My Experiences in a Lunatic Asylum
'My Experiences in a Lunatic Asylum ' Summary
Fully titled My Experiences in a Lunatic Asylum, by a Sane Patient, this memoir describes its author's, Herman Merivale's, experience in one of England's countryside asylums during the 1860's. The main subject - in this case, the author - is less than justly sentenced to a facility for the mentally disturbed. Literally crazy caricatures abound, prisoner and jailer alike. Lofty psychology experts float in and out of Merivale's stay, some more respectable than others, but mostly clueless to patients' real needs. Nurses withhold or too bountifully dispense medications. Wardens rely on inhumane tactics to illicit compliance. As our writer states, this time in British history was "when imprisonment was a form of cruelty which [needed] a new name." He highlights the horrific, hopeless conditions faced by any man, woman or child with even a mild case of depression or of schizophrenia or, for perhaps the most unfortunate souls, of ill-meaning family paying hefty sums to have them committed.
Book Details
Author
Herman Charles Merivale
United States
Herman Charles Merivale was an English dramatist and poet, son of Herman Merivale. He also used the punning pseudonym Felix Dale. Herman Charles Merivale was born in London on 27 January 1839, the on...
More on Herman Charles MerivaleDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
- Select Speed
Related books
Discoveries Among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon by Austen Layard
Austen Henry Layard is best known as the excavator of Nimrud and of Nineveh, where he uncovered a large proportion of the Assyrian palace reliefs know...
Biographical Memoir of John Wesley Powell, 1834-1902 by William Morris Davis
In the early days of the American West, a young man named John Wesley Powell set out to explore the Colorado River and its canyonlands. His journey wo...
Across the Plains in 1844 by Catherine Sager Pringle
The Sager family, including seven children, set out on the Oregon trail in 1844. Accidents and disease made it a dangerous trip, and both parents died...
The Fun of Getting Thin by Samuel G. Blythe
In a world filled with fad diets and endless exercise regimens, Samuel G. Blythe's 'The Fun of Getting Thin' offers a refreshing perspective on achiev...
A Son of the Middle Border by Hamlin Garland
The son of a civil war vet in the Midwest, Garland hated farming and the frontier, and was delighted to (after some adjustment) find a living in the c...
The Autobiography of an Indian Princess by Sunity Devi
Unveil the fascinating journey of an Indian princess as she navigates a world torn between tradition and modernity in "The Autobiography of an Indian...
Reminiscences of My Life in Camp by Susie King Taylor
This book invites readers on an intimate journey through one woman's extraordinary experiences during the American Civil War. With captivating detail...
My Lady Ludlow by Elizabeth Gaskell
My Lady Ludlow is a novel by Elizabeth Gaskell. It appeared in the magazine Household Words in 1858, and was republished in Round the Sofa in 1859, wi...
Memoir of Washington Irving by Charles Adams
Arguably one of America's greatest writers, Washington Irving is the author of such classics as "Legend of Sleepy Hollow," "Bracebridge Hall," and "Kn...
The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth by T.D. Bonner
As a young man, Beckwourth moved to the American West, first making connections with fur traders in St. Louis. As a fur trapper, he lived with the Cro...
Reviews for My Experiences in a Lunatic Asylum
No reviews posted or approved, yet...