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The Royal College of Psychiatrists has been in existence since 1841. Initially as the Association of Medical Officers of Asylums and Hospitals of the Insane, then as the Medico-Psychological Association (1841-1865). In 1926 after receiving the Royal Charter it became the Royal Medico-Psychological Association, and in 1971, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, when it received the Supplemental Charter.
The Association of Medical Officers of Asylums and Hospitals of the Insane was the brainchild of Dr Samuel Hitch, who was resident superintendent of the Gloucestershire General Lunatic Asylum. In a circular letter dated 19 June 1841 which was addressed to eighty three visiting physicians and resident superintendents of twenty asylums and hospitals in England, seven in Scotland and eleven in Ireland he suggested the formation of the association. The respondents to the letter held a preliminary meeting at his hospital on 27July 1841, where they agreed to form the association. At this meeting there were present Dr Shute, Visiting Physician of the Gloucester Asylum (in the chair); Mr Gaskell, Medical Superintendent of Lancaster Asylum; Dr Hitch , Resident Medical Superintendent of Gloucester Asylum; Mr Powell, Resident Medical Superintendent of Nottingham Asylum; Dr Thurnam, Resident Medical Superintendent of York Retreat; and Mr Wintle, Resident Medical Superintendent of Oxford Asylum (Warneford). The stated objective of the association was that medical men connected with asylums should communicate more freely the results of their experience and assist each other in improving the treatment of the insane.
During the early years attendance at the irregular meetings was very poor. However, it is important to note that despite these difficulties there were a few who managed to overcome them, and came to be regarded as heroes of British psychiatry. These were: John Conolly (Hanwell), Samuel Hitch (Gloucester), Samuel Gaskell (Lancaster), John Thurnam (The Retreat, York) and John Bucknill (Exeter). The first annual meeting was held at Nottingham Asylum on 4 November 1841. In 1843 the Association met for the first time in London at Morleys Hotel in Trafalgar Square and on subsequent days at Hanwell, the Surrey Asylum (Springfield Hospital) and St Lukes Hospital. It was only in 1851, under the great leadership of John Conolly that the Association had a very successful meeting which was held at the Freemason`s Tavern in London and drew an attendance of twenty six. In 1852 an even more successful meeting was held at Oxford.
In 1847 members of the Association met in Oxford at the Warneford and Littlemore Asylums. It is at this meeting that the idea of publishing a journal was first mooted. The Asylum Journal of Mental Science as it was originally called was only published in November 1853 under the editorship of Dr John Bucknill. This journal became the forerunner of todays British Journal of Psychiatry. At the 1851 meeting a committee including John Conolly, Forbes Winslow, John Bucknill, and Corsellis was appointed to examine the lunacy acts and to report thereon. A request from Dr Wiliams of Gloucester for the establishment of a central criminal asylum was generally supported and a petition in favour of it was ordered to be drawn up and forwarded to the Secretary of State. At the London Meeting of 1854 a decision was taken to form a permanent Parliamentary Committee, the first positive step designed to influence legislation affecting the control of asylums and the welfare of patients committed to them. During the same year it was also decided to institute the office of President, and during that year Dr A. J Sutherland of St Lukes Hospital, London was elected the first President of the Association.
In the late 1860s it was decided that Quarterly Meetings be held in addition to Annual Meetings. The suggestion was approved and implemented in 1883 when Quarterly Meetings were introduced in Scotland and Ireland. The meetings were the forerunners of the Divisional Meetings of today.
In 1865 the name of the Association changed to The Medico-Psychological Association. The change of the title reflected a growing confidence of its membership, and recognition that the role of the Association needed to be strengthened and its influence extended outside the confines of asylums. Membership of the Association was no longer limited to medical officers of public and private asylums and hospitals for the insane, but was extended to all legally qualified medical practitioners interested in the treatment of insanity. The affairs of the Association were now being run by the Council, which comprised of the president, treasurer, general secretary, the secretary for Scotland, the secretary for Ireland, the editor of the journal, two auditors, and eight ordinary members. These officers of the Association were to be elected by ballot at each annual meeting.
In 1855 the membership of the Association was a mere 121, but as new county asylums were opened under the provisions of the 1845 and 1853 Acts, membership rose to 250 in 1864, and by 1894 to 523.
The Parliamentary Committee which was formed in 1854 lay dormant until 1882 when it became involved in active lobbying in an attempt to get some of the objectionable clauses removed from the Lunacy Act Amendment Bill, which was going through Parliament, and was eventually enacted as the Lunacy Act of 1890.
From 1865 the Association was also involved in discussions aimed at improving the education of doctors and nurses concerned with mentally ill patients. For example Henry Maudsley in 1865 was instrumental in persuading the convocation of the University of London to resolve that instruction in mental diseases should be required in the curriculum for the final MB. And in 1885 as a result of pressure by the Association, the General Medical Council added mental diseases as a separate item to the curriculum and, furthermore, ruled that it should be tested. During the same year the Association founded the Certificate of Proficiency in Psychological Medicine. This was replaced by a Diploma in Psychological Medicine in 1948. From 1891 the Association started to organise examinations for nurses employed in hospitals for the mentally ill. The qualification was known as the Medico-Psychological Association Certificate of Proficiency in Nursing. The certificate was the first to be awarded to nurses nationally as opposed to those awarded by individual hospitals.
In 1894 a number of developments took place concerning the administration of the Association. The constitution of the Association was re-drafted and new activities defined including the establishment of Divisions delineated on territorial lines, each with its own chairman and secretary. The Divisions were empowered to arrange for meetings to be held in their own areas. Educational and Parliamentary Committees were made Standing Committees of Council. The rules also established that women doctors were eligible for membership. The first woman to be elected a member was Dr Eleanor Fleury of Richmond Lunatic Asylum in Dublin. A Library Committee was established, and in 1895 after the death of Dr Daniel Hack Tuke, the great grandson of the founder of the York Retreat and the Associations first Honorary Member, his widow presented to the Association his invaluable library. These books form the core of the Colleges antiquarian book collection.
The early years of the twentieth century were a period of consolidation. The Association campaigned through its Parliamentary Committees for reforms in legislation relating to the care of the mentally ill, particularly for powers to admit voluntary patients to mental hospitals; for facilities for early treatment and for the establishment of out-patient clinics. The impact of the First World War had an effect on the direction of the Association. The high incidence of "shell-shocked" soldiers, and others with hysterical conversion symptoms, together with other varieties of neurotic breakdown, attracted medical practitioners whose roots were in neurology, internal medicine and general practice. This development together with the upsurge of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy resulted in the emergence of a new breed of psychiatrists.
In 1926 the prestige and dignity of the Association were enhanced when it received a Royal Charter which entitled it to change its name to the Royal Medico-Psychological Association. As a result of the Royal Charter the Association was able to exercise more political clout. For instance it played an important part in the formulation of Mental Treatment Act, 1930 and the Mental Health Act of 1959. The Association also played an important role by giving evidence before various Royal Commissions concerning issues relating to divorce, suicide, homosexuality and abortion.
On 16 June 1971 the Royal Medico-Psychological Association became the Royal College of Psychiatrists after being granted a Supplemental Charter.
For further information on the history of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, see Thomas Bewley, Madness to Mental Illness: A history of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (London, 2008), and: