Insanity and Ethnicity: Jews in the Mid-Victorian Lunatic Asylum

Abstract

There is currently much interest in how members of ethnic minorities experience the psychiatric system. In mid-Victorian provincial England, the presence of Jews as a small but significant minority was reflected in the population of lunatic asylums that served cities such as Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham. Case evidence suggests certain patterns of symptom presentation and behaviour among Jewish asylum patients. In some instances, delusional ideas and other symptoms of disturbance show a clear religious or cultural content. The response of the asylum authorities to Jewish patients varied from the sympathetic and accepting to the unthinking and prejudiced. Culturally determined behaviour could easily be interpreted as part of the manifestation of mental disorder.