Beschreibung:
How did the Victorians view mental illness? After discovering the case-notes of women in Victorian asylums, Diana Peschier reveals how mental illness was recorded by both medical practitioners and in the popular literature of the era, and why madness became so closely associated with femininity. Her research reveals the plight of women incarcerated in 19th century asylums, how they became patients, and the ways they were perceived by their family, medical professionals, society and by themselves.
Chapter One: Introduction: The Sin of Eve and Dangerous EmotionsChapter Two: Wives, Mothers and Abuse of Women in the AsylumChapter Three: Women with Religious ExcitementChapter Four: Evangelical Sunday School Teaching: Lessons for GirlsChapter Five: Physical IllnessChapter Six: Asylums and Madness Mirrored in Nineteenth-Century LiteratureChapter Seven: Male Asylum PatientsEpilogueBibliography and Sources