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5 Households and institutionalisation

Abstract

The main concern of this chapter is to identify the groups in nineteenth-century Irish society most susceptible to admission into, and discharge from, asylums. It explores the impact household structures, asylum governors and medical superintendents had on certification and discharge procedures. The chapter argues that the patient profile generally associated with the Irish asylum population emerged in the late nineteenth century. An accurate and nuanced assessment of those in society prone to asylum institutionalisation can only be established through a comprehensive analysis of asylum admission, discharge and death rates. The certification of relatives into nineteenth-century Irish asylums occurred in the context of high levels of distress and anxiety for patients and families. In the earlier period, the Carlow asylum population was similar to later nineteenth-century English asylum populations.

Abstract

The main concern of this chapter is to identify the groups in nineteenth-century Irish society most susceptible to admission into, and discharge from, asylums. It explores the impact household structures, asylum governors and medical superintendents had on certification and discharge procedures. The chapter argues that the patient profile generally associated with the Irish asylum population emerged in the late nineteenth century. An accurate and nuanced assessment of those in society prone to asylum institutionalisation can only be established through a comprehensive analysis of asylum admission, discharge and death rates. The certification of relatives into nineteenth-century Irish asylums occurred in the context of high levels of distress and anxiety for patients and families. In the earlier period, the Carlow asylum population was similar to later nineteenth-century English asylum populations.

Chapters in this book

  1. Front matter i
  2. Contents v
  3. List of figures vi
  4. List of tables viii
  5. Acknowledgements ix
  6. Abbreviations x
  7. Introduction xi
  8. 1 Shaping the Irish asylum system 1
  9. 2 Expansion and demand 34
  10. 3 Routes into the asylums 73
  11. 4 Insanity on display 97
  12. 5 Households and institutionalisation 133
  13. 6 Workhouses and the mentally ill 169
  14. 7 Inside the asylums 195
  15. 8 Conclusion 240
  16. Select bibliography 245
  17. Index 267
Negotiating insanity in the southeast of Ireland, 1820–1900
This chapter is in the book Negotiating insanity in the southeast of Ireland, 1820–1900
https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526129840.00012

Chapters in this book

  1. Front matter i
  2. Contents v
  3. List of figures vi
  4. List of tables viii
  5. Acknowledgements ix
  6. Abbreviations x
  7. Introduction xi
  8. 1 Shaping the Irish asylum system 1
  9. 2 Expansion and demand 34
  10. 3 Routes into the asylums 73
  11. 4 Insanity on display 97
  12. 5 Households and institutionalisation 133
  13. 6 Workhouses and the mentally ill 169
  14. 7 Inside the asylums 195
  15. 8 Conclusion 240
  16. Select bibliography 245
  17. Index 267
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