How can you trace forebears who were patients in lunatic asylums and
find out about their lives? What sources can you consult to discover
their personal histories and gain an insight into their experiences? In
this concise, accessible handbook, Michelle Higgs answers these
questions. She provides a fascinating introduction to the subject and
gives readers the means to explore the records for themselves.
She concentrates on the period from the eighteenth century through to
1948 when the National Health Service was founded and looks in
particular at the Victorian era which is the most popular period for
research. Using original records, contemporary accounts, photographs,
illustrations and case studies of real individuals, she brings the story
of the asylums and their patients to life.
Different types of institution are described such as private madhouses,
county lunatic asylums, facilities for idiots and imbeciles, and
military mental hospitals. Chapters look at the admission procedures and
daily routine of patients, plus different kinds of mental illness and
how they were treated - for instance, those with depression or mania,
criminal lunatics, mothers with puerperal insanity, epileptics and
soldiers suffering from shell shock. There are sections on the systems
in Scotland and Ireland, as well as England and Wales. Information is
provided on all the relevant sources, from wills and the census to
casebooks and admission and discharge registers.
