Mental Illness and Learning Disability since 1850: Finding a Place for Mental Disorder in the United Kingdom

by Pamela Dale (Editor), Joseph Melling (Editor)

Overview

Taking forward the debate on the role and power of institutions for treating and incarcerating the insane, this volume challenges recent scholarship and focuses on a wide range of factors impacting on the care and confinement of the insane since 1850, including such things as the community, Poor Law authorities, local government and the voluntary sector.

Questioning the notion that institutions were generally ‘benign’ and responsive to the needs of households, this work also emphasizes the important role of the diversity of interests in shaping institutional facilities.

A fresh, stimulating step forward in the history of institutional care, Mental Illness and Learning Disability since 1850 is undoubtedly an important resource for student and scholar alike.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415364911
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	03/02/2006
Series:	Routledge Studies in the Social History of Medicine , #22
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Pamela Dale is a Wellcome Fellow based in the Centre for medicinal History at the University of Exeter and is currently working on a project exploring the relationship between health visitors and Medical Officers of Health.

Joseph Melling is Reader in the History of Industrial Health and Welfare and Assistant Director of the Centre for Medical History at the University of Exeter.

Table of Contents

1. The Politics of Mental Welfare: Fresh Perspectives on the History of Institutionalized Care for the Mentally Ill and Disabled 2. Workhouse Care of the Insane 1845-1890 3. Needs and Desires in the Care of Paper Lunatics: Admissions to Worcester Asylum, 1852-1872 4. 'Buried Alive by her Friends' Asylum Narratives and the English Governess, 1845-1914 5. Separatism and Exclusion: Women in Psychiatry 1900-1950 6. Family, Gender and Class in Psychiatric Patient Care during the 1930s: The Mental Treatment Act and the Devon Mental Hospital 7. The 'Manufacture' of Mental Defectives Increased in Scotland (1857-1939) 8. Tension in the Voluntary-Statutory Alliance: 'Lay Professionals' and the Planning and Delivery of Mental Deficiency Services, 1917-1945 9.'A Satisfactory Job Is the Best Psychiatrist' Employment and Mental Health 1939- 60 10. Inside the Walls of the Hostel 1930-1974 11. Landmarks in the Care of the Mentally Disordered