Alexa is giving us some information about the asylums of the time. It is both troubling and interesting at the same time. Thank you, Alexa, for sharing your research and your talents in writing.
Thank you, Janet, for allowing me this opportunity to
present my newest novel, The Madness of
Mr. Darcy, to your readers. This book takes place in 1832, more than twenty
years after the events of Pride &
Prejudice, and imagines what might have happened if Lydia and Wickham
parted ways before Mr. Darcy could find them and force a marriage. The years
have been hard on our hero, in no small part because of the loss of his true
love, Elizabeth Bennet. The Madness of
Mr. Darcy reunites them in the most unlikely of locations. Ramsey House is
a private asylum for the unhinged genteel. Mr. Darcy finds himself there after
committing an uncontrolled act of violence and nearly murdering a man.
“You have extensive
lands, Mr. Darcy, I think.” Mr. Knightley said, continuing his offensive
maneuvers.
“Yes. Pemberley is a
large estate.”
“I have heard of it
before. In whose hands do you trust it while here?”
“My cousin, Lord
Matlock’s.”
“Then you have nothing
to fear. Fitzwilliam already has too much to possibly require any more.
Besides, is not his son your heir?” Darcy nodded to the earl in affirmation.
“I think your assets
are in rather safe hands.”
“Is it common for
relations to seize estates while their owners are…indisposed? One hears of such
things, of course, but I admit to thinking such accounts more sensational than
representative.”
“Such things do
happen, though you are right – it is not common. Nevertheless, certain persons
of influence have been pushing to codify into law the rights of those, like us,
who find themselves incapable of handling their own affairs,” Mr. Knightley
said, with a hint of bitterness in his voice. “It is a cause I should have
liked to take up.”
By 1830s, when my book takes place, private asylums had a
very bad public image. Before the 19th century there were no public
asylums in England at all but the infamous Bedlam, more formally referred to as
Bethlem Royal Hospital, which had been in operation in one form or the other
since 1247. Over the centuries little progress was made in what we now call the
mental health field. Lunatics (a technical term) were confined and restrained
as needed to prevent harm to others. There was little notion of true treatment
or attempt to cure. Bedlam couldn’t house all the madmen in Britain, and a
prosperous industry developed out of the housing the mad in private homes. A
private madhouse could hold anywhere from one or two lunatics to hundreds, and
those who profited from them seldom had little interest in or knowledge of
medicine. Healing these poor inmates would be bad for business, and there was
no one to hold the owners of asylums accountable for their “treatments” but the
families who had confined relations to their care.
I would be remiss if I didn’t pause to note that this is the
same manner in which may contended with other inconvenient relations, like the
mentally, developmentally, or physically challenged, such as Jane Austen’s
brother George, who was sent to live with another family at a young age and
seldom referred to.
The situation began to improve in many ways in the 18th
century. Doctors became interested in actually treating madness as a disease,
though it would not be until the 1845 Lunacy Act that inmates of asylums would
be legally considered as patients. A few notorious cases of abuse mid-century
led to the Madhouse Act of 1774, which required madhouses be licensed,
inspected annually, and instituted fees for holding unregistered inmates.
George III’s illness increased attention and interest in treating madness
instead of just containing it, and a new breed of private asylums flourished,
forsaking restraints and chains for moral therapy, which strove to rehabilitate
the insane through country settings, labor, and reinforcement of routine.
Despite reforms, public paranoia regarding private asylums continued to
increase, and the 1808 County Asylums Act paved the way for the first public
asylums in the countryside. Though abuse surely diminished in the private
facilities, increased scrutiny revealed more, and a few sensational cases held
a pretty tight grasp on the public’s imagination. The Madhouses Act of 1828
brought metropolitan asylums under the oversight of the new Commission in
Lunacy, and an 1832 act further refined the legislation. The 1845 act gave the
final death blow to the private asylum when it required every county to build a
public asylum for paupers. Enormous institutional structures, designed to resemble
country homes in all but their monstrous proportions, cropped up all over
England, and the only private asylums left in business were those like my
Ramsey House, catering to an elite clientele. New attempts to cure the insane
led to new abuses, in some ways all the more horrific for being sanctioned by
medical authority. Nevertheless, the significance of these early attempts to
understand the mind and treat the mentally ill should not be underestimated. It
was the birth of psychiatry. While Ramsey House is entirely the product of my
imagination, I based it upon what we know of such institutions and tried to
ground it in reality: a private madhouse flourishing at its pinnacle yet on the
verge of extinction.
If you’re interested in learning more about my writing
please visit me at alexaadams.blogspot.com.
I am currently celebrating Halloween with a new Mansfield Park prequel entitled Becoming
Mrs. Norris. Come join in the fun!
Thanks again, Janet. It’s been a pleasure.
