"Fit objects for an asylum": The Hampshire County Lunatic Asylum and its patients, 1852-1899

This research uses the records of the Hampshire County Asylum (HCA) between its<br/>opening in 1852 and the end of the nineteenth century to offer a different perspective<br/>on asylum history. Though it discusses the asylum in legal, medical and social welfare<br/>contexts it focuses on the experience of individuals and their families and the part<br/>played by the HCA in their lives. The perspective and methodology of the research<br/>reflect the recognition of the importance of individual experience in the construction<br/>of historical exposition.<br/><br/>In the course of the research a database of patients' personal information was<br/>constructed from asylum records. The resulting analysis of individual experience of<br/>admission to the HCA suggests that, for many patients, admission was short-term and<br/>temporary, caused by a combination of symptoms and events that erupted into crisis.<br/>For others the HCA provided a level of care that could not be sustained at home and<br/>for some an asylum admission was only part of a wider and continuing strategy of care<br/>which enabled troubled families to continue to function.<br/><br/>The thesis concludes that, although the county asylum was a potent symbol of many<br/>aspects of Victorian society, it should be seen, not as defining those who encountered<br/>it, but as a part, sometimes essential but often small, of their personal and family<br/>narratives.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Ph.D.

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Southampton

Year dc:date.issued

2003

Author dc:creator

• Burt, Susan Margaret

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Hinde, Andrew
• Knowles, Caroline