Houses of Madness : Insanity and Asylums of Bengal in Nineteenth-century India

Houses of Madness is a history of asylums of colonial Bengal in the nineteenth century. It explores these institutions through several phases that not only involved changes in medical treatment and its interpretation, but also the question of spatial distribution within these institutions. Comparing medical practices in India and England, this book traces the various definitions of insanity that evolved during the period and shows how changes in definition of insanity over the century led to a change in the social composition of asylum inmates.