Lunatic Hospitals in Georgian England, 1750 1830 constitutes the first comprehensive study of the philanthropic asylum system in Georgian England. Using original research and drawing upon a wide range of expertise on the history of mental health this book demonstrates the crucial role of the lunatic hospitals in the early development of a national system of psychiatric institutions.

These hospitals were to form an essential historical link in the emergence of a national system of institutional provision for mentally disordered people. They provided important prototypes for the...