A01=Amy Milne-Smith
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
asylums
Author_Amy Milne-Smith
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Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HBLL
Category=HBTB
Category=JBSF2
Category=JFSJ2
Category=JKSM
Category=NHTB
COP=United Kingdom
degeneration
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
family care
family secrets
homosexuality
Language_English
madness
manhood
media panic
mental health
PA=Available
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
sexuality
softlaunch
Victorian Britain
wrongful confinement
Product details
- ISBN 9781526178855
- Weight: 382g
- Dimensions: 138 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 28 May 2024
- Publisher: Manchester University Press
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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Out of His Mind interrogates how Victorians made sense of the madman as both a social reality and a cultural representation. Even at the height of enthusiasm for the curative powers of nineteenth-century psychiatry, to be certified as a lunatic meant a loss of one’s freedom and in many ways one’s identify. Because men had the most power and authority in Victorian Britain, this also meant they had the most to lose. The madman was often a marginal figure, confined in private homes, hospitals, and asylums. Yet as a cultural phenomenon he loomed large, tapping into broader social anxieties about respectability, masculine self-control, and fears of degeneration. Using a wealth of case notes, press accounts, literature, medical and government reports, this text provides a rich window into public understandings and personal experiences of men’s insanity.
Amy Milne-Smith is Professor of History at Wilfrid Laurier University
