The poor law of lunacy : the administration of pauper lunatics in mid-nineteenth-century England / Peter Bartlett.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bartlett, Peter.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mentally ill--Institutional care--Government policy--England--History--19th century.

Mentally ill.

Mentally ill--Commitment and detention--England--History--19th century.

Psychiatric hospitals--England--History--19th century.

Psychiatric hospitals.

Poor laws--England--History--19th century.

Poor laws.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (331 p.)

Place of Publication:

London ; Washington : Leicester University Press, 1999.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Examines the legal and administrative regime of the 19th-century asylum, and argues that it is to be thought of as an aspect of English poor law, in which the medical superintendent of the asylum has little power. The text also examines the place of the county asylum movement in the poor law debates of the mid-19th century. Using the Leicestershire asylum as a case study, the author looks at the role of the poor law officers in the admission processes of the asylum, and relations between poor law staff, asylum staff and the poor law and lunacy central inspectorates.

Contents:

CONTENTS; 1 Socio-legal history and asylums; 2 Poor Law and asylum law as a single strand; 3 The legislation of pauper lunacy; 4 The pragmatics of coexistence: local officials and pauper lunacy; 5 Local administration: the creation of coherence among misfits; 6 The Lunacy Commissioners and the soft centre of reform; 7 Conclusion: asylums, Poor Law and modernity; Appendices

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786613200655

9781283200653

1283200651

9780567562173

0567562174

OCLC:

741691211