HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS Psychiatric Bulletin Advances in Psychiatric Treatment All RCPsych Journals		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Submit an eLetter Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by BEVERIDGE, A. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by BEVERIDGE, A.

Psychiatry in pictures

Do you have an image, preferably accompanied by 100 to 200 words of explanatory text, that you think would be suitable for Psychiatry in Pictures? Submissions are very welcome and should be sent direct to Dr Allan Beveridge, Queen Margaret Hospital, Whitefield Road, Dunfermline, Fife KY12 0SU, UK.

One of the most original of the patient-artists at the Crichton Royal Asylum, Joseph Askew was admitted in 1853. At that point, he was 28 years old, unmarried, and was described in the case notes as a ‘Merchant in South America’. He felt he was subjected to ‘the manipulations of certain mesmeric impostors’, who were able to ‘penetrate his thoughts and are constantly conversing with him’. He also believed that he was ‘the focus of concave mirrors which act at incalculable distances and are... directing rays of transcendental light on him from Jesus’. In addition, he was ‘affected by seven magnetic seals’ and was also trying to ‘prove that he is not the person he is reputed to be’. A diagnosis of ‘monomania of suspicion’ was made. He was considered to be ‘a most gentle and courteous inmate’. Askew was to remain at Dumfries until his death in 1904. A review of his clinical state in 1885 revealed that he believed that ‘his internal organs are taken out of his body and floated about in the air’. He was given a revised diagnosis of ‘monomania of unseen agency’. Askew's artwork displays a wide range of styles and subject matter. This particular picture anticipates the eerie street scenes of the surrealist painter, Giorgio de Chirico.

View larger version (134K): [in this window] [in a new window] [as a PowerPoint slide]   Joseph Askew (1825-1904), untitled

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to Morag Williams, Archivist to NHS Dumfries and Galloway, Solway House, Crichton Royal Hospital, Dumfries.

This Article Full Text (PDF) Submit an eLetter Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by BEVERIDGE, A. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by BEVERIDGE, A.