer. Press, 1949.
9.
DixD. L.Conversations on common things, or guide to knowledge with questions. Boston: Munroe & Francis, 1824.
10.
GoldensonR. M.The encyclopedia of human behavior: Psychology, psychiatry, and mental health. (2 vols.) Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1970.
MarshallH. E.Dorothea Dix, forgotten Samaritan. Chapel Hill: Univer. of North Carolina Press, 1937.
13.
MarshallH. E.Dorothea Lynde Dix. In JamesE. T. (Ed.), Notable American women 1607–1950: A biographical dictionary. (3 vols.) Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard Univer. Press, 1971. Vol. 1. Pp. 486–489.
14.
MurphyG.KovachJ. K.Historical introduction to modern psychology. (3rd ed.) New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1972.
15.
O'DonnellJ. M.The crisis of experimentalism in the 1920's: E. G. Boring and his uses of history. American Psychologist, 1979, 34, 289–295.
16.
ReismanJ. M.A history of clinical psychology. New York: Irvington, 1976.
17.
RussoN. F.O'ConnellA. N.Models from our past: Psychology's foremothers. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 1980, 5, 11–54.
18.
SnyderC. M. (Ed.) The lady and the president: The letters of Dorothea Dix and Millard Fillmore. Lexington: Univer. Press of Kentucky, 1975.
19.
TiffanyF.Life of Dorothea Lynde Dix. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1891.
20.
VineyW.WertheimerM.WertheimerM. L.History of psychology: A guide to information sources. Detroit, MI: Gale Research Co., 1979.
21.
WillardF. E.Dorothea Dix. The Chautauguan, 1889, 10, 61–66.
22.
WilsonD. C.Stranger and traveler. Boston: Little Brown, 1975.