J Am Acad Psychiatry Law. 2013;41(3):382-90.

Isaac Ray, malpractice defendant.

Weiss KJ.

Source

Two Bala Plaza, Suite 300, Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004-1512. kenweiss@mail.med.upenn.edu.

Abstract

Isaac Ray (1807-1881), founder of American forensic psychiatry, produced his classic Treatise on the Medical Jurisprudence of Insanity in 1838. He did not begin to practice asylum medicine, however, until 1841, when he became superintendent of the Maine Insane Hospital in Augusta. There, he treated a patient, Isaac Hunt, who later sued him for malpractice and then self-published a book, Astounding Disclosures! Three Years in a Mad House, detailing alleged abuses suffered at the doctor's hands. This article recalls the incident and tracks Ray's reactions to it, the public's perception of asylums, and the tension between paternalistic asylum medicine and an emerging consumer-rights movement.