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A review by halfmanhalfbook
Inconvenient People: Lunacy, Liberty and the Mad-Doctors in Victorian England by Sarah Wise
3.0
In the mid Nineteenth century there was a series of panics about sane people being interred in lunatic asylums. This coupled with the rise of doctors who specialised in diagnosing the insane, regardless of actual condition, people felt their very liberty was under threat.
Through twelve case histories Wise brings to life the mental state of the middle and upper classes, and the way they treated their relatives who were considered different or odd in some way. She details cases where people were snatched from the street following a diagnosis from two doctors in the pay of the people most likely to benefit from the incarceration of those individuals. She details the frankly disturbing practices of the Commission that was charged with overseeing the law, and the way that the system was run and the reasons behind incarceration. Some of these reasons were so small and could lock people away for decades.
A well written book on the practices, and the reforms that were pushed through as society came to understand exactly what went on in the institutes. Worth a read for anyone interested in the history of mental health.
Through twelve case histories Wise brings to life the mental state of the middle and upper classes, and the way they treated their relatives who were considered different or odd in some way. She details cases where people were snatched from the street following a diagnosis from two doctors in the pay of the people most likely to benefit from the incarceration of those individuals. She details the frankly disturbing practices of the Commission that was charged with overseeing the law, and the way that the system was run and the reasons behind incarceration. Some of these reasons were so small and could lock people away for decades.
A well written book on the practices, and the reforms that were pushed through as society came to understand exactly what went on in the institutes. Worth a read for anyone interested in the history of mental health.