The Confinement of the Insane
The Confinement of the Insane
The rise of the asylum constitutes one of the most profound, and controversial, events in the history of medicine. Academics around the world have begun to direct their attention to the origins of the confinement of those deemed 'insane', exploring patient records in an attempt to understand the rise of the asylum within the wider context of social and economic change of nations undergoing modernisation. Originally published in 2003, this edited volume brings together thirteen original research papers to answer key questions in the history of asylums. What forces led to the emergence of mental hospitals in different national contexts? To what extent did patient populations vary in terms of their psychiatric profile and socio-economic background? What was the role of families, communities and the medical profession in the confinement process? This volume therefore represents a landmark study in the history of psychiatry by examining asylum confinement in a global context.
- Was the first international, comparative study of the rise of the asylum in the modern era
- Includes much primary research on the socio-demographic and medical characteristics of patients
- Comparative essays on the history of the mental hospital in thirteen different countries
Reviews & endorsements
Review of the hardback: 'Dealing with the institutions and policies of countries with differing populations, traditions and cultures, these scholars largely eschew the angry and polemical writings of the 1960s and 1970s. Basing their analyses on archival data, they present nuanced and subtle interpretations that offer fresh insight into the mental-health policies of different nations.' Nature
Review of the hardback: 'When put together these separate studies do give that new, comparative standpoint which is required to come to grips with vital but confusing aspect of medical history.' Church Times
Review of the hardback: 'When put together these separate studies do give that new, comparative standpoint which is required to come to grips with this vital but confusing aspect of medical history.' Contemporary Review
Review of the hardback: 'This is a micro-history of a high standard …a first-rate book.' Health & History
Review of the hardback: 'This volume … is indeed enlightening.' Medical Journal World
Review of the hardback: 'This author never failed to provide a worthwhile read …' Journal of Psychological Medicine
Product details
June 2011Paperback
9780521283342
390 pages
229 × 152 × 22 mm
0.57kg
Available
Table of Contents
- Introduction Roy Porter
- 1. Insanity, institutions and society: the case of Robben Island Lunatic Asylum, 1846–1910 Harriet Deacon
- 2. The confinement of the insane in Switzerland, 1900–70: Cery and Bel-Air asylums Jacques Gasser and Geneviève Heller
- 3. Family strategies and medical power: 'voluntary' committal in a Parisian asylum, 1876–1914 Patricia E. Prestwich
- 4. The confinement of the insane in Victorian Canada: the Hamilton and Toronto asylums, c. 1861–91 David Wright, James Moran and Sean Gouglas
- 5. Passage to the asylum: the role of the police in committals of the insane in Victoria, Australia, 1848–1900 Catharine Coleborne
- 6. The 'Wittenauer Heilstätten' in Berlin: a case record study of psychiatric patients in Germany, 1919–60 Andrea Dörries and Thomas Beddies
- 7. Curative asylum, custodial hospital: the South Carolina lunatic asylum and state hospital, 1828–1920 Peter McCandless
- 8. The state, family, and the insane in Japan, 1900–45 Akihito Suzuki
- 9. The limits of psychiatric reform in Argentina, 1890–1946 Jonathan D. Ablard
- 10. Becoming mad in revolutionary Mexico: mentally ill patients at the General Insane Asylum, Mexico, 1910–30 Cristina Rivera-Garza
- 11. Psychiatry and confinement in India Sanjeev Jain
- 12. Confinements and colonialism in Nigeria Jonathan Sadowsky
- 13. 'Ireland's crowded madhouses': the institutional confinement of the insane in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Ireland Elizabeth Malcolm
- 14. The administration of insanity in England, 1800–70 Elaine Murphy.
