What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

Inconvenient People: Lunacy, Liberty and the Mad-Doctors in Victorian England
This topic is about Inconvenient People
29 views
SOLVED: Non-Fiction > SOLVED. Nonfiction book on Victorian Asylums [s]

Comments Showing 1-3 of 3 (3 new)    post a comment »
dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Cricket (last edited Dec 04, 2016 05:05PM) (new) - rated it 4 stars

Cricket (clutzycricket) | 9 comments I am trying to find this book on Victorian mental health and treatments. I thought I had in my library website list, but couldn't find it. I'm fairly sure I read it in the past three or four years, and forgive my scattered memory.

It focused on how declaring someone insane/committing them could be used as a way to force issues of property/gain control over funds. It possibly opened with a case about a mother trying to have her son committed to gain access to his money. (I can't remember if he wasn't giving it to her, or if she just disapproved, but I think he was generally a cranky/slightly odd person, and a business man. This was very early in the book, at least)

A lot of it focused on men, though some discussion was on women. (For some reason, I thought Caroline Norton was brought up, but I think it was another estranged-from-her-awful-husband woman novelist, one who wrote in response to said awful marriage. Charles Dickens was involved somehow, and I really want to remember the details!)


message 2: by GracieKat (new)

GracieKat | 124 comments Perhaps 10 Days in a Madhouse? Or was it published more recently?


Cricket (clutzycricket) | 9 comments Nope, I've read 10 Days. That being said...

It was in the sidebar in the corner when I went to that page. It's Inconvenient People: Lunacy, Liberty and the Mad-Doctors in Victorian England.

Thank you!


back to top