ABSTRACT
New Disciplines, New Masculinities in 1800 approximately 5000 patients were conned in British lunatic asylums. By 1900 the total had leapt to 100,000. Popular conceptions of madness in Victorian culture were, and are closely entwined with femininity, with nervous women in general and hysterical ones in particular being understood as archetypal asylum patients. Madness and its Primary Causes In 1810, William Black, physician to Bethlem, was among therst doctors to produce a list of what he considered the primary causes of madness. Grief, the most common cause on Black’s list, continued to be seen as a key factor throughout the nineteenth century, and its modern manifestation in bereavement counselling is one of the primary reasons for seeking mental health support. Various men became highly agitated, displaying symptoms of mania, having been made redundant by their employers, or fearing that they were about to become so.
