Mad, not bad: Crime, mental disorder and gender in nineteenth-century Ireland

History of Psychiatry

Volumn 8, Issue 4, 1997, Pages 501-516

  Prior, Pauline M ^a  

^a QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY BELFAST   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; HISTORY; IRELAND; MENTAL DISEASE; MENTAL HOSPITAL; PRISON; SEX;

HISTORY, 19TH CENTURY; HOSPITALS, PSYCHIATRIC; IRELAND; MENTAL DISORDERS; PRISONS; SEX;

EID: 0031311136     PISSN: 0957154X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0957154x9700803204     Document Type: Article

References (80)

1. See Anne Digby, Madness, Morality and Medicine: A Study of the York Retreat (Cambridge; University Press, 1985); Mark Finnane, Insanity and the Insane in Post Famine Ireland (London: Croom Helm, 1981); Gerald Grob, Mental Institutions in America (New York: Free Press, 1973); David Rothman, Conscience and Convenience: The Asylum and its Alternatives in Progressive America (Boston, MA: Little, Brown & Co.); Andrew Scull, Museums of Madness: The Social Organization of Insanity in Nineteenth Century England (London: Allen Lane, 1979).
2. See Anne Digby, Madness, Morality and Medicine: A Study of the York Retreat (Cambridge; University Press, 1985); Mark Finnane, Insanity and the Insane in Post Famine Ireland (London: Croom Helm, 1981); Gerald Grob, Mental Institutions in America (New York: Free Press, 1973); David Rothman, Conscience and Convenience: The Asylum and its Alternatives in Progressive America (Boston, MA: Little, Brown & Co.); Andrew Scull, Museums of Madness: The Social Organization of Insanity in Nineteenth Century England (London: Allen Lane, 1979).
3. See Anne Digby, Madness, Morality and Medicine: A Study of the York Retreat (Cambridge; University Press, 1985); Mark Finnane, Insanity and the Insane in Post Famine Ireland (London: Croom Helm, 1981); Gerald Grob, Mental Institutions in America (New York: Free Press, 1973); David Rothman, Conscience and Convenience: The Asylum and its Alternatives in Progressive America (Boston, MA: Little, Brown & Co.); Andrew Scull, Museums of Madness: The Social Organization of Insanity in Nineteenth Century England (London: Allen Lane, 1979).
4. See Anne Digby, Madness, Morality and Medicine: A Study of the York Retreat (Cambridge; University Press, 1985); Mark Finnane, Insanity and the Insane in Post Famine Ireland (London: Croom Helm, 1981); Gerald Grob, Mental Institutions in America (New York: Free Press, 1973); David Rothman, Conscience and Convenience: The Asylum and its Alternatives in Progressive America (Boston, MA: Little, Brown & Co.); Andrew Scull, Museums of Madness: The Social Organization of Insanity in Nineteenth Century England (London: Allen Lane, 1979).
5. See Anne Digby, Madness, Morality and Medicine: A Study of the York Retreat (Cambridge; University Press, 1985); Mark Finnane, Insanity and the Insane in Post Famine Ireland (London: Croom Helm, 1981); Gerald Grob, Mental Institutions in America (New York: Free Press, 1973); David Rothman, Conscience and Convenience: The Asylum and its Alternatives in Progressive America (Boston, MA: Little, Brown & Co.); Andrew Scull, Museums of Madness: The Social Organization of Insanity in Nineteenth Century England (London: Allen Lane, 1979).
6. The exceptions are the work of Nigel Walker Crime and Insanity in England Vols. 1 and 2 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1968 and 1973); Punishment, Danger and Stigma (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1980). Ralph Partridge, Broadmoor: A History of Criminal Lunacy and its Problems (London: Chato & Windus, 1953); Roger Smith, Trial by Medicine: Insanity and Responsibility in Victorian Trials (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1981).
7. The exceptions are the work of Nigel Walker Crime and Insanity in England Vols. 1 and 2 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1968 and 1973); Punishment, Danger and Stigma (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1980). Ralph Partridge, Broadmoor: A History of Criminal Lunacy and its Problems (London: Chato & Windus, 1953); Roger Smith, Trial by Medicine: Insanity and Responsibility in Victorian Trials (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1981).
8. The exceptions are the work of Nigel Walker Crime and Insanity in England Vols. 1 and 2 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1968 and 1973); Punishment, Danger and Stigma (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1980). Ralph Partridge, Broadmoor: A History of Criminal Lunacy and its Problems (London: Chato & Windus, 1953); Roger Smith, Trial by Medicine: Insanity and Responsibility in Victorian Trials (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1981).
9. The exceptions are the work of Nigel Walker Crime and Insanity in England Vols. 1 and 2 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1968 and 1973); Punishment, Danger and Stigma (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1980). Ralph Partridge, Broadmoor: A History of Criminal Lunacy and its Problems (London: Chato & Windus, 1953); Roger Smith, Trial by Medicine: Insanity and Responsibility in Victorian Trials (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1981).
10. Primary material held at Dundrum: Register of Inmates 1850-1900; Register of Admissions, Discharges and Deaths 1850-93 and 1893-1920s; Male and Female Casebooks 1893-1920s; Physician's Book 1872-1920s (during the time Dr Revington and Dr Ashe were Superintendents); Letter Book (Dr Ashe to the Inspectorate of Lunacy) 1870s and 1880s; Inventory 1890s.
11. Convict Record Files (CRF); Chief Secretary's Office Registered Papers (CSORP); Papers of the Office of Lunatic Asylums (OLA) held at the National Archives, Bishop St., Dublin.
12. Reports on the District, Local, and Private Lunatic Asylums in Ireland for the years 1845-1900.
13. Report of the Select Committee (HC) appointed to consider the legislative provisions already existing for support of the aged and infirm Poor of Ireland, and for the Punishment of Vagrants, and . . . also for making provision for the care of Lunatics and Idiots by Grand Jury Presentments, 1803-4 (109), IV. 771; Report of the Select Committee (HC) appointed to inquire into the relief of the Lunatic Poor in Ireland, 1817 (430), VIII. 33; Report from the Select Committee (HC) appointed to take into consideration the state of the Poorer Classes in Ireland relative to Lunatic Asylums, 1830 (667) VII. 1; Report by the Select Committee (HL) appointed to consider the state of the Lunatic Poor in Ireland, 1843 (625), X. 439; Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire whether any additional and other provision is required for the better care, relief, and treatment of the poor who are lunatic, idiotic or imbecile in mind or otherwise afflicted with mental disease, 1878-79 (c. 2239), XXXI. 1; Report of the Commission appointed by the Home Department to enquire into the subject of Criminal Lunacy, 1882 (c. 3418), XXXII. 841.
14. Select Committee (HL) on the State of the Lunatic Poor in Ireland, 1843, xxv.
15. Ibid., 13, Answer 123, Evidence of Dr Francis White on 20 July 1843
16. David Forshaw and Henry Rollin, 'The history of forensic psychiatry in England', in Robert Bluglass and Paul Bowden (eds), Principles and Practice of Forensic Psychiatry (Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 1990), 61-101; Walker, Crime and Insanity in England Vol. 2, 8.
17. David Forshaw and Henry Rollin, 'The history of forensic psychiatry in England', in Robert Bluglass and Paul Bowden (eds), Principles and Practice of Forensic Psychiatry (Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 1990), 61-101; Walker, Crime and Insanity in England Vol. 2, 8.
18. Report of the Inspector General on the District, Local and Private Lunatic Asylums in Ireland for the year 1845, 1845 (645) , XXVI. 269, 324.
19. Lunatic Asylums (Ireland) Act : 8 and 9 Vict. C. 107, Sect. 9.
20. Walker, op.cit., Vol. 2, 9.
21. Ibid., referring to the writings in 1854 of Dr Hood of Bethlem.
22. Forshaw and Rollin, op.cit., 95.
23. Kathleen Daly, Gender, Crime and Punishment (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1994): Alison Morris, Women, Crime and Criminal Justice (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987); Ngaire Naffine, Female Crime: The Construction of Women in Criminology (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1987).
24. Kathleen Daly, Gender, Crime and Punishment (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1994): Alison Morris, Women, Crime and Criminal Justice (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987); Ngaire Naffine, Female Crime: The Construction of Women in Criminology (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1987).
25. Kathleen Daly, Gender, Crime and Punishment (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1994): Alison Morris, Women, Crime and Criminal Justice (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987); Ngaire Naffine, Female Crime: The Construction of Women in Criminology (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1987).
26. P. Bebbington, C. Dean, G. Der, J. Hurry and C. Tennant, 'Gender, parity and the prevalence of minor affective disorder', British Journal of Psychiatry, clviii (1991), 40-5; D. Belle, 'Poverty and women's mental health', American Psychologist, xlv (3) (1990), 385-9. D. Belle and N. Goldman, 'Patterns of diagnoses received by men and women', in M. Guttentag et al. (eds), The Mental Health of Women (New York: Academic Press, 1990); E. Paykel, 'Depression in women', British Journal of Psychiatry, clviii (Suppl. 10) (1991), 22-9; Elaine Showalter, The Female Malady: Women, Madness and English Culture 1830-1980 (London: Virgo Press, 1987); V. Skultans, English Madness: Ideas on Insanity 1830-1890 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979).
27. P. Bebbington, C. Dean, G. Der, J. Hurry and C. Tennant, 'Gender, parity and the prevalence of minor affective disorder', British Journal of Psychiatry, clviii (1991), 40-5; D. Belle, 'Poverty and women's mental health', American Psychologist, xlv (3) (1990), 385-9. D. Belle and N. Goldman, 'Patterns of diagnoses received by men and women', in M. Guttentag et al. (eds), The Mental Health of Women (New York: Academic Press, 1990); E. Paykel, 'Depression in women', British Journal of Psychiatry, clviii (Suppl. 10) (1991), 22-9; Elaine Showalter, The Female Malady: Women, Madness and English Culture 1830-1980 (London: Virgo Press, 1987); V. Skultans, English Madness: Ideas on Insanity 1830-1890 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979).
28. P. Bebbington, C. Dean, G. Der, J. Hurry and C. Tennant, 'Gender, parity and the prevalence of minor affective disorder', British Journal of Psychiatry, clviii (1991), 40-5; D. Belle, 'Poverty and women's mental health', American Psychologist, xlv (3) (1990), 385-9. D. Belle and N. Goldman, 'Patterns of diagnoses received by men and women', in M. Guttentag et al. (eds), The Mental Health of Women (New York: Academic Press, 1990); E. Paykel, 'Depression in women', British Journal of Psychiatry, clviii (Suppl. 10) (1991), 22-9; Elaine Showalter, The Female Malady: Women, Madness and English Culture 1830-1980 (London: Virgo Press, 1987); V. Skultans, English Madness: Ideas on Insanity 1830-1890 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979).
29. P. Bebbington, C. Dean, G. Der, J. Hurry and C. Tennant, 'Gender, parity and the prevalence of minor affective disorder', British Journal of Psychiatry, clviii (1991), 40-5; D. Belle, 'Poverty and women's mental health', American Psychologist, xlv (3) (1990), 385-9. D. Belle and N. Goldman, 'Patterns of diagnoses received by men and women', in M. Guttentag et al. (eds), The Mental Health of Women (New York: Academic Press, 1990); E. Paykel, 'Depression in women', British Journal of Psychiatry, clviii (Suppl. 10) (1991), 22-9; Elaine Showalter, The Female Malady: Women, Madness and English Culture 1830-1980 (London: Virgo Press, 1987); V. Skultans, English Madness: Ideas on Insanity 1830-1890 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979).
30. P. Bebbington, C. Dean, G. Der, J. Hurry and C. Tennant, 'Gender, parity and the prevalence of minor affective disorder', British Journal of Psychiatry, clviii (1991), 40-5; D. Belle, 'Poverty and women's mental health', American Psychologist, xlv (3) (1990), 385-9. D. Belle and N. Goldman, 'Patterns of diagnoses received by men and women', in M. Guttentag et al. (eds), The Mental Health of Women (New York: Academic Press, 1990); E. Paykel, 'Depression in women', British Journal of Psychiatry, clviii (Suppl. 10) (1991), 22-9; Elaine Showalter, The Female Malady: Women, Madness and English Culture 1830-1980 (London: Virgo Press, 1987); V. Skultans, English Madness: Ideas on Insanity 1830-1890 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979).
31. P. Bebbington, C. Dean, G. Der, J. Hurry and C. Tennant, 'Gender, parity and the prevalence of minor affective disorder', British Journal of Psychiatry, clviii (1991), 40-5; D. Belle, 'Poverty and women's mental health', American Psychologist, xlv (3) (1990), 385-9. D. Belle and N. Goldman, 'Patterns of diagnoses received by men and women', in M. Guttentag et al. (eds), The Mental Health of Women (New York: Academic Press, 1990); E. Paykel, 'Depression in women', British Journal of Psychiatry, clviii (Suppl. 10) (1991), 22-9; Elaine Showalter, The Female Malady: Women, Madness and English Culture 1830-1980 (London: Virgo Press, 1987); V. Skultans, English Madness: Ideas on Insanity 1830-1890 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979).
32. Age range: Females: 17-80 years; Males: 14-78 years
33. Finnane, op. cit., 131-2.
34. 21st Report of the Inspectors of Lunacy on the district, criminal and private lunatic asylums in Ireland, 1872 (c. 647), XXVII. 323, 28.
35. Bebbington et al., op.cit.; Belle and Goldman, op. cit.
36. Bebbington et al., op.cit.; Belle and Goldman, op. cit.
37. R. F. Foster, Modern Ireland 1600-1972 (London: Penguin Books, 1988), Ch. 14.
38. D. V. Griffiths, 'The Chaplaincy Issue', Unpublished dissertation (Belfast: Queen's University, Department of Economic History, 1994).
39. Northern Whig, 4 December 1851, 2, col. 6.
40. 6th Report of the Inspectors of Lunacy on the district, criminal and private lunatic asylums of Ireland, 1852-3 (1653), XLI. 353, 17.
41. 7th Report of the Inspectors of Lunacy, 1854-5 (1981), XVI. 137, 20.
42. 29th Report of the Inspectors of Lunacy, 1880 (c. 2621), XXIX. 459, 19.
43. List of staff in the internal Report of the Inspectors of Lunacy on Dundrum, 1852. File OLA 6/1: Item 472, National Archives, Dublin.
44. Commission on Criminal Lunacy (England and Wales) 1882, 11.
45. Joele Guillais, Crimes of Passion: Dramas of Private Life in Nineteenth-century France (Oxford: Polity Press, 1986), 19.
46. 6th Report of the Inspectors of Lunacy, 1852-3, 14.
47. Central Criminal Lunatic Asylum, Male Casebook 1, 1893-1920s, p. 25, Case M 851.
48. Ibid.
49. Convict Record Files (CRF) for the year 1897, Misc. 1420/97, National Archives, Dublin.
50. Individuals were sent to Dundrum under different laws as outlined in the 2nd Report of the Inspectors of Lunacy, 1847, (820) XVII, 355. The following information is taken from there: Act 1st and 2nd Geo. IV, C. 33: applied to persons acquitted on the ground of insanity, of treason, murder, or other offences; to persons indicted and found insane at the time of their arraignment, or brought before any criminal court to be discharged for want of prosecution, appearing insane. Act 1st Vic., c. 27, related to persons apprehended under circumstances denoting a derangement of mind, and a purpose of committing an indictable crime (termed dangerous lunatics); to persons who have become insane under sentence of imprisonment or transportation, or under any warrant in default of surety to keep the peace. Act 8th and 9th Vic., c. 108 defined 'criminal lunatics' as meaning any person acquitted on the ground of insanity, or found to have been insane under the provisions of the Act 1st and 2nd Geo., IV, c. 33.
51. 7th Report of the Inspectors of Lunacy, 1854-5, 19.
52. Ibid.
53. Ruth Harris, Murders and Madness: Medicine, Law and Society in the Fin de Siècle (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), 210.
54. Guillais, op.cit., 25.
55. According to Article 324, line 2 of the Penal Code in France, a husband who murdered his wife or her lover when he caught them in flagrante delicto had committed excusable murder. For discussion, see Harris, op.cit., 210.
56. 7th Report of the Inspectors of Lunacy, 1854-5, 17.
57. Central Criminal Lunatic Asylum Male Casebook 3, 1893-1920, p. 62, Case M440.
58. Ibid.
59. Central Criminal Lunatic Asylum Physician's casebook from 1860, p. 109, Case M394 and M487.
60. Central Criminal Lunatic Asylum Male Casebook 2, 1893-1920, p. 179, Case M1091.
61. Ibid. See also CRF for 1902, File C. 45. 02, National Archives Dublin.
62. Including 35 for murder; 2 for homicide, 11 for manslaughter and 7 for infanticide.
63. Central Criminal Lunatic Asylum Female Casebook 1893-1920s, p. 145, Case F946.
64. See P. Hoffer and N. E. Hull, Murdering Mothers: Infanticide in England and New England 1558-1803 (New York: University Press, 1981).
65. Robert Bluglass, 'Infanticide and filicide', in Bluglass and Bowden, Principles and Practice of Forensic Psychiatry, 524.
66. Roger Smith, Trial by Medicine: Insanity and Responsibility in Victorian Trials (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1981), 143.
67. 6th Report of the Inspectors of Lunacy, 1852-3, 16.
68. In the mid nineteenth century in England, 61% of all homicide victims were under one year old.
69. Central Criminal Lunatic Asylum Female Casebook, 1893-1920s, p. 81, Case F861.
70. 42nd Report of the Inspectors of Lunacy, 1893-4 (c. 7125), XLVI. 369, 63.
71. Central Criminal Lunatic Asylum Female Casebook, 1893-1920s, p. 85, Case F868.
72. Smith, op.cit., 159.
73. Central Criminal Lunatic Asylum Female Casebook, 1893-1920s, p. 29, Case F772; Oscar T. Woods, 'Notes of a case of Folie à Deux in Five Members of one family', Journal of Mental Science, xxxiv, No. 148 (January 1889).
74. Central Criminal Lunatic Asylum Female Casebook, 1893-1920s, p. 29, Case F772; Oscar T. Woods, 'Notes of a case of Folie à Deux in Five Members of one family', Journal of Mental Science, xxxiv, No. 148 (January 1889).
75. Female Casebook, p. 29..
76. Woods, op.cit., 535.
77. Ibid., 539.
78. Ibid., 536.
79. 'The witch burning at Clonmel', Folklore: Transactions of the Folklore Society, vi, No. 4 (December 1895), 373-84.
80. Angela Bourke, 'Reading a woman's death: Colonial text and oral tradition in nineteenth-century Ireland', Feminist Studies, xxi (3) (1995), 552-86.