The reasons people ended up in asylums in Victorian Britain were often as sinister as the treatments themselves. Husbands who wanted rid of wives, or families who stood to make money by getting a relative out of the way, were known for plotting to have them hauled off. It took only two doctors’ signatures to get rid of an inconvenient wife or rich eccentric relative.
Poor working-class women were among the most vulnerable. Infidelity was evidence of moral insanity and could see a woman end up in the asylum.
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