moral therapy
a form of psychotherapy from the 19th century based on the belief that a person with a mental disorder could be helped by being treated with compassion, kindness, and dignity in a clean, comfortable environment that provided freedom of movement, opportunities for occupational and social activity, and reassuring talks with physicians and attendants. This approach advocating humane and ethical treatment was a radical departure from the prevailing practice at that time of viewing the “insane” with suspicion and hostility, confining them in unsanitary conditions, and routinely abusing them through the use of such practices as mechanical restraint, physical punishment, and bloodletting. Moral therapy originated in the Gheel colony, Belgium, during the 13th century, but it came to fruition in the 19th century through the efforts of Philippe Pinel (see Salpêtrière) and Jean Esquirol (1772–1840) in France; William Tuke
(1732–1822) in England; and Benjamin Rush (1745–1813), Isaac Ray (1807–1881), and Thomas Kirkbride (1809–1883) in the United States. The therapeutic community of today has its roots in this movement. Also called moral treatment.