Insanity, race and colonialism : managing mental disorder in the post-emancipation British Caribbean, 1838-1914 / Leonard Smith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smith, Leonard D., 1947-

Contributor:

Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.

Series:

Cambridge imperial and post-colonial studies series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Black people--Mental health--West Indies, British.

Black people.

Mental Health--history.

Black people--Mental health.

West Indies.

Medical Subjects:

Mental Health--history.

West Indies.

Physical Description:

288 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

Summary:

Despite emancipation from the evils of enslavement in 1838, most people of African origin in the British West Indian colonies continued to suffer serious material deprivation and racial oppression. This book examines the management and treatment of those who became insane, in the period until 1914. The exposure of deplorable conditions and flagrant abuses in the public lunatic asylum in Kingston, Jamaica, in the late 1850s exemplified the defective nature of provision for mentally disordered people throughout the region. Thereafter, British-inspired 'civilising' reforms were gradually implemented in the main Caribbean territories. However, in some of the region's other colonies, improvements were little more than cosmetic. The circumstances that propelled people into the lunatic asylums are explored, as are the characteristics and experiences of those who inhabited the Institutions. The dilemmas and contradictions apparent in asylum management highlighted the perennial difficulties of the British imperial project in action. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Caribbean Institutions in Context 6

The rise of the public asylum in England 6

An empire of asylums 12

Islands of dislocation and despair 19

Conclusions 27

2 The Early Lunatic Asylums 29

Antecedents 30

Madness in jail 35

Troubled beginnings 39

Conclusions 47

3 Scandal in Jamaica - The Kingston Lunatic Asylum 49

Looming problems 50

Four years of turmoil 53

A degraded institution 61

A racial dimension? 66

Aftermath 69

Observations 72

4 Reform - The Jamaica Lunatic Asylum 75

Birth pains 75

The model institution 81

Decline and stagnation 89

Conclusion: Fluctuating fortunes 94

5 Colonial Asylums in Transition 97

British Guiana - A glimpse of the vision 97

Trinidad

Toward the grand design 102

Barbados - A slow walk to Jenkinsville 108

Small islands, small aspirations 116

Conclusion: Contrasting experiences 124

6 Pathways to the Asylum 126

Background circumstances 127

Precipitants 139

Becoming a patient 147

Conclusion: Benevolent intervention or social control? 151

7 The Patient Challenge 153

Of class, colour and race 153

Categorisations and presentations 158

Protest and confrontation 166

Conclusions 171

8 The Colonial Asylum Regime 173

The moral management system - civilising the lunatics 173

Medical interventions 181

Attendants and nurses 184

Conclusion: Unfulfilled ambitions 191.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

1137028629

9781137028624

OCLC:

902004340

Publisher Number:

99960607289