A Latent Historiography? The Case of Psychiatry in Britain, 1500–1820

Abstract

Both empirically and interpretively, extant histories of psychiatry reveal a vastly greater degree of difference among themselves than historical accounts of any other field. Scholarship focuses on the period after 1800 and the same is true of historiographical reviews; those of early modern British psychiatry are often brief literature studies. This article sets out in depth the development of this rich and varied branch of history since the 1950s, exploring the many different approaches that have contributed to understanding the mad and how they were treated. Social, cultural, philosophical, religious, and intellectual historians have contributed as much as historians of science and medicine to understanding an enduring topic of fascination: ‘disorders of consciousness and conduct’ and their context. Appreciating the sometimes unacknowledged lineages of the subject and the personal histories of scholars (roots and routes) makes it easier to understand the past, present, and future of the history of psychiatry. The article explores European and North American influences as well as British traditions, looking at both the main currents of historiographical change and developments particular to the history of psychiatry.

De lunatico inquirendo: managing family inheritance across madness in eighteenth-century London

“…Madness in eighteenth-century England is less well understood than in the nineteenth century, for which legislation and bureaucratic records are more plentiful (Foyster, 2002; Houston, 2014; Macdonald, 1989). The incidence of madness in the population has been estimated using reports at quarter sessions from a sample of Poor Law records (Suzuki, 1991).…”

Introduction: histories of asylums, insanity and psychiatry in Scotland

“…The impression might hence be of a nineteenth-century will among prominent Scottish lay and medical authorities substantially to institutionalize the mentally unwell along the lines of what occurred south of the border, but Houston (2014 : 304) appends this caveat: England used to be seen as the norm for the development of institutional care; in fact, it followed only one of several pathways and Wales, Ireland and Scotland were different. … Scotland’s ‘mixed economy of welfare’ had more domestic care and a prominent voluntary sector; like Wales, it had few private asylums.…”

Asylums: the historical perspective before, during, and after

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It is simplest to expose the influence of ideologies by looking at historiography, which is the history of how and why historians, as both individuals and 'schools', approach their subject. 4 The prevailing narrative of asylum development in the mid-20 th century is exemplified by Kathleen Jones, whose work still features among RCPsych recommended reading. With its origins in traditional Christian Evangelism and Liberal Reformism, practical knowledge of asylums (her husband was chaplain to one), and the optimism of the early Welfare State, Jones' work is an account of progress in both psychiatric science and state intervention.

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