Mental disability in Victorian England: the Earlswood Asylum, 1847-1901

This book contributes to the growing scholarly interest in the history of disability by investigating the emergence of 'idiot' asylums in Victorian England. Using the National Asylum for Idiots, Earlswood, as a case-study, David Wright investigates the social history of institutionalization and reveals the diversity of the 'insane' population and the complexities of institutional committal in Victorian England. He contends that institutional confinement of mentallydisabled and mentally ill individuals in the nineteenth century cannot be understood independently of a detailed analysis of familial and community patterns of care.