Life in the Victorian Asylum
The World of 19th-Century Mental Health Care
Mark Stevens
Pen & Sword 2020
Pb, 192pp, £11.99, ISBN 9781526782090
The image conjured by the phrase “Victorian lunatic asylum” is one of dark, disreputable pandemonium and mistreatment. Mark Stevens is one of many historians who have set out to uncover the truth behind this popular perception, and through this book he outlines what life was really like for those who lived and worked in these infamous institutions.
As an archivist, Stevens is well acquainted with the records relating to historical mental hospitals. Building upon his earlier work Broadmoor Revealed, and using the surviving material from the Moulsford Asylum in Berkshire, he presents the day-to-day experience of a typical Victorian lunatic institution.
The book aims to immerse the reader in the 19th-century mental health care system, both from the perspective of the patients and through a general lens of a wider history of the topic. Uniquely, the first section, “The Victorian Asylum’s Patient Handbook” addresses the reader as though they were entering the institution themselves and describes their upcoming journey through the expected treatments and daily regime. There’s also a chapter giving direct guidance to the patient’s friends and family. Whilst this is something of a gimmick and is slightly misleading, as individuals wouldn’t be led through asylum life in such an instructive manner, the book provides a wealth of information to those completely new to the history of mental health care, and addresses some of the popular misconceptions.
The second section is set out in a more conventional manner, and the author does well to condense over 200 years of history of mental health services in Britain into a small number of chapters. Using the example of Moulsford, he demonstrates what it took to build an asylum, and what happened in the 20th century to dismantle the network of lunatic institutions.
Stevens’s immersive take on the Victorian lunatic asylum is a great sensory experience for newcomers to the topic, and does well to counteract the darkened perceptions surrounding these establishments. The use of real patient examples brings the reader closer to those who lived through this period in such a universally feared setting. What the book lacks is a broader context; for instance, the journey of the patient, their treatment and diagnosis, could benefit from a larger engagement with contemporary alienists and the development of the wider field of psychiatry. On the whole, though, a good introduction to the Victorian lunatic asylum, with the added advantage of some great contemporary illustrations.
Cara Dobbing
★★★★