Family, community and the Victorian asylum

A case study of the Northampton General Lunatic Asylum and its pauper lunatics

Bibliographic Data

ID12669398
AuthorsCathy Smith (0000-0002-4916-7851), Catherine Smith (0000-0002-0081-7024, corresponding author)
Year2006
Volume9
Issue2
Pages109-124
Publication date2006-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueFamily & Community History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1463-1180 • E-ISSN: 1751-3812
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1179/175138106x146133
OpenAlexW2008047788
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited21

This article explores how the medicalization of poverty in 19th-century aetiologies of insanity provided the basis for which the Northampton General Lunatic Asylum became an option for the relief and treatment of the poor. It is argued that the poor, their communities and poor law officials, by being key to the process of committal, were partially responsible for the asylum population and the role that the asylum played in the local community. The article explores how important poverty was in asylum admissions and, from an analysis of the length of stay of those entering the asylum, the number of patients for whom the asylum provided short-term respite. Using case histories of patients, the article argues for the asylum to be seen as part of the poor law process that discriminated between the deserving and undeserving poor

Criminology · Insanity · Lunatic · Medicalization · Political science · Poor law · Population · Poverty · Psychiatry · Refugee · Respite care · Sociology · Historical and Scientific Studies · Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Law · Medicine · Nursing