Women & Lunacy in the 19th Century: Did these women truly need to be admitted to asylums, or was their admittance an example of their lack of power to control their own lives?
Ladies, think the Victorian Era is all pretty dresses and elegance? It wasn’t, and it wasn’t easy being a lady in the 19th Century either. Between the years of 1850 and 1900, women were placed in mental institutions for behaving in ways that male society did not agree with.

The diagnosis of “insane by unknown reasons” was given to women who showed many different symptoms. Simply talking back to her husband once too often could have a woman admitted, or having an illegitimate child, having an abortion, suffering from grief after the loss of a loved one, experiencing fright/terror, or simply disagreeing with something. Women’s rights were extremely limited, and it appears that the category “insane by unknown reasons” was used broadly.

tagged as: Architecture. Asylum. History. Insanity. Victorian. Women.