On the Application of Photography to the Physiognomic and Mental Phenomena of Insanity (1856)

Abstract

Dr. Hugh W. Diamond (1809-1886), pioneer of psychiatric photography, was Resident Superintendent of the Female Department at the Surrey County Lunatic Asylum from 1848 to 1858. His pictures were given wide attention in a series of essays on the physiognomy of insanity by John Conolly, a major figure in the reform of the British asylum. This article was presented to Royal Society in 1856 and is considerated the first contribution to therapeutic use of photographic portrait. It was re-edited in Sander L. Gilman The Face of Madness. Hugh W. Diamond and the Origin of Psychiatric Photography, Brunner-Mazel, New York 1976.