The History Forum

SELECT MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENTS IN BARBADOS TO 1970 By Sylvan Spooner In the light of the plethora of modern treatment modalities available for the care of the  mentally ill or persons seeking psychiatric care, it is nonetheless necessary to highlight some of treatments that were utilized locally before the advent of modern antipsychotics.   Example of a 1950s era ECT machine One early and controversial treatment for the mentally ill was the Prefrontal Leucotomy. Performed on disruptive and aggressive patients, it involved the severing of nerves associated with the frontal lobe of the brain. Unfortunately, in the few local cases in which it was performed, this treatment often made patients regress to a child like docility from which they never recovered. [1] Its risks outweighed its benefits and its practice was brief. Other interventions were less invasive and one such treatment (if it could be so termed) was known as work therapy. Through this, patients...

A Graduate of Cultural Studies, Angela Trotman, shares some reflections on last week's Humanities Festival 2015 panel discussion on Memory and Barbadian Migrants in Panama and the need to honour this connection with explorations in the Humanities: To make an allegorical argument: As academics, we have taken lunches to Panama on several occasions, just like Biblical David. David, however, realized that lunch was not enough.  He recognized that while it was sustaining and strengthening and nourishing it was not enough.  He decided to bring his gutterperk and rockstone .  In making that decision he turned the tide, Goliath fell! While the words historians use to explore this connection are vital and necessary, we should not leave our weapons behind: artists will make the difference; the singer will sing, the dramatist will perform, the poet will break the heart, the dancers will reenact and bring back memories of a connection in which so many migrants toiled and ...