The Cost of Insanity in Nineteenth-Century Ireland
Public, Voluntary and Private Asylum Care
Author(s)
Mauger, Alice
Collection
WellcomeLanguage
EnglishAbstract
This open access book is the first comparative study of public, voluntary and private asylums in nineteenth-century Ireland. Examining nine institutions, it explores whether concepts of social class and status and the emergence of a strong middle class informed interactions between gender, religion, identity and insanity. It questions whether medical and lay explanations of mental illness and its causes, and patient experiences, were influenced by these concepts. The strong emphasis on land and its interconnectedness with notions of class identity and respectability in Ireland lends a particularly interesting dimension. The book interrogates the popular notion that relatives were routinely locked away to be deprived of land or inheritance, querying how often “land grabbing” Irish families really abused the asylum system for their personal economic gain. The book will be of interest to scholars of nineteenth-century Ireland and the history of psychiatry and medicine in Britain and Ireland.
Keywords
public asylum; voluntary asylum; private asylum; insanity; mental health; costs; healthcare; Ireland; nineteenth century; Belfast; Dublin; Ennis; Enniscorthy; Hampstead; Lunatic asylum; Psychiatric hospitalDOI
10.1007/978-3-319-65244-3ISBN
9783319652443OCN
1076791127Publisher
Springer NaturePublisher website
https://www.springernature.com/gp/products/booksPublication date and place
Basingstoke, 2017Grantor
Imprint
Palgrave MacmillanSeries
Mental Health in Historical Perspective,Classification
History
Mental health services