ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author aims to make use of some of these neglected comparative materials to develop a structurally based explanation of the rise of segregative means of managing the mad. The increased mobility of the population and the anonymity of existence in the urban slums were combined with the destruction of the old paternal relationships that went with a stable, hierarchically organized rural society. The changes in structures, perceptions, and outlook marking the transition from the old paternalist order to a capitalist social system triggered a search for an alternative to traditional, noninstitutional methods of managing the indigent. The mechanisms for coping with deviance in pre-nineteenth century England placed a corresponding reliance on an essentially communal and family-based system of control. One of the attractions of the asylum as a method of dealing with the insane was its promise of instilling the virtues of bourgeois rationality into that segment of the population least amenable to them.
