The Certification of Insanity: Local Origins and Global Consequences
Abstract (summary)
This dissertation explores the certification of insanity in the British empire during the second half of the nineteenth century. Considering a variety of legal, archival, and published sources, it traces the local origins and global dissemination of a peculiar method for determining lunacy defined as the “Victorian system”. Shaped by the dynamics surrounding the clandestine committal of wealthy Londoners in private madhouses, this system featured three distinctive tenets: standardized forms, independent medical examinations, and written facts of insanity. Despite their complexity, Victorian certificates achieved a remarkable success. Not only did they survive in the United Kingdom for more than a century, but they also served as a model for the development of mental health laws around the world. By the start of WWII, more than seventy colonial and non-colonial jurisdictions adopted the Victorian formula for making lunacy official with some countries still relying on it to this very day. Using case studies from Europe, the Americas, and the Pacific, this study charts the temporal and geographical trajectory of an imperial technology for deciding over a person’s destiny. Shifting the focus from metropolitan policies to colonial dynamics, from macro developments to micro histories, it looks at the perspective of families, doctors, and public officials as they came in touch with the delicate business of certification. Filling a gap in the literature, this study offers the first systematic attempt to study the certification of insanity from a comparative viewpoint. It claims that lunacy certificates had far-reaching consequences for individuals, medical science, and welfare policies. In particular, the spread of the Victorian system of certification exposed the lack of psychiatric expertise within the medical profession, it arranged a standardized procedure for determining mental derangement around the world, and informed mental health documents until the present.
Indexing (details)
Law;
Science history;
Mental health;
Political science;
European history
0398: Law
0585: Science history
0335: European history
0347: Mental health
0615: Political science
