Check out our latest publication:
E. Hurren and S. A. King, ‘Circulation, circularity and the “place” of institutions in nineteenth-century England and Wales’, in C. Beardmore (ed.), Navigating the Nineteenth-Century Institution (Newcastle, 2024), 177-202.
Here we argue that enforced circulation of people living with mental illness – between families, institutions, the street and other areas of containment, was the norm in the nineteenth century. If this sounds familiar then it should. Exactly the same processes happen to people living with mental illness in 2025. The difference between now and then is that in the past the ‘mad’ and their families had more options for agency than they do now. We reflect on what modern policy makers might learn from this historical precedent.
