Mental Disability Approaches and Asylums for Mental Illnesses

Follow the directions below.
“I. Mini-Essay: Prepare a response for the following:
-this is to be one full page.
-the answer to these questions for this portion are attached in the files in the PowerPoint that is attached as History 174 week 1 sidelines.
-you can use the power page for your citation. No need for other citations for this section.
Prepare a brief essay in which you discuss how the study of disability can broaden the academic study of history. Why have recent scholars called for examining disability as a “social construct” and for viewing disability as a “category of analysis” alongside the categories of race, class, gender, and sexuality? Why do these contemporary scholars find the traditional “medical model” approach to disability lacking? What criticisms have been levied against the new “social construct” approach? What is your view of the “new disability history” as it has been called? As you fashion your response, reference some of the insights expressed by Kim Nielsen in her article “Historical Thinking and Disability History” which we read in class.
II. Essay.
-Prepare a response for two of the following. This is 2 1/2 pages per response. So a total of 5 pages for this section. 2 sources minimum each response.
-use the other attached files as citations. Try to do two citations per response. So a total of 4 for this section.
-you may use some outside citations but please try to use the files attached first. Thank you!!
-when I asked students in my class what PowerPoints the answers for the four prompts below are in they said, “ It's basically each week is an essay topic. Like prompt 1 goes with week 2 (bc the first week is the mini essay) and so on. There may be sometimes it deviates from this, but basically each week is an essay topic. There's not like parts to each essay spread across every week. He has it based chronologically really well. “
Select two of the following to respond to. (Please put the number of the prompt
you are responding to before your essay, and remember 2 1/2 pages per response):
1. Prepare an essay in which you describe how mental disability was approached in the American colonial and revolutionary eras, from roughly 1607-1815. How did colonial perspectives on mental disability differ? In what ways were they similar? Specifically, how did Native Americans approach “disability”? What about American colonists in the British Colonies? In what way(s) were African- American slavery and disability linked? How did enslaved African Americans respond to mental disability in their communities? What was the impact of the American Revolution on approaches to disability?
2. Explore the origins and evolution of American mental asylums in the 19th century. How was the growth and expansion of mental asylums related to industrialization? How did the approach of mental asylums shift from one of optimism for recovery earlier in the century toward one of custodial care by the end of the century? What role did architecture play in the function of mental asylums? Why did some reformers begin to advocate for specialized education for the intellectually disabled and how did this optimism for specialized education turn into pessimism by the end of the century? Incorporate insights from Carla Yanni’s Architecture of Madness as you craft your response.
3. What role did race, gender, class, and ethnicity play in classifying mental illness? What type of mental-health care did Native Americans receive, for example, in the Hiawatha or Canton Asylum in South Dakota? What mental diagnoses were ascribed to women? How did Social Darwinism which was followed by the rise of the Eugenics Movement by the early twentieth century influence American culture and immigration policy, specifically in regard to psychiatric and intellectual disability? Incorporate insights from the course readings to enhance your essay.
4. Give examples of individuals and their efforts to expose, improve, or reform life for mentally disabled Americans or to expose or improve conditions in mental asylums in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Provide examples of specific reformers (former patients, journalists, activists etc.) and where possible, cite and incorporate material from their own writings into your essay. Describe
 how each individual advocated for reform.”
If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask !