Digital Commons Network^™

Hysterical Women: Moral Treatment Of Female Patients In The Fremantle Lunatic Asylum, 1858 – 1908, Alexandra Wallis

Theses

From 1858 to 1908, at least 452 women were admitted to the Fremantle Lunatic Asylum. Through an exploration of nineteenth-century theories of moral treatment, new insights into female patient experiences will allow for greater understanding of Fremantle’s working-class women in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including those behaviours that were considered insane. The appraisal of moral treatment techniques also allows for a new investigation into the enforcement of nineteenth-century, socially-accepted ideas of womanhood.

In its three parts, using patient records, case books, and other sources, this thesis examines understandings of women’s insanity as they evolved in nineteenth-century Britain. It …