“I Do Not Care for a Lunatic’s Role”: Modes of Regulation and Resistance Inside the Colquitz Mental Home, British Columbia, 1919–33

This article chronicles the experiences of 100 male patients who were confined at the Provincial Mental Home, Colquitz, Vancouver Island between 1919 and 1933. Through an analysis of clinical records and other sources, I reconstruct the organizational and human environment that prevailed at Colquitz during the tenure of its first lay supervisor, Granby Farrant; I chart the diverse modes of discipline through which officials sought to maintain the institutional regimen; and I document the efforts undertaken by patients to resist authority, transcend their surroundings, and seek redemption and hope both inside and beyond the Colquitz walls.