Child Insanity in England, 1845-1907

by Steven Taylor

Overview

This book explores the treatment, administration, and experience of children and young people certified as insane in England during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It uses a range of sources from Victorian institutions to explore regional differences, rural and urban comparisons, and categories of mental illness and mental disability. The discussion of diverse pathways in and out of the asylum offers an opportunity to reassess nineteenth-century child mental impairment in a broad social-cultural context, and its conclusions widen the parameters of a ‘mixed economy of care’ by introducing multiple sites of treatment and confinement. Through its expansive scope the analysis intersects with topics such as the history of childhood, institutional culture, urbanisation, regional economic development, welfare history, and philanthropy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349956067
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	06/27/2018
Series:	Palgrave Studies in the History of Childhood
Edition description:	Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2017
Pages:	188
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Steven J. Taylor is Research Assistant at the Centre for Health Histories at the University of Huddersfield and Honorary Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Medical Humanities at the University of Leicester, UK. His work has been published in Family and Community History, History of Psychiatry, and History.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction.- 2. 'Much below insects, and so little above sensitive plants': Constructing the Insane Child.- 3. Networks of Care: Asylum Children, Typology, and Experience.- 4. Looking Out from the Asylum: Deathbeds, Distribution, and Diversity.- 5. Beyond the Asylum: Dealing with Insane Children.- 6. Conclusion.

Editorial Reviews

In this new volume for the series Palgrave Studies in the History of Childhood, edited by George Rousseau and Laurence Brockliss, Steven Taylor examines the history of child insanity in England. … Taylor’s book adds much to our knowledge, awareness, and understanding of the social histories of childhood and mental health.” (Catharine Coleborne, The Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth, Vol. 11 (1), 2018)

From the Publisher