Re-placing the lunatic asylum in the history of madness

Abstract

The history of madness remains one of the most fascinating and contested fields in modern social history. For several decades, scholarship has focussed on analysing the rise of the lunatic asylum and the new profession of psychiatry that was forged within its walls. Individuals diagnosed as insane were largely considered passive victims of social forces beyond their control. However, a new generation of scholarship has sought to de-centre the asylum and reconceptualise the ‘mad’ as historical actors with agency who had troubled lives outside of the formal institution. This article reflects on some major themes in the English-language historiography of madness over the last forty years, at the same time placing some Australian scholarship within that wider context throughout the narrative and in references. It highlights how, paradoxically, histories of the lunatic asylum have provided new insights into extramural care, the persistence of non-medical discourses about insanity, and the subjective experiences of the insane. Rather than ‘out of sight and out of mind’ – an historical topic resting on the periphery of modern social history – this new literature on the history of madness and the asylum illustrates how psychological distress was a mainstream social problem that upended family relations and profoundly disrupted community life.