Confinement of the Insane: International Perspectives, 1800-1965

Review
"[An] useful little volume...In terms of what is happening in asylum history today, this volume represents the cream of the cream." Edward Shorter, American Journal of Psychiatry

"Basing their analyses on archival data, they present nuanced and subtle interpretations that offer fresh insight into the mental-health policies of different nations...these younger historians offer a complex model that grows out of deep research...Such research can also have contemporary policy implications." Nature


Book Description
This collection of essays explores the development of the lunatic asylum, and the concept of confinement for those considered insane, in different national contexts over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Leading scholars in the field of medical history have contributed extensive primary research through individual case studies in the context of the legal, social, economic, and political situations of thirteen different countries. The book represents the first truly international history of the mental hospital, and is, therefore, a landmark comparative study in the history of medicine.


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The rise of the asylum constitutes one of the most profound, and controversial, events in the history of medicine. Recently, 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. 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.


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This edited volume brings together fourteen 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 or their 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.


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