# The York Retreat and Moral Treatment · The Cult Dossier · The Atlas · The Congregation of Tomorrow

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The Cult Dossier · No. 154 · Psychiatry / The Asylum
The York Retreat and Moral Treatment
The Retreat; the Quaker asylum
1796 – 2018 (as an inpatient hospital) · York, England; then France, Britain and the United States
XV. THE ASYLUM — WHEN MEDICINE DECIDED WHOSE MIND WAS WRONG
Founded and run by the RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS (Quakers). Its method came directly from Quaker belief about the inner light in every person.
### Who led it
### What it worshipped and taught
### Who was in it
### How it ended, or where it stands
### The dead
### Of note
### Its timeline
- 1790 HANNAH MILLS, a Quaker, dies at the York Asylum a few weeks after admission. Her friends and family had not been allowed to visit her. THE RETREAT EXISTS BECAUSE OF THAT REFUSAL.
- 1796 THE RETREAT OPENS at York, for members of the Society of Friends. No chains. Patients eat with staff, work in the gardens, take tea.
- 1797–1800 IN PARIS, PHILIPPE PINEL is credited with striking the chains from the insane. THE FAMOUS SCENE IS LARGELY A LATER CONSTRUCTION. At BICÊTRE the shackles were removed in 1797 by JEAN-BAPTISTE PUSSIN, the lay governor, after Pinel had already moved on; Pinel unchained the women of the SALPÊTRIÈRE in 1800, and even then did not give up restraint, turning to the strait-jacket. TONY ROBERT-FLEURY'S painting of the scene dates from 1876. The reform is real; the tableau is not.
- 1813 SAMUEL TUKE publishes DESCRIPTION OF THE RETREAT. It is the vector — the book, more than the building, carries moral treatment to Europe and America.
- 1840s onward MORAL TREATMENT IS ADOPTED AND THEN DEFEATED BY SCALE. The method depended on small numbers and long attention. As public asylums grew into thousands of beds it became unaffordable in practice, and custody quietly replaced it.
- 31 DECEMBER 2018 THE RETREAT WITHDRAWS FROM INPATIENT CARE AFTER 222 YEARS. It continues as an outpatient and community mental health service.
### Its people
### William Tuke
—
Founder, The York Retreat · 1732 – 1822 · active 1796–1822
Before the law. No legal proceedings. A private charitable foundation.
Where things stand. Deceased 1822. The Retreat continued as an inpatient hospital until 31 DECEMBER 2018 — 222 years — and continues as an outpatient service.
- 1790 HANNAH MILLS dies at the York Asylum, where Quakers had been refused permission to visit her.
- 1796 The Retreat opens.
- 1813 His grandson SAMUEL TUKE publishes DESCRIPTION OF THE RETREAT, carrying the method abroad.
- 1822 Dies.
Checked 2026-09-05
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