Space of Their Own: The Archaeology of Nineteenth Century Lunatic Asylums in Britain, South Australia and Tasmania (eBook)

Employing the considerable archaeological and historical skills in her armory, Susan Piddock tries to lift the lid on the lunatic asylums of years gone by. Films and television programs have portrayed them as places of horror where the patients are restrained and left to listen to the cries of their fellow inmates in despair. But what was the world of nineteenth century lunatic asylums really like? Are these images true, or are we laboring under a misunderstanding?

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This book draws largely on my unpublished Doctoral Thesis: A Space of Their Own: Nineteenth Century Lunatic Asylums in England, South Australia and Tasmania, and l am happy to send information on South Australia and Tasmania not included in this book to interested readers. I would like to dedicate this book to my family who have lived for many years with my passion for lunatic asylums, and in particular my mother, Margaret Piddock, manuscript reader extraordinary. I would like to thank Professor Vincent Megaw for introducing me to the Destitute Asylum excavation and for starting me on the path of institutional archaeology, and for his and Ruth Megaw's support through my student years, and Claire Smith and Heather Burke for helping turn research into a thesis. I would like to thank James Gibb for preparing illustrations from my tracings and Dr. Elizabeth Heath, for her support over the years and for reading of this book in its various stages. v P Piddock-FM.indd v iddock-FM.indd v 9 9/7/2007 11:47:25 AM /7/2007 11:47:25 AM Glossary Acute/manic/furious/frantic - these words were used to describe the behaviour of the insane while they were experiencing the initial on set of mental illness or a further period of mental illness when their actions were uncontrolled and the person could not be reasoned with. Patients in this state were often physically restless, sometimes violent, and difficult to reason with.