Conditions and Controversy

Abstract

The final chapter focuses upon the issues and concerns highlighted by the private madhouse’s many vocal critics. Smith assembles evidence to demonstrate that internal standards and conditions in both London and provincial madhouses ranged across a wide spectrum, from the almost exemplary to the utterly scandalous. He examines the phenomenon of ‘wrongful confinement’, regarded in some quarters as the greatest of the evils associated with private madhouses. Other forms of malpractice and abuse are shown to have been conducted by some madhouse proprietors. Smith concludes by giving due prominence to the articulations of dissent and protest by people with direct experience of the madhouse, as patients or former patients.