Question

Explain how Dorothea Dix continued on the work of the enlightenment thinker Cesare Beccaria.

Answer 1

Answer:

Dorothea Dix was the first female physician in the Western world. She had a keen interest in education and opened some schools for poor and neglected children in Boston. From 1840 to 1841 she went to teach in the Sunday school of a women's prison. Due to the harsh conditions in prison (much misery and abuse), she developed a new vision of psychiatric patients. The new view was in complete contradiction with the then general view that the mentally ill are untreatable. Dorothea Dix wanted to treat the psychiatric patients with holistic therapy and occupational therapy. By publishing her findings, she eventually had the opportunity to further expand the mental institution and reform mental health care in North Carolina.

During the Civil War, she became the volunteer head of the nurses of the Union Army as a volunteer, she managed to build an efficient nursing service. In 1863, legislation came into force to support the appointment of female nurses, and working conditions also improved. Throughout her working life, she has worked for the well-being of patients and the mentally weak.