Overview
- Takes the experience of Indian patients, families and local practitioners as the focus of this study, rather than psychiatry
- Traces the history of lunatic asylums in Bombay, drawing extensively on Indian and British archival sources
- Offers a new narrative of mental health treatment in India through its exploration of the historical traumas associated with these colonial institutions
Part of the book series: Mental Health in Historical Perspective (MHHP)
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Table of contents (7 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
This book traces the historical roots of the problems in India’s mental health care system. It accounts for indigenous experiences of the lunatic asylum in the Bombay Presidency (1793-1921). The book argues that the colonial lunatic asylum failed to assimilate into Indian society and therefore remained a failed colonial-medical enterprise. It begins by assessing the implications of lunatic asylums on indigenous knowledge and healing traditions. It then examines the lunatic asylum as a ‘middle-ground’, and the European superintendents’ ‘common-sense’ treatment of Indian insanity. Furthermore, it analyses the soundscapes of Bombay’s asylums, and the extent to which public perceptions influenced their use. Lunatic asylums left a legacy of historical trauma for the indigenous community because of their coercive and custodial character. This book aims to disrupt that legacy of trauma and to enable new narratives in mental health treatment in India.
Reviews
“In this pioneering study of asylums in the Bombay Presidency Sarah Pinto argues that the colonial imposition of asylums quickly became subverted. Attentive to the everyday workings of the asylums and the views of them by the communities in which they operated, this study suggests how understanding the history of the treatment of the mentally ill is vital to reconceptualising theirtreatment today.” (Barbara Brookes, Professor of History, University of Otago, New Zealand)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Sarah Ann Pinto completed her PhD in History from Victoria University of Wellington in 2017. Her awards include the ‘Bowen Prize for the Best Student in History, 2017', and the ‘Fr Henry Heras Prize, 2008’. Her passion for history and healing motivates her research. Through her work, she intends to enable new narratives in mental health treatment.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Lunatic Asylums in Colonial Bombay
Book Subtitle: Shackled Bodies, Unchained Minds
Authors: Sarah Ann Pinto
Series Title: Mental Health in Historical Perspective
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94244-5
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: History, History (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-94243-8Published: 10 September 2018
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-06818-9Published: 28 December 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-94244-5Published: 28 August 2018
Series ISSN: 2634-6036
Series E-ISSN: 2634-6044
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVII, 242
Number of Illustrations: 28 illustrations in colour
Topics: Social History, History of South Asia, Imperialism and Colonialism, History of Medicine