Dear Hmadness readers,

Three articles from the latest issue of Social History of Medicine might be of particular interest to this community. The issue (Vol. 39, no. 1, 2026) brings together a range of contributions on the history of psychiatry, addiction, and institutional care. The titles and abstracts of these three articles are presented below.

Educative Psychological Treatment at Edinburgh’s Royal Asylum: Unfolding The Morningside Mirror, 1845–1882, by Christopher Holligan

“This article examines moral therapy in relation to writing by fee-paying ‘lunatic’ asylum patients from the upper and middle classes. Their work was published in a nineteenth-century monthly periodical, The Morningside Mirror. There is an intersection of the periodical with status and the interests of gentlemanly values. Despite their psychopathological diagnoses, which included melancholia, writers for the Mirror retained their human capacity to share poignant insights into love and social injustice. Edinburgh’s reputation as a cultural and scientific centre of learning provided opportunities for the asylum to market itself as an iconic sanctuary that could maintain the materially privileged lifestyles of patients. The Morningside Mirror offered creative activity, self-esteem maintenance and public recognition. It connected the Asylum to the society outside. The expression of logic as reflective of the repair of reason signalled, from the viewpoint of psychological medicine, the Mirror’s therapeutic impact and utility to project reputation”.

‘Brought in Dead’: Post-Mortem Glimpses of the Early ‘Heroin Epidemic’ in Ireland, 1971–1983, by Oisín Wall

“This article explores the formation of Ireland’s first ‘hard drug’ culture. To do this, it uses the coroners’ reports on drug-related deaths in Dublin between 1971, when the first overdose by a regular user was recorded, and 1983, when the first Irish ‘heroin epidemic’ peaked. Through these reports, the article constructs a macro-view of the demographics involved in ‘hard drug’ use and the changing trends within the subculture. It contrasts this overview with the lived experience of the drug culture by developing a series of micro-histories of specific people who used drugs during this period, which both illustrate and counterpoint the statistical trends. In doing so, it demystifies the ‘hard drug’ culture and reinserts it into the history of Irish everyday life”.

Musical Spaces in the Asylum in Watt Street, Newcastle, New South Wales, by Helen J English

“The Asylum in Watt Street, Newcastle, New South Wales, was opened in 1871 for the care of ‘idiots and imbeciles’, and from 1872 was considered a model of moral therapy. Music was a key aspect of the therapy approach, which took place both inside and outside the asylum buildings. Music has a long history of being used to calm the mind, change mood and even cure ailments, as well as to arouse and engage. In the twenty-first century, there has been an important shift to understanding music as a resource for navigating everyday life, extended by Tia DeNora to a perception of music as asylum through its encompassing and eudaemonic effects. This article examines music-making in the Newcastle asylum, drawing on nineteenth-century texts on asylums, newspaper reporting and inspection reports. It argues that music created inclusive social spaces and shows the opportunities it afforded for positive self-care musical experiences shared by visitors and patients”.