Diagnosis And Treatment of Senile Dementia

Reading that one of your Victorian ancestors was classified as a lunatic who should be confined in an asylum is clearly very distressing, but at the turn of the last century it was a common diagnosis. People with late-stage syphilis, senile dementia or postnatal depression were often locked away, and although the Victorians believed in “moral treatment” for them – a disciplined stress-free daily routine – there was still a stigma attached to being in an asylum so the family members left outside often struggled to survive. Ray Winstone, Claire Sweeney and Al Murray run the gamut of emotions when they discover how their relatives fared when they were categorised as lunatics.

Reading that one of your Victorian ancestors was classified as a lunatic who should be confined in an asylum is clearly very distressing, but at the turn of the last century it was a common diagnosis. People with late-stage syphilis, senile dementia or postnatal depression were often locked away, and although the Victorians believed in “moral treatment” for them – a disciplined stress-free daily routine – there was still a stigma attached to being in an asylum so the family members left outside often struggled to survive. Ray Winstone, Claire Sweeney and Al Murray run the gamut of emotions when they discover how their relatives fared when they were categorised as lunatics.