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Loading... Inconvenient People: Lunacy, Liberty and the Mad-Doctors in Victorian England (edition 2012)by Sarah Wise (Author)
Work InformationInconvenient People: Lunacy, Liberty and the Mad-Doctors in Victorian England by Sarah Wise
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. 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. no reviews | add a review
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The phenomenon of false allegations of mental illness is as old as our first interactions as human beings. Every one of us has described some other person as crazy or insane, and most all of us have had periods, moments at least, of madness. But it took the confluence of the law and medical science, mad-doctors, alienists, priests and barristers, to raise the matter to a level of "science," capable of being used by conniving relatives, "designing families" and scheming neighbors to destroy people who found themselves in the way, people whose removal could provide their survivors with money or property or other less frivolous benefits. Girl Interrupted in only a recent example. And reversing this sort of diagnosis and incarceration became increasingly more difficult, as even the most temperate attempt to leave these "homes" or "hospitals" was deemed "crazy." Kept in a madhouse, one became a little mad, as Jack Nicholson and Ken Kesey explain in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. In this sadly terrifying, emotionally moving, and occasionally hilarious book, twelve cases of contested lunacy are offered as examples of the shifting arguments regarding what constituted sanity and insanity. They offer unique insight into the fears of sexuality, inherited madness, greed and fraud, until public feeling shifted and turned against the rising alienists who would challenge liberty and freedom of people who were perhaps simply "difficult," but were turned into victims of this unscrupulous trade. This fascinating book is filled with stories almost impossible to believe but wildly engaging, a book one will not soon forget. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)344.4104409034Social sciences Law Labor, social service, education, cultural law [Option B: Law > Europe] Europe [Option B: Law > France] British Isles - UK, Great Britain, Scotland, Ireland Miscellaneous social problems and services Mental health services and services to substance abusers History, geographic treatment, biography 1500- 1800-1899LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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One of the most fascinating stories is John Perceval, son of the PM Spencer Perceval, who wrote an account of his time in an asylum he was confined to after a breakdown possibly triggered by his involvement in the Irvingites, a Christian religious sect. After finally being released he founded the Alleged Lunatics' Friend Society, which agitated for reform of the lunacy law as well as advocating for those felt to be unlawfully or unfairly confined, a cause he dedicated the rest of his life too. The book gives a good account of his experiences and his ideas, promoting an idea of recovery based on a patient's internal life and understanding that still seems fresh today. He comes across as an impressive character, with an unusual blend of a highly aristocratic sense of hierarchy combined with strong sympathy and material support for those of the "lower orders" treated badly. ( )