Structures of confinement in nineteenth-century asylums, using England and Ontario as a comparative study

Bartlett, Peter

Abstract

Traditionally, historians of the care of the insane have understood their work as a branch of medical history. This paper focuses instead on the administrative structures of nineteenth century asylums. These are geographically specific and historically contingent. The development of medico-legal discourse will depend on localized histories of medicine and law in individual jurisdictions concerned. In this paper, the legal structures of public asylums in Ontario and England in the mid-nineteenth century are taken as a case study of this approach. Consideration of the differences in administrative structures challenges the degree to which the institutions were understood in the same way in the nineteenth century, and can be understood as comparable by historians today: is it appropriate to refer to ‘the asylum’ as a coherent and consistent concept between jurisdictions in the nineteenth century. The answer may well be in the affirmative, but it will become clear that differences in administrative structures are significant, and as instructive as similarities.

Citation

Bartlett, P. (2000). Structures of confinement in nineteenth-century asylums, using England and Ontario as a comparative study. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 23(1), https://doi.org/10.1016/S0160-2527%2898%2900041-7

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2000
• Deposit Date: Aug 24, 2012
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 24, 2012
• Journal: International Journal of Law and Psychiatry
• Print ISSN: 0160-2527
• Electronic ISSN: 0160-2527
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 23
• Issue: 1
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0160-2527%2898%2900041-7
• Keywords: nineteenth-century asylums; lunacy; administrative law; poor law; England; Ontario; Toronto
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1023583
• Publisher URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160252798000417
• Related Public URLs: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0160-2527(98)00041-7
• Additional Information: NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in International Journal of Law and Psychiatry. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 23(1) (2000), 1-13, doi: 10.1016/S0160-2527(98)00041-7