Crichton Institution

The Crichton is an institutional campus in Dumfries in southwest Scotland. It incorporates part of Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary, a business park, and Crichton University Campus, which serves as a remote campus for the University of Glasgow, the University of the West of Scotland, Dumfries and Galloway College, and the Open University. The site also includes a hotel and conference centre, and Crichton Memorial Church, set in a 100-acre (40 ha) park. The campus was established in the 19th century as the Crichton Royal Hospital, a psychiatric hospital.

The last, and grandest, of Scotland's royal asylums was founded in Dumfries in 1838 by Elizabeth Crichton of Friar's Carse (1779–1862), a wealthy local widow. She persuaded the phrenologist William A. F. Browne (1805-1885) to become medical superintendent and to implement his innovative ideas of occupational therapy and art therapy. Browne remained at the Crichton for almost twenty years (1838-1857) and made a decisive contribution to asylum psychiatry, setting benchmark standards in therapeutic administration. He also hoarded a vast collection of patient art. After his appointment as Medical Commissioner in Lunacy, Browne was succeeded by Dr James Gilchrist; Dr Charles Easterbrook and Dr Alan Tait were later superintendents. The Crichton became widely known for its outstanding contributions to psychiatric research under the leadership of German Jewish émigrés, including Dr Willi Mayer-Gross.

Elizabeth Crichton's initial intention to found a university in Dumfries was blocked by the existing Scottish universities. (For article on the 1838 "University of Dumfries" see this article in the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society). The Crichton was the subject of an unusually detailed and extensive asylum history - The Chronicle of Crichton Royal (1833 - 1936) - written and edited by Charles Easterbrook, and published in 1940. Easterbrook wrote the book - in Edinburgh, at the Murrayfield private hotel - following his retirement as Physician Superintendent.

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