Dr. Charles Cherry Essay

Dr. Charles Cherry’s essay “Quakers and Asylum Reform” has just been published in The Oxford Handbook of Quaker Studies, edited by Stephen W. Angell and Pink Dandelion for Oxford University Press.  After placing asylum reform in the context of Quaker beliefs and history in 17th century England, Dr. Cherry’s article discusses the central role of England’s York Retreat, established in 1796.  It provided a model of kindness and compassion, known as “moral treatment,” that influenced the growth of numerous imitators in England and America and became a positive counterpoint to the questionable treatments at private madhouses and public hospitals.  This concept has been revived in the 20th century under such new rubrics as “milieu therapy” and the “open hospital.”