Insanity and the Lunatic Asylum in the Nineteenth Century

The nineteenth-century asylum was the scene of both terrible abuses and significant advancements in treatment and care. The essays in this collection look at the asylum from the perspective of the place itself - its architecture, funding and purpose - and at the experience of those who were sent there. Fictional as well as historical sources are used in order to present a study of the asylum both as it was and as it was perceived in the popular imagination.