Family History

Figure 1: William Tuke

People sometimes ask about my surname ‘Tuke Flanders’. ‘Tuke’ is my maiden name and I have retained it to assure my heritage is maintained for future generations. My ancestor, William Tuke (1732-1822)[1], was appalled by the inhumane treatment of patients in mental asylums of his era (the well known practice of visiting ‘Bedlam’ to watch the ‘insane’ as entertainment, was widespread at the time). In response to this, William Tuke pioneered ‘The York Retreat’ which used a more humane model with psychologically based approaches as the foundation by which he founded his retreat.

The approach William used became known as ‘Moral Treatment’ [2] and influenced practices in European asylums in the 1800s. Most notably, Williams work influenced Philippe Pinel, a French physician famous for unchaining the mental patients of Paris.

William’s son, Henry Tuke,  and grandson, Samuel Tuke carried on his good work after his death (and my work carries forward this lineage). The York Retreat still exists to this day, and something I am very proud of as a ‘Tuke’ who hopes to carry on the good practice of treating everyone with the best possible psychological practices to this day.

Figure 2: The York Retreat

For more information:
[1]= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tuke
[2]= http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/tuke_william.shtml
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/williamtuke.aspx