'A Mother Specific Disorder For a Mother Specific Crime': Alienists, Infanticide and Puerperal Insanity in Nineteenth-Century Britain

Search for this publication on Google Scholar
Burgess, L. (2020). 'A Mother Specific Disorder For a Mother Specific Crime': Alienists, Infanticide and Puerperal Insanity in Nineteenth-Century Britain. Unc Charlotte Electronic Theses And Dissertations.
Download PDF

Analytics

261 views ◎
195 downloads ⇓


Abstract

From the early nineteenth century, the British medical community worked to redefine and reassert their professional space within society. During this process, medical men developed specific areas of focus and began to develop these into specialized subfields of medical knowledge. This thesis tracks how alienists – the self-ascribed term for early psychiatrists – established themselves as a recognized medical field by the end of the nineteenth century. Utilizing markers of specialization developed by historians George Rosen and George Weisz, this study analyzes how alienists asserted their specialized authority in two professional arenas: the medical field and the legal system. This study focuses on the development of puerperal insanity as a mental disorder and its connection to infanticide to outline how alienists met these markers of specialization by the close of the nineteenth century. This study is broken into three sections, as it tracks alienist’s professional development; firstly, in the medical field, secondly, the legal field, and thirdly, the medical/legal intersection at the specialized institution, Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum. This thesis argues that alienists’ early development in the medical field assisted their professional extension into the legal arena, which in turn bolstered their continued, and eventually successful, claim to specialized authority over insanity by the start of the twentieth century. Focusing on puerperal insanity, this thesis analyzes its development by alienists and how it assisted them in defining their specialized role in the medical and legal community.

Details
Author

Burgess, Laura

Title

'A Mother Specific Disorder For a Mother Specific Crime': Alienists, Infanticide and Puerperal Insanity in Nineteenth-Century Britain

Physical Description

1 online resource (120 pages) : PDF

Date

2020

Degree Granting Institution

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Abstract

From the early nineteenth century, the British medical community worked to redefine and reassert their professional space within society. During this process, medical men developed specific areas of focus and began to develop these into specialized subfields of medical knowledge. This thesis tracks how alienists – the self-ascribed term for early psychiatrists – established themselves as a recognized medical field by the end of the nineteenth century. Utilizing markers of specialization developed by historians George Rosen and George Weisz, this study analyzes how alienists asserted their specialized authority in two professional arenas: the medical field and the legal system. This study focuses on the development of puerperal insanity as a mental disorder and its connection to infanticide to outline how alienists met these markers of specialization by the close of the nineteenth century. This study is broken into three sections, as it tracks alienist’s professional development; firstly, in the medical field, secondly, the legal field, and thirdly, the medical/legal intersection at the specialized institution, Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum. This thesis argues that alienists’ early development in the medical field assisted their professional extension into the legal arena, which in turn bolstered their continued, and eventually successful, claim to specialized authority over insanity by the start of the twentieth century. Focusing on puerperal insanity, this thesis analyzes its development by alienists and how it assisted them in defining their specialized role in the medical and legal community.

Genre

masters theses

Subjects--Topics

History

Degree

M.A.

Keywords

British History
Broadmoor Asylum
History of Medicine
History of Psychiatry
Infanticide
Victorian Britain

Subject Area

History

Advisor(s)

Perry, Heather

Committee Members

Thorsheim, Peter
Johnson, David

Degree Note

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2020.

Rights Statement

This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). For additional information, see http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/.

Rights Holder Information

Copyright is held by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Identifier

Burgess_uncc_0694N_12449

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:2158