Lost Souls - (International Library of Historical Studies) by Diana Peschier (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

How did the Victorians view mental illness? After discovering the case-notes of women in Victorian asylums, Diana Peschier reveals how mental illness was recorded by both medical practitioners and in the popular literature of the era, and why madness became so closely associated with femininity. Her research reveals the plight of women incarcerated in 19th century asylums, how they became patients, and the ways they were perceived by their family, medical professionals, society and by themselves.

Review Quotes

The book is testimony to the gendered nature of diagnosis and treatment in Victorian asylums and provides fascinating insights into the lives of the women discussed. It should inspire historians of family and community to investigate the lives of those women admitted to Victorian asylums, and provides context to their experiences.
Family and Community History

The diverse texts Peschier examines in Lost Souls compose a rich, understudied resource that will continue to yield valuable insights into religion's formative role in historical frameworks of cognitive difference in Western contexts and prehistories of what disability scholars and activists have called neurodiversity.
H-Disability

This is a fascinating exposition of female madness and how it manifested itself in religious expression in the Victorian era. Peschier's extensive research provides us with a unique insight into the gendered treatment of these beleaguered women.
Julie Peakman, author of Hitler's Island War (2017), and Amatory Pleasures (2016)

About the Author

Diana Peschier holds a PhD from University of London. She is the author of Nineteenth-century Anti-Catholic Discourse: The Case of Charlotte Bronte (2005)