American Psychiatric Association Emblem

Insanity was not new to the 19th and 20th centuries, of course, but some of its management was. The insane had often been cared for by monks and nuns under the supervision of various religious orders. Eventually, medical men ran the facilities where the insane were housed, and were often called mad-doctors or lunatic-doctors. By the late 1800s, these physicians began to be known as alienists, which referenced the insane person’s loss of a sense of self.

In the U.S., thirteen superintendents and organizers of insane asylums banded together to form the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane in 1844. The name was changed in 1892 to the American Medico-Psychological Association, and embraced more members of the medical field. Finally, the name was changed for the last time in 1921 to the American Psychiatric Association. Its emblem has a picture of Dr. Benjamin Rush (often called “The Father of American Psychiatry”) on it. The thirteen stars represent the thirteen superintendents who founded the original organization.

Association of Medical Superintendents, courtesy National Library of Medicine

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