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Clara Harrison Town and the origins of the first institutional commitment law for the "feebleminded": Psychologists as expert diagnosticians

Research Output:
Contribution to journal
Article
 Peer-review

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output:
Contribution to journal
Article
 Peer-review

Original language

American English

Pages from-to (Number of pages)

Pages 271-281 (11 pages)

Journal (Volume, Issue Number)

History of Psychology (Volume 17, Issue 4)

Publication milestones

  • Published - 11/2014

Publication status

Published - 11/2014

ISSN

1093-4510

Publication IDs

  • WOS: 000345155500002
  • PubMed: 24885000

Abstract

The first law providing for the commitment of “feeble-minded” individuals in the United States was passed in 1915, in the state of Illinois. House Bill 655 not only allowed for the permanent, involuntary institutionalization of feeble-minded individuals, but it shifted the commitment and discharge authority from the institution superintendents to the courts. Clara Harrison Town, a student of Lightner Witmer, and the state psychologist at the second largest institution for feeble-minded individuals in the country, was instrumental in this law passing and in ensuring that psychologists, for the first time, be viewed as court “experts” when testifying as to the feeble-mindedness of individuals.

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