A Historical Sketch of Mental Health Services In Canada from the Nineteenth Century to Community Care

In order to gain an understanding and an appreciation of the “flavor” of services to the mentally ill in Canada, some background is necessary. By “flavor” we mean something more and other than the kind of dry descriptions of facts usually found in historical documents. We present a history of the nation and an exposition of the ontogenesis of institutional services to the mentally ill. Our attempt is to help the reader analyze and interpret the latent, often concealed metaphors in these discourses, so as to expose the feelings and ideas that normally lay below the level of conscious discussion in the past. When this is completed we will turn to the traditions in the metropolitan nations and then once again indicate how Canadian experience was able to assimilate, reorganize, and in other ways develop more creatively the experiences of France, England and the United States, the three main sources of Canadian civilization.