E-Books →Irish Insanity, 1800–2000

Irish Insanity identifies the long-term trends in institutional residency through the development of a detailed empirical data set, based on an analysis of original copies of the reports of Inspector of Asylums/Mental Hospitals in Ireland. Damien Brennan explores core social and historical features linked to this data including:
- the political context
- governance and social policy
- the relationship between church and state
- changing economic structures and social deprivation
- professionalization
- legislation and systems of admission and discharge
- categorisation and diagnostic criteria
- international developments
- family dynamics
This book demonstrates that the actual rate of asylum utilisation in Ireland was the highest by international standards, but challenges the idea that an "epidemic of Irish insanity" actually existed. Offering a historical and sociological insight into an institutional legacy that is unusual within the international context, this book will be of particular relevance and interest to scholars within the fields of sociology, criminology, law, history, Irish studies, social policy, anthropology, nursing and medicine.