The history of lunatic asylums – what do we really know about them? Films and television programs have portrayed them as places of horror where the patients are restrained and left to listen to the cries of their fellow inmates in despair. But what was the world of nineteenth century lunatic asylums really like? Are these images true? This book will explore this world using the techniques of historical archaeology and history.
In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries the advent of new treatments for insanity based on moral therapy and non-restraint, and an increasing social awareness of the conditions in which the insane were being kept led to a new focus on the provisions made for the insane in “madhouses”, lunatic asylums and hospitals. In response to this new focus those interested in the reform of these places and the new treatment regimes began to describe what lunatic asylums should be if they were going to bring the insane back to sanity. In this book a new methodology is developed using these descriptions as the basis of a series of ‘ideal’ asylum models. A comparison of these ‘ideal’ asylums to the lunatic asylums built in England, South Australia and Tasmania allows us to enter the world of the nineteenth century asylum, and to understand the effects of achieving or failing to achieve the ‘ideal’ asylum on life within these places.
Through the case studies of England, South Australia, and Tasmania, this book seeks to identify the forces at work within each society that led to the particular provisions being made for the insane in each place. It will be argued that the adoption of the ‘ideal’ asylum features can be directly related to a number of key factors, these were: access to a pool of knowledge about lunatic asylum design; economic constraints; the treatment mode adopted; and social perceptions of who was to be accommodated in the asylum - paupers, the middle class, the higher class, or convicts.
Author(s): Susan Piddock
Series: Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology
Edition: 1
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 271
Table of Contents......Page 9
Preface......Page 6
Glossary......Page 7
CHAPTER 1: A Space of Their Own......Page 13
Book Outline......Page 18
CHAPTER 2: The Archaeology of Institutions......Page 19
Testing History......Page 21
Paternalism, Domination and Resistance......Page 22
Reform and Symbolism......Page 26
Institutions and Space......Page 28
Research Design......Page 31
A Theoretical Approach to the Archaeology of Lunatic Asylums......Page 34
Sources of Information: The Ideal Asylum......Page 41
Sources of Information: Built Asylums in England......Page 43
The Case Studies: South Australia and Tasmania......Page 45
Original Documentation......Page 46
CHAPTER 4: The Changing Face of Insanity and Rise of the Institution......Page 49
Moral Treatment and the Asylum......Page 50
The Non-Restraint Movement......Page 52
The Rise of the Lunatic Asylum......Page 56
Discussion......Page 58
CHAPTER 5: Constructing the 'Ideal'......Page 60
The 'Ideal' Lunatic Asylum: Early Experiments 1807–1809......Page 61
The Moral Environment: Tuke, Hill and Browne 1813–1838......Page 63
The 'Ideal' Asylum Detailed: Jacobi and Conolly 1841–47......Page 68
Further Ideas About The 'ideal' Asylum: Sankey and Arlidge......Page 75
Variations on a Theme: Pavilion and Cottage Asylums 1860–1865......Page 81
Conclusion......Page 86
CHAPTER 6: The British Lunatic Asylum: Ideals and Realities......Page 88
Variety and Experimentation: Charity Hospitals and Early Lunatic Asylums 1800–1844......Page 89
The 'Ideal' Asylum of Browne – 1837......Page 92
Uniformity: The County Asylums – 1845 to 1869......Page 94
Discussion......Page 99
Later County Asylums – 1870 to 1880......Page 104
The 'Ideal' Asylums of Jacobi, Sankey and Robertson......Page 105
Discussion......Page 107
Life within the Asylum......Page 108
A Gendered World......Page 112
Conclusion......Page 116
CHAPTER 7: South Australia and the 'Ideal' Lunatic Asylum......Page 118
A Brief History of the Adelaide and Parkside Lunatic Asylums......Page 119
The South Australian Asylums and the 'Ideal' Asylum Model of John Conolly......Page 137
The 'Ideal' Asylums of Browne, Jacobi, Sankey and Robertson......Page 144
Life in the Asylums......Page 149
A Gendered Experience......Page 155
Discussion......Page 157
A Convict Colony......Page 159
A Brief History of the New Norfolk Hospital for the Insane, Port Arthur and Cascades Lunatic Asylums......Page 160
Methodological Issues......Page 174
Port Arthur and Cascades Asylums and the 'Ideal' Models......Page 175
New Norfolk and the 'Ideal' Asylum of John Conolly......Page 177
New Norfolk and the Models of Browne, Jacobi, Sankey and Robertson......Page 184
Life in the Hospital......Page 185
Discussion......Page 192
CHAPTER 9: The 'Ideal' Asylum: A World of Difference......Page 193
British Asylums and Australian Institutions: Commonalities or Differences?......Page 194
South Australia and Tasmania: Similarities and Differences......Page 199
Factors Influencing the Built Provisions of British Asylums......Page 201
Economic Constraints......Page 204
Knowledge of the Overseas Treatment of the Insane......Page 218
Social Perceptions of the Insane: The Presence of Convicts......Page 215
Treatment Regimes......Page 219
Discussion......Page 221
Economic Constraints......Page 213
Conclusion......Page 222
Archaeology and Institutions......Page 225
Life within the Asylum......Page 228
A Gendered Experience......Page 231
An Artificial World......Page 232
The Twentieth Century......Page 233
1. The Location of Illustrations of Lunatic Asylums discussed in Chapter 6......Page 234
2. Treatment Regimes in South Australia......Page 236
3. Treatment Regimes in Tasmania......Page 243
Abbreviations......Page 248
References......Page 251
B......Page 263
C......Page 264
D......Page 265
I......Page 266
M......Page 267
R......Page 268
S......Page 269
W......Page 270
Y......Page 271
