Biomaterial Database

Getting out of the asylum: understanding the confinement of the insane in the nineteenth century. 1997

D Wright

Department of History, University of Nottingham, UK.

This paper critically re-examines our assumptions about the social rule of asylums in the nineteenth century by separating the history of the confinement from the history of psychiatry. Rather than medical superintendents being central to the admission of patients, this paper will argue that control over confinement was predicated upon the desires of families to care for and control dependent and violent relatives. The confinement of the insane can thus be seen not as a consequence of a professionalizing psychiatric elite, but rather as a strategic response of households to the stresses of industrialization. The second part of this paper surveys changing approaches to the social history of the asylum and directs these techniques to a combination of institutional and non-institutional sources which will shed new light on the dynamic between informal patterns of family caring 'in the community' and formal medical treatment in purpose-built institutions. Having set out the methodological possibilities of using new types of admission records, the last section of this paper explores different approaches to the history of the family and applies them to the question of why the insane were confined. This will provide an analytical framework for understanding the interface between the family and the formal medical institution. Throughout, this paper draws on more than three dozen international studies to illuminate some comparative aspects of confinement in different national contexts.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007326	Institutionalization	The caring for individuals in institutions and their adaptation to routines characteristic of the institutional environment, and/or their loss of adaptation to life outside the institution.	Institutionalized Persons,Institutionalizations,Institutionalized Person,Person, Institutionalized,Persons, Institutionalized
D010343	Patient Admission	The process of accepting patients. The concept includes patients accepted for medical and nursing care in a hospital or other health care institution.	Voluntary Admission,Admission, Patient,Admission, Voluntary,Admissions, Patient,Admissions, Voluntary,Patient Admissions,Voluntary Admissions
D010361	Patients	Individuals participating in the health care system for the purpose of receiving therapeutic, diagnostic, or preventive procedures.	Clients,Client,Patient
D011368	Professional-Family Relations	The interactions between the professional person and the family.	Professional Family Relationship,Family Relationship, Professional,Family Relationships, Professional,Professional Family Relations,Professional Family Relationships,Professional-Family Relation,Relation, Professional-Family,Relations, Professional-Family,Relationship, Professional Family,Relationships, Professional Family
D005192	Family Health	The health status of the family as a unit including the impact of the health of one member of the family on the family as a unit and on individual family members; also, the impact of family organization or disorganization on the health status of its members.	Health, Family
D006778	Hospitals, Psychiatric	Special hospitals which provide care to the mentally ill patient.	Mental Hospitals,Hospitals, Mental,Mental Institutions,Psychiatric Hospitals,Hospital, Mental,Hospital, Psychiatric,Institution, Mental,Institutions, Mental,Mental Hospital,Mental Institution,Psychiatric Hospital
D049672	History, 19th Century	Time period from 1801 through 1900 of the common era.	19th Century History,19th Cent. History (Medicine),19th Cent. History of Medicine,19th Cent. Medicine,Historical Events, 19th Century,History of Medicine, 19th Cent.,History, Nineteenth Century,Medical History, 19th Cent.,Medicine, 19th Cent.,19th Cent. Histories (Medicine),19th Century Histories,Cent. Histories, 19th (Medicine),Cent. History, 19th (Medicine),Century Histories, 19th,Century Histories, Nineteenth,Century History, 19th,Century History, Nineteenth,Histories, 19th Cent. (Medicine),Histories, 19th Century,Histories, Nineteenth Century,History, 19th Cent. (Medicine),Nineteenth Century Histories,Nineteenth Century History
D049673	History, 20th Century	Time period from 1901 through 2000 of the common era.	20th Century History,20th Cent. History (Medicine),20th Cent. History of Medicine,20th Cent. Medicine,Historical Events, 20th Century,History of Medicine, 20th Cent.,History, Twentieth Century,Medical History, 20th Cent.,Medicine, 20th Cent.,20th Cent. Histories (Medicine),20th Century Histories,Cent. Histories, 20th (Medicine),Cent. History, 20th (Medicine),Century Histories, 20th,Century Histories, Twentieth,Century History, 20th,Century History, Twentieth,Histories, 20th Cent. (Medicine),Histories, 20th Century,Histories, Twentieth Century,History, 20th Cent. (Medicine),Twentieth Century Histories,Twentieth Century History