The insane in 19th-century Britain: a statistical analysis of a Scottish insane asylum

Abstract

This paper deals with an insane asylum po pulation in the second half of the 19th century in Glas gow, Scotland. First, it attempts to place the asylum wit hin the mental health context of the time by determi ning the extent of the use of moral management, a po pular method for treating the insane in the 19th centu ry. The results indicate that, in keeping with widely-held views, moral management was used alongside other, more traditional, methods, but that its use seemed to be in decline toward the end of the century. Second, it uses statistical data gathered from the admissions register of the Royal Asylum in Glasgow to describe the inmates' social and economic background, medical history, and experience inside the asylum. Third, it also uses these data to try to determine gender differences in the asy lum experience of women and men. The findings do not indicate statistically significant differences between wo men and men in the asylum, suggesting that the asylum experience had less to do with gender than with social and economic status and background. The study of insanity has enjoyed much popularity in the last twenty years due in large part to work done by Michel Foucault (1) and to an accom panying growth of interest in social history. In the past ten years or so the study of insanity has also involved many feminist historians, in British history, perhaps most notably Elaine Showalter (2). Important in both the se and indeed in any British social history of the insane has been the recognition of society's attitudes toward the insane themselves. Questions that often arise include, for example, in what social and mental health context did the insane find themselves? This, in turn, helps us to discover to what extent such deviant behavior was accepted within a society. Also, * Address all communications to Mary Orr Johnson, University of Strath clyde, z. Zt. Zentralarchiv f?r Empirische Sozialforschung Abt. ZHSF, Universit?t zu K?ln, Bachemerstr. 40, D-5000 K?ln 41.