REMOVING THE ‘VEIL OF SECRECY’: PUBLIC INQUIRIES AS SOURCES IN THE HISTORY OF PSYCHIATRY, 1960S-1970S

Abstract

In the late 1960s, the first inquiries were held into allegations of abuse and malpractice in certain National Health Service (NHS) psychiatric and ‘mental handicap’ hospitals. As they continued through much of the 1970s, political indifference, failures in clinical leadership, poor management, and pernicious ingrained hospital cultures were revealed. Much of the vast repository of inquiry documentation that was generated at the time provides historians of today with important insights into government interests, the impacts of NHS policy, and the cultural mechanisms that prevailed inside these large institutions. This article provides an overview of how the inquiries came about and were run, together with a summary of where to find sources today. It reflects on some of the epistemological and ethical questions that should be taken into account during the analysis and writing-up of the research, together with the potential challenges that come from working with such sensitive sources.