William A. F. Browne
Encyclopedia
Dr William A. F. Browne was one of the most significant psychiatrists of the nineteenth century. At Montrose Asylum
(1834–1838) and, later, at Crichton Royal in Dumfries
(1838–1857), Browne introduced activities for patients including writing, art, group activity and drama, pioneered early forms of occupational therapy
and art therapy
, and initiated one of the earliest collections of artistic work by patients in a psychiatric hospital
. In 1857, Browne was appointed Commissioner in Lunacy for Scotland and, in 1866, he was elected the first President of the Medico-Psychological Association, now the Royal College of Psychiatrists
.
As a medical student, Browne had been fascinated by phrenology
and Lamarckian evolution, joining the Edinburgh Phrenological Society
on 1st April 1824, and taking an active part in the Plinian Society
with Robert Edmond Grant
and Charles Darwin
in 1826 and the Spring of 1827. Here, Browne presented materialist concepts of the mind as a process of the brain. Browne's amalgamation of phrenology with Lamarckian concepts of evolution anticipated - by some years - the approach of Robert Chambers
in his Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation
(1844). The furious arguments which Browne engendered at the Plinian Society in 1826/1827 gave ample warning to Charles Darwin
, then aged 17/18, of the imminent controversies between science and Christian beliefs.
, Browne was a Radical
, welcoming the changes in revolutionary France, and supporting democratic reform to overturn the dominance of the church, monarchy, and aristocracy. As a disciple of George Combe
, Browne was an outspoken advocate of phrenology
which George and Andrew Combe
had developed into a form of materialism
, a reductionist
philosophy asserting that the mind was an outcome of material properties of the brain. Through phrenological meetings, Browne became acquainted with a remarkable group of secular and interdisciplinary thinkers, including Hewett Cottrell Watson and Robert Chambers
, author of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation
. His interest in natural history
led to his membership of the Plinian Society
, where he took part in vigorous debates concerning phrenology and early evolutionary theories and became one of the five joint presidents of this student club. At the Edinburgh Phrenological Society
George Combe gave a toast to Browne for his success in proselytising
other students.
Browne also presented Plinian papers on various subjects, including plants he had collected, the habits of the cuckoo
, the aurora borealis
, and ghosts. On 21 November 1826, he proposed Charles Darwin
for membership of the Plinian Society. On the same evening, Browne announced a paper which he presented in December 1826, contesting Charles Bell
's Anatomy and Philosophy of Expression. Bell, an enormously influential neurologist, claimed, in line with the principles of natural theology
, that the Creator had endowed human beings with a unique facial musculature which enabled them to express their higher moral nature in a way which was impossible in animals. Bell's aphorism on the subject was: "expression is to the passions as language is to thought". Browne argued that these anatomical differences were lacking and that such essential differences between human beings and animals did not exist. Forty-five years later, Darwin pursued an identical argument in his The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
(1872), confiding in Alfred Russel Wallace
that one of his main wishes was to upset the slippery arguments of Sir Charles Bell
.
Later, at a Plinian meeting on 27 March 1827, Browne followed Darwin's presentation of a paper on marine invertebrates and Dr Robert Edmund Grant's exposition on sea-mats
by presenting the argument that mind and consciousness were simply aspects of brain activity. This carefully arranged programme of three papers presented an ascending view of life's complexities from the marine invertebrates beloved of Grant to the ultimate mysteries of human consciousness, all on a scientific platform of biological development
. This, of course, contradicted religious beliefs that life was a supernatural gift and that the mind was an incorporeal entity. In addition, Browne appeared to present a view of the world which was politically and morally at odds with the opinions of the religious establishment. A furious debate ensued, and subsequently someone (possibly the crypto-Lamarckian Robert Jameson
, Regius Professor of Natural History) took the extraordinary step of deleting the minutes of this heretical part of the discussion. The extreme impact of these discussions is indicated by the fact that John Coldstream
suffered a psychiatric illness which his doctor attributed to his being "troubled with doubts arising from certain Materialist views which are, alas!, all too common among medical students".
After graduating at Edinburgh, Browne travelled to Paris and studied psychiatry
with Jean-Étienne Dominique Esquirol
.
at Stirling
in 1830, and gave lectures on physiology
and zoology
at the Edinburgh Association which was formed in 1832 by the town's tradesmen. In 1832-1834, Browne published a lengthy paper in the Phrenological Journal concerning the relationship of language to mental disorder and in 1834 he was appointed superintendent of Montrose Lunatic Asylum
, where he advocated the idea that mental illness had a material basis as a fault of the brain. On 24 June 1834, Browne married Magdalene Balfour, from one of Scotland's foremost scientific families and sister of John Hutton Balfour
(1808–1884), and they were to have eight children, the second of whom was James Crichton-Browne
(1840–1938), the eminent psychiatrist. Browne gave frequent lectures on the reform of mental institutions. In 1837, five of his lectures were published with the title What Asylums Were, Are, and Ought To Be, setting out his ideas of the ideal asylum of the future and, in many ways, Browne sought to arrest - or even to reverse - the social consequences of industrialisation which had disrupted the Scotland of his childhood. :
In this enormously influential book, Browne agreed with the contemporary perception that insanity was associated with civilisation, and claimed that insanity was increasing because, "as we recede, step by step, from the simple... manners of our ancestors, and advance in industry and knowledge and happiness, this malignant persecutor strides onward, signalizing every era... by an increase, a new hecatomb, of victims." He supported the idea that hereditary insanity was most prevalent amongst the highest rank of society and he concluded that "the agricultural population..... is to a great degree exempt from insanity". He speculated that insanity was common in America because "the refuse of other nations has been poured forth. ... the tide of population, which has been flowing for so many years uninterruptedly towards America, has been impure and poisoned." He also suggested that the higher incidence of mental illness amongst women was the result of inequalities and poorer education. On the basis of his studies of inmates of his hospital, he asserted that those canonised in the past as saint
s for their hyperactive organ of veneration would now be categorised as insane.
In 1838 the wealthy philanthropist Elizabeth Crichton persuaded Browne to accept the position of physician superintendent of her newly constructed Crichton Royal Hospital in Dumfries
. Here he encouraged his patients with writing, art and drama and a host of other activities, long anticipating the ideas of occupational therapy
and art therapy
. In 1855, the Crichton was visited by the celebrated American reformer Dorothea Dix
and she seems to have struck up a positive relationship with Magdalene Browne, taking an interest in her traditional Scottish cuisine, before moving on to her Edinburgh friends, Mr and Mrs Robert Chambers
. Browne remained at the Crichton until 1857 when his outstanding reputation resulted in his appointment as the first Medical Commissioner to the Scottish asylums. In 1866, he was elected the first President of the Medico-Psychological Association, and he used his Presidential Address as an opportunity to spell out (at considerable length) his concepts of medical psychology.
In 1870, while visiting asylums in East Lothian, Browne was involved in a road accident which resulted in his resignation as Commissioner in Lunacy, and, later, in increasing problems with his eyesight. He may have been suffering some ophthalmic problems, probably glaucoma, from years earlier. Browne retired to his home in Dumfries and worked on a series of medico-literary projects, including the Religio Psycho-Medici (1877), in which he re-explored the territories of psychopathology and the religious outlook.
In 1839, Browne had initiated one of the first collections of art by mental patients in institutions, gathering a large amount of work which he had bound into three volumes, in many ways a forerunner of Hans Prinzhorn
's Artistry of the Mentally Ill
and the academic study of outsider art
(art brut). A paper by Browne on Mad Artists was published in 1880 in the Journal of Psychological Medicine and Mental Pathology, setting out his views on mental illness and the effect it had on established artists. Browne's last years were clouded by the death of his wife in January 1882 and by his increasing blindness; but he lived to hear of his son's achievements in medical psychology rewarded by his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Sunnyside Royal Hospital
Sunnyside Royal Hospital is a psychiatric hospital located in Hillside, north of Montrose, Scotland. The hospital was originally founded in 1781 by Susan Carnegie as Montrose Lunatic Asylum, Infirmary & Dispensary and obtained a Royal Charter in 1810...
(1834–1838) and, later, at Crichton Royal in Dumfries
Dumfries
Dumfries is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth. Dumfries was the county town of the former county of Dumfriesshire. Dumfries is nicknamed Queen of the South...
(1838–1857), Browne introduced activities for patients including writing, art, group activity and drama, pioneered early forms of occupational therapy
Occupational therapy
Occupational therapy is a discipline that aims to promote health by enabling people to perform meaningful and purposeful activities. Occupational therapists work with individuals who suffer from a mentally, physically, developmentally, and/or emotionally disabling condition by utilizing treatments...
and art therapy
Art therapy
Because of its dual origins in art and psychotherapy, art therapy definitions vary. They commonly either lean more toward the ART art-making process as therapeutic in and of itself, "art as therapy," or focus on the psychotherapeutic transference process between the therapist and the client who...
, and initiated one of the earliest collections of artistic work by patients in a psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
. In 1857, Browne was appointed Commissioner in Lunacy for Scotland and, in 1866, he was elected the first President of the Medico-Psychological Association, now the Royal College of Psychiatrists
Royal College of Psychiatrists
The Royal College of Psychiatrists is the main professional organisation of psychiatrists in the United Kingdom responsible for representing psychiatrists, psychiatric research and providing public information about mental health problems...
.
As a medical student, Browne had been fascinated by phrenology
Phrenology
Phrenology is a pseudoscience primarily focused on measurements of the human skull, based on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind, and that certain brain areas have localized, specific functions or modules...
and Lamarckian evolution, joining the Edinburgh Phrenological Society
Edinburgh Phrenological Society
The Edinburgh Phrenological Society was established in 1820. Phrenology was then claimed to be a science but is now regarded as a pseudoscience. The central concepts of phrenology were that the brain is the organ of the mind and that human behaviour can be most usefully understood in neurological...
on 1st April 1824, and taking an active part in the Plinian Society
Plinian Society
The Plinian Society was a club at the University of Edinburgh for students interested in natural history. It was founded in 1823. Several of its members went on to have prominent careers, most notably Charles Darwin who announced his first scientific discoveries at the society.-Foundation,...
with Robert Edmond Grant
Robert Edmond Grant
Robert Edmond Grant MD FRCPEd FRS was born in Edinburgh and educated at Edinburgh University as a physician. He became one of the foremost biologists of the early 19th century at Edinburgh and subsequently the first Professor of Comparative Anatomy at University College London...
and Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
in 1826 and the Spring of 1827. Here, Browne presented materialist concepts of the mind as a process of the brain. Browne's amalgamation of phrenology with Lamarckian concepts of evolution anticipated - by some years - the approach of Robert Chambers
Robert Chambers
Robert Chambers was a Scottish publisher, geologist, proto-evolutionary thinker, author and journal editor who, like his elder brother and business partner William Chambers, was highly influential in mid-19th century scientific and political circles.Chambers was an early phrenologist, and was the...
in his Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation is a unique work of speculative natural history published anonymously in England in 1844. It brought together various ideas of stellar evolution with the progressive transmutation of species in an accessible narrative which tied together numerous...
(1844). The furious arguments which Browne engendered at the Plinian Society in 1826/1827 gave ample warning to Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
, then aged 17/18, of the imminent controversies between science and Christian beliefs.
Student radicalism
In his student days at the University of EdinburghUniversity of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
, Browne was a Radical
Radicalism (historical)
The term Radical was used during the late 18th century for proponents of the Radical Movement. It later became a general pejorative term for those favoring or seeking political reforms which include dramatic changes to the social order...
, welcoming the changes in revolutionary France, and supporting democratic reform to overturn the dominance of the church, monarchy, and aristocracy. As a disciple of George Combe
George Combe
George Combe , was a Scottish lawyer and writer on phrenology and education. In later years, he devoted himself to the promotion of phrenology. His major work was The Constitution of Man .-Early life:...
, Browne was an outspoken advocate of phrenology
Phrenology
Phrenology is a pseudoscience primarily focused on measurements of the human skull, based on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind, and that certain brain areas have localized, specific functions or modules...
which George and Andrew Combe
Andrew Combe
Andrew Combe , Scottish physician and phrenologist; was born in Edinburgh on the October 27, 1797, and was a younger brother of George Combe....
had developed into a form of materialism
Materialism
In philosophy, the theory of materialism holds that the only thing that exists is matter; that all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions. In other words, matter is the only substance...
, a reductionist
Reductionism
Reductionism can mean either an approach to understanding the nature of complex things by reducing them to the interactions of their parts, or to simpler or more fundamental things or a philosophical position that a complex system is nothing but the sum of its parts, and that an account of it can...
philosophy asserting that the mind was an outcome of material properties of the brain. Through phrenological meetings, Browne became acquainted with a remarkable group of secular and interdisciplinary thinkers, including Hewett Cottrell Watson and Robert Chambers
Robert Chambers
Robert Chambers was a Scottish publisher, geologist, proto-evolutionary thinker, author and journal editor who, like his elder brother and business partner William Chambers, was highly influential in mid-19th century scientific and political circles.Chambers was an early phrenologist, and was the...
, author of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation is a unique work of speculative natural history published anonymously in England in 1844. It brought together various ideas of stellar evolution with the progressive transmutation of species in an accessible narrative which tied together numerous...
. His interest in natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
led to his membership of the Plinian Society
Plinian Society
The Plinian Society was a club at the University of Edinburgh for students interested in natural history. It was founded in 1823. Several of its members went on to have prominent careers, most notably Charles Darwin who announced his first scientific discoveries at the society.-Foundation,...
, where he took part in vigorous debates concerning phrenology and early evolutionary theories and became one of the five joint presidents of this student club. At the Edinburgh Phrenological Society
Edinburgh Phrenological Society
The Edinburgh Phrenological Society was established in 1820. Phrenology was then claimed to be a science but is now regarded as a pseudoscience. The central concepts of phrenology were that the brain is the organ of the mind and that human behaviour can be most usefully understood in neurological...
George Combe gave a toast to Browne for his success in proselytising
Proselytism
Proselytizing is the act of attempting to convert people to another opinion and, particularly, another religion. The word proselytize is derived ultimately from the Greek language prefix προσ- and the verb ἔρχομαι in the form of προσήλυτος...
other students.
Browne also presented Plinian papers on various subjects, including plants he had collected, the habits of the cuckoo
Cuckoo
The cuckoos are a family, Cuculidae, of near passerine birds. The order Cuculiformes, in addition to the cuckoos, also includes the turacos . Some zoologists and taxonomists have also included the unique Hoatzin in the Cuculiformes, but its taxonomy remains in dispute...
, the aurora borealis
Aurora (astronomy)
An aurora is a natural light display in the sky particularly in the high latitude regions, caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere...
, and ghosts. On 21 November 1826, he proposed Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
for membership of the Plinian Society. On the same evening, Browne announced a paper which he presented in December 1826, contesting Charles Bell
Charles Bell
Sir Charles Bell was a Scottish surgeon, anatomist, neurologist and philosophical theologian.His three older brothers included John Bell , also a noted surgeon and writer; and the advocate George Joseph Bell .-Life:...
's Anatomy and Philosophy of Expression. Bell, an enormously influential neurologist, claimed, in line with the principles of natural theology
Natural theology
Natural theology is a branch of theology based on reason and ordinary experience. Thus it is distinguished from revealed theology which is based on scripture and religious experiences of various kinds; and also from transcendental theology, theology from a priori reasoning.Marcus Terentius Varro ...
, that the Creator had endowed human beings with a unique facial musculature which enabled them to express their higher moral nature in a way which was impossible in animals. Bell's aphorism on the subject was: "expression is to the passions as language is to thought". Browne argued that these anatomical differences were lacking and that such essential differences between human beings and animals did not exist. Forty-five years later, Darwin pursued an identical argument in his The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals is a book by Charles Darwin, published in 1872, concerning genetically determined aspects of behaviour. It was published thirteen years after On The Origin of Species and is, along with his 1871 book The Descent of Man, Darwin's main consideration...
(1872), confiding in Alfred Russel Wallace
Alfred Russel Wallace
Alfred Russel Wallace, OM, FRS was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist...
that one of his main wishes was to upset the slippery arguments of Sir Charles Bell
Charles Bell
Sir Charles Bell was a Scottish surgeon, anatomist, neurologist and philosophical theologian.His three older brothers included John Bell , also a noted surgeon and writer; and the advocate George Joseph Bell .-Life:...
.
Later, at a Plinian meeting on 27 March 1827, Browne followed Darwin's presentation of a paper on marine invertebrates and Dr Robert Edmund Grant's exposition on sea-mats
Bryozoa
The Bryozoa, also known as Ectoprocta or commonly as moss animals, are a phylum of aquatic invertebrate animals. Typically about long, they are filter feeders that sieve food particles out of the water using a retractable lophophore, a "crown" of tentacles lined with cilia...
by presenting the argument that mind and consciousness were simply aspects of brain activity. This carefully arranged programme of three papers presented an ascending view of life's complexities from the marine invertebrates beloved of Grant to the ultimate mysteries of human consciousness, all on a scientific platform of biological development
Developmental biology
Developmental biology is the study of the process by which organisms grow and develop. Modern developmental biology studies the genetic control of cell growth, differentiation and "morphogenesis", which is the process that gives rise to tissues, organs and anatomy.- Related fields of study...
. This, of course, contradicted religious beliefs that life was a supernatural gift and that the mind was an incorporeal entity. In addition, Browne appeared to present a view of the world which was politically and morally at odds with the opinions of the religious establishment. A furious debate ensued, and subsequently someone (possibly the crypto-Lamarckian Robert Jameson
Robert Jameson
thumb|Robert JamesonProfessor Robert Jameson, FRS FRSE was a Scottish naturalist and mineralogist.As Regius Professor at the University of Edinburgh for fifty years, Jameson is notable for his advanced scholarship in natural history, his superb museum collection, and for his tuition of Charles...
, Regius Professor of Natural History) took the extraordinary step of deleting the minutes of this heretical part of the discussion. The extreme impact of these discussions is indicated by the fact that John Coldstream
John Coldstream
-Life:Coldstream, only son of Robert Coldstream, merchant, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of John Phillips of Stobcross, Glasgow, was born at Leith on 19 March 1806, and after attending the Royal High School, Edinburgh, continued his studies at the university...
suffered a psychiatric illness which his doctor attributed to his being "troubled with doubts arising from certain Materialist views which are, alas!, all too common among medical students".
After graduating at Edinburgh, Browne travelled to Paris and studied psychiatry
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
with Jean-Étienne Dominique Esquirol
Jean-Étienne Dominique Esquirol
Jean-Étienne Dominique Esquirol was a French psychiatrist.Born and raised in Toulouse, Esquirol completed his education at Montpellier...
.
Early Psychiatric Career
Browne became a physicianPhysician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
at Stirling
Stirling
Stirling is a city and former ancient burgh in Scotland, and is at the heart of the wider Stirling council area. The city is clustered around a large fortress and medieval old-town beside the River Forth...
in 1830, and gave lectures on physiology
Physiology
Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...
and zoology
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
at the Edinburgh Association which was formed in 1832 by the town's tradesmen. In 1832-1834, Browne published a lengthy paper in the Phrenological Journal concerning the relationship of language to mental disorder and in 1834 he was appointed superintendent of Montrose Lunatic Asylum
Sunnyside Royal Hospital
Sunnyside Royal Hospital is a psychiatric hospital located in Hillside, north of Montrose, Scotland. The hospital was originally founded in 1781 by Susan Carnegie as Montrose Lunatic Asylum, Infirmary & Dispensary and obtained a Royal Charter in 1810...
, where he advocated the idea that mental illness had a material basis as a fault of the brain. On 24 June 1834, Browne married Magdalene Balfour, from one of Scotland's foremost scientific families and sister of John Hutton Balfour
John Hutton Balfour
John Hutton Balfour was a Scottish botanist. Balfour became a Professor of Botany, first at the University of Glasgow in 1841, moving to Edinburgh University and also becoming Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and Her Majesty's Botanist in Scotland in 1845...
(1808–1884), and they were to have eight children, the second of whom was James Crichton-Browne
James Crichton-Browne
Sir James Crichton-Browne MD FRS was a leading British psychiatrist famous for studies on the relationship of mental illness to neurological damage and for the development of public health policies in relation to mental health...
(1840–1938), the eminent psychiatrist. Browne gave frequent lectures on the reform of mental institutions. In 1837, five of his lectures were published with the title What Asylums Were, Are, and Ought To Be, setting out his ideas of the ideal asylum of the future and, in many ways, Browne sought to arrest - or even to reverse - the social consequences of industrialisation which had disrupted the Scotland of his childhood. :
In this enormously influential book, Browne agreed with the contemporary perception that insanity was associated with civilisation, and claimed that insanity was increasing because, "as we recede, step by step, from the simple... manners of our ancestors, and advance in industry and knowledge and happiness, this malignant persecutor strides onward, signalizing every era... by an increase, a new hecatomb, of victims." He supported the idea that hereditary insanity was most prevalent amongst the highest rank of society and he concluded that "the agricultural population..... is to a great degree exempt from insanity". He speculated that insanity was common in America because "the refuse of other nations has been poured forth. ... the tide of population, which has been flowing for so many years uninterruptedly towards America, has been impure and poisoned." He also suggested that the higher incidence of mental illness amongst women was the result of inequalities and poorer education. On the basis of his studies of inmates of his hospital, he asserted that those canonised in the past as saint
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
s for their hyperactive organ of veneration would now be categorised as insane.
Crichton Royal: Moral Treatment and Therapeutic Approaches
Browne was a passionate advocate of the "moral treatment" of the insane and he hated any suggestion of cruelty to the mentally ill. "There is in this community no compulsion, no chains, no corporal chastisement, simply because these are proved to be less effectual means of carrying any point than persuasion, emulation, and the desire of earning gratification... such is a faithful picture of what may be seen in many institutions, and of what might be seen in all, were asylums conducted as they ought to be."In 1838 the wealthy philanthropist Elizabeth Crichton persuaded Browne to accept the position of physician superintendent of her newly constructed Crichton Royal Hospital in Dumfries
Dumfries
Dumfries is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth. Dumfries was the county town of the former county of Dumfriesshire. Dumfries is nicknamed Queen of the South...
. Here he encouraged his patients with writing, art and drama and a host of other activities, long anticipating the ideas of occupational therapy
Occupational therapy
Occupational therapy is a discipline that aims to promote health by enabling people to perform meaningful and purposeful activities. Occupational therapists work with individuals who suffer from a mentally, physically, developmentally, and/or emotionally disabling condition by utilizing treatments...
and art therapy
Art therapy
Because of its dual origins in art and psychotherapy, art therapy definitions vary. They commonly either lean more toward the ART art-making process as therapeutic in and of itself, "art as therapy," or focus on the psychotherapeutic transference process between the therapist and the client who...
. In 1855, the Crichton was visited by the celebrated American reformer Dorothea Dix
Dorothea Dix
Dorothea Lynde Dix was an American activist on behalf of the indigent insane who, through a vigorous program of lobbying state legislatures and the United States Congress, created the first generation of American mental asylums...
and she seems to have struck up a positive relationship with Magdalene Browne, taking an interest in her traditional Scottish cuisine, before moving on to her Edinburgh friends, Mr and Mrs Robert Chambers
Robert Chambers
Robert Chambers was a Scottish publisher, geologist, proto-evolutionary thinker, author and journal editor who, like his elder brother and business partner William Chambers, was highly influential in mid-19th century scientific and political circles.Chambers was an early phrenologist, and was the...
. Browne remained at the Crichton until 1857 when his outstanding reputation resulted in his appointment as the first Medical Commissioner to the Scottish asylums. In 1866, he was elected the first President of the Medico-Psychological Association, and he used his Presidential Address as an opportunity to spell out (at considerable length) his concepts of medical psychology.
In 1870, while visiting asylums in East Lothian, Browne was involved in a road accident which resulted in his resignation as Commissioner in Lunacy, and, later, in increasing problems with his eyesight. He may have been suffering some ophthalmic problems, probably glaucoma, from years earlier. Browne retired to his home in Dumfries and worked on a series of medico-literary projects, including the Religio Psycho-Medici (1877), in which he re-explored the territories of psychopathology and the religious outlook.
In 1839, Browne had initiated one of the first collections of art by mental patients in institutions, gathering a large amount of work which he had bound into three volumes, in many ways a forerunner of Hans Prinzhorn
Hans Prinzhorn
Hans Prinzhorn was a German psychiatrist and art historian.Born in Hemer, Westphalia, he studied art history and philosophy at the University of Vienna, receiving his doctorate in 1908. He then went to England to receive voice training, as he planned to become a professional singer...
's Artistry of the Mentally Ill
Artistry of the Mentally Ill
Artistry of the Mentally Ill was a 1922 book by psychiatrist Hans Prinzhorn, and is known as the work that launched the field of psychiatric art...
and the academic study of outsider art
Outsider Art
The term outsider art was coined by art critic Roger Cardinal in 1972 as an English synonym for art brut , a label created by French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe art created outside the boundaries of official culture; Dubuffet focused particularly on art by insane-asylum inmates.While...
(art brut). A paper by Browne on Mad Artists was published in 1880 in the Journal of Psychological Medicine and Mental Pathology, setting out his views on mental illness and the effect it had on established artists. Browne's last years were clouded by the death of his wife in January 1882 and by his increasing blindness; but he lived to hear of his son's achievements in medical psychology rewarded by his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society.