The Politics of Madness: The State, Insanity and Society in England, 1845-1914

by Joseph Melling, Bill Forsythe

Overview

The discovery and treatment of insanity remains one of the most debated and discussed issues in social history

This book provides a new perspective on this issue as it covers the second half of the 19th Century

Research is based upon both local and national material

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781134417094
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	04/18/2006
Series:	Routledge Studies in the Social History of Medicine
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	296
File size:	987 KB

About the Author

Joseph Melling (University of Exeter, UK) (Author) , Bill Forsythe (University of Exeter, UK) (Author)

Table of Contents

1 Introduction: The English Asylum and its Historians 2 The Origins of the Asylum 3 The Asylum and the British State in the administration of pauper lunacy, 1845-1914 4 The Ethos of Treatment, Care and Management at the Asylum, 1845-1914 5 Journey to the Asylum: Residence, distance and migration in admissions to the Asylum, 1845-1914 6 Community, Friends and Family: Asylum, Lunatics and the social environment, 1845-1914 7 Reading the Rules of Domesticity: Gender, insanity and the asylum, 1845-1914 8 Madness and the Market: Occupations, class and the asylum, 1845-1914 9 The Patient Experience of the Pauper and Private Asylum 10 From Asylum Inmate to Outpatient: The remaking of the institutional landscape in the Twentieth Century, 1914-1990

Editorial Reviews

'The book is rich in findings founded on a strong evidential base and will be of interest not only to historians of medicine and social policy, but also those of gender, society and politics, as well as to historical geographers and sociologists ... An admirable book that should be a model for further contextualized studies of asylums in particular and regional medical cultures more generally that are needed in Britain and Ireland.' – The Economic History Review

'The book is rich in findings founded on a strong evidential base and will be of interest not only to historians of medicine and social policy, but also those of gender, society and politics, as well as to historical geographers and sociologists ... An admirable book that should be a model for further contextualized studies of asylums in particular and regional medical cultures more generally that are needed in Britain and Ireland.' – The Economic History Review

‘There is no doubt that The Politics of Madness is a major contribution that illuminates both the history of psychiatry and social policy.’ – Journal of the History of Medicine

From the Publisher