05 Feb 2025
A series of talks exploring issues surrounding mental health aim to raise funds to restore the grave of a pioneering clinical psychologist.
Nathaniel Cotton was an 18th century poet and doctor whose breakthrough treatment of mental health came at a time when many with mental illness were being locked up in appalling institutions like the notorious Bedlam, Bethlem Royal Hospital, in London.
Nathaniel established a sympathetic asylum, ‘Collegium Insanorum’ (a College for the Insane) on the corner of what is now College Street (named after his institution) andLower Dagnall Street where you can now find a commemorative blue plaque installed by Blue Plaques St Albans.
An intensely private person, there is little information surviving from his life but we know he was married twice, first to Anne Pembroke and then after her death to Hannah Everett. He died in St Albans on August 2 1788 and is buried in St Peter’s Churchyard with his wives either side.
Unfortunately the condition of the gravestones has deteriorated and they are in need of restoration to make the inscriptions legible.
Conservation 50 and St Peter’s Church are hosting a series of six talks exploring evolutionary and cultural constructs of mental illness. Although here are no fees and attendees can just turn up on the night, donations of approximately £10 per talk are encouraged.
The speakers are: Tim Boatswain, Professor of Anthropology and History, Chair of Conservation 50; Dr Florian Alexander Ruths MD FRCPsych PgDipCBT;
Consultant Psychiatrist: Cognitive Behaviour Therapies (CBT) Trainer, Supervisor and Practitioner accredited with the British Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP).
Topics covered include anxiety disorders, the anthropology of parenting and child-rearing, and different talks on why we feel disgust, why we worry, why we get angry and why we play and have fun.
Find out more at https://timboatswain.wixsite.com/conservation-50
