Madness Monday - sent to the asylum

Mental Health Week is over for another year. The ABC did a great job this year with Mental As ... campaign. It amazes me that government and not-for-profit groups make such a fuss over Mental Health Week, I have always thought that mental health awareness should be part of every week.

So, thinking about mental illness and the way our forebears were treated, I thought i would write a little today about the history of mental health care for women in the Victorian era. This follows on from a previous post about my great-grandmother, Mary Connor.

These days, work stress, postnatal depression and anxiety are addressed with compassion. But just a few generations ago, the women who suffered from these conditions, were confined to an asylum.

New York lunatic asylum on Blackwell's Island in 1868

In the mid to late 1800s women were expected to behave according to society's expectations, held to the archetype of a obedient housewife and mother. As such, if a women was to behave in a way that opposed the views or opinions held by her husband, the husband would then declare the wife insane and have her sent to an asylum.

Many women ended up in the asylum even if they were in perfect mental health.

Madness Monday

When I saw the blogging prompt Madness Monday I thought, this is one for me. Having spent a great part of my life with mental illness and working to improve mental health services I thought this is a heavensent opportunity to share some stories. 

Where to start? Well, why not at the beginning of madness. In his seminal 1961 work, Madness and Civilisation: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason, Michel Foucault confronts the reader and changes way you think about society.

Think of all the words used to describe madness: insane, insanity, craziness, crackers, loopy, mad, crazy, crackpot, possessed, mentally ill, abnormal, schizo, batty, deranged, nuts, psycho, psychotic, paranoid, raving, unhinged, loony..... Can you think of more?

Then what about 'normal people? What is - or is not - 'normal' may have much to do with the labels that are applied to people in particular settings. 

I will further explore madness, asylums and my family in later Madness Monday posts. 

To be continued...