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Owen-davies
Owen Davies
Sarah-wise-by-paul-neish-(black-and-white)
Sarah Wise
Louisa-treger
Louisa Treger
Matthew-stadlen
Matthew Stadlen

Locked Away in the Asylum: Two Centuries of Mental Health Scandal

Owen Davies, Sarah Wise and Louisa Treger

Saturday, 16 March 2024

4:00pm

1 hour

Weston Lecture Theatre

£8 - £15

Social historians Professor Owen Davies and Professor Sarah Wise and novelist Louisa Treger discuss attitudes to mental health over the last two centuries and how they often led to scandalous cases of injustice.

How did the birth of psychiatry in the 19th century change how madness was understood and attitudes to those who believed in ghosts and the supernatural? Why were 50,000 people locked up by the British government following the Mental Deficiency Act of 1913? And how did one pioneering 19th-century woman journalist fake insanity to expose the horrors of the asylum?

Davies is author of Troubled by Faith: Insanity and the Supernatural in the Age of the Asylum, an exploration of the beliefs of 19th-century asylum patients, which explores the entanglement of science, faith and the supernatural world. He is professor of social history at the University of Hertfordshire and has written extensively on the history of magic, witchcraft, ghosts, religion, and popular medicine.

Wise is author of The Undesirables: The Mental Deficiency Act of 1913 and Its Assault on Liberty, which tells how 50,000 people were detained for life for being born out of wedlock, shoplifting, having a learning disorder or a chronic illness, or for simply being different. Wise is visiting professor at the University of California’s London Study Centre and her previous books include Inconvenient People: Lunacy, Liberty and the Mad-Doctors in Victorian England.

Treger is author of the historical novel, Mad Woman, about the true story of a reporter, Nellie Bly, in 1880s New York, who faked insanity in order to expose the wretched conditions faced by patients in the city’s women’s lunatic asylum. Bly persuaded Joseph Pulitzer to run her stories in the New York World newspaper. She was a pioneer of investigative journalism.  Treger is also author of The Lodger and The Dragon Lady.

Discussions are chaired by broadcaster and author Matthew Stadlen.

The Telegraph Festival media partner University of Oxford European Union Supported by the Delegation of the European Union to the UK Bodleian Libraries Festival cultural partner Oxford Martin School Festival ideas partner Oxford Mathematics Spanish Embassy The Spanish Embassy: supporters of the programme of Spanish literature and culture Cervantes Institute, London The Cervantes Institute, London elBullifoundation Iberia British Airways Embassy of the Dominican Republic Embassy of the Dominican Republic Blackwell’s Festival on-site and online bookseller Sotheby’s Symington Wines of the Douro Valley Compassion in World Farming Pasture to Plate Oxford Business College Where learning meets opportunity: education partners of the festival Old Bank Hotel Five-star hotel partners of The Oxford Collection Old Parsonage Hotel Five-star hotel partners of The Oxford Collection Oxford Brookes University Oxford International Centre for Publishing Critchleys Accountants to the festival Confucius Institute Voltaire Foundation Felicity Bryan Associates Goldmoney Properties Princeton University Press Prestige publishing partner. Celebrating 25 years in Europe in 2024 Oxford University Department for Continuing Education Jewish Book Week Partner of Oxford Literary Festival Jim Mellon Miles Young Tim and Marion Stevenson Martin and Elise Becket Smith Ian and Carol Sellars David Isaac Mary and Cecil Quillen Supporters of the programme of American literature and culture Other donors Yale University Press London New College New College founded 1379 Exeter College Exeter College: college home of the festival. Founded 1314 Worcester College Worcester College founded 1714 Lincoln College Lincoln College founded 1427 Trinity College Trinity College founded 1555 Magdalen College Magdalen College founded 1458 Brasenose College Brasenose College founded in 1512 Reuben College Reuben College founded in 2019 Harris Manchester College Harris Manchester College founded 1893 Pusey House Founded 1884 New Dutch Writing Human Ecology Project MACROVegan Bear Ram Elk Festival Digital Strategy & Web Design Racalia Olive Oil Olive oil from Sicily Paul Bloomfield Ltd University of Oxford Alumni Office Alumni Office The Sheldonian Theatre Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies Oxford University Images Oxford University Images CAV Oxford The Litmus Partnership Schoolreaders Windrush Group The Oxford Times BBC Radio Oxford Local radio partner Conference Oxford Ox in a Box OX magazine

The Oxford Literary Festival sponsors, donors & partners

The Telegraph Festival media partner University of Oxford European Union Supported by the Delegation of the European Union to the UK Bodleian Libraries Festival cultural partner Oxford Martin School Festival ideas partner Oxford Mathematics Spanish Embassy The Spanish Embassy: supporters of the programme of Spanish literature and culture Cervantes Institute, London The Cervantes Institute, London elBullifoundation Iberia British Airways Embassy of the Dominican Republic Embassy of the Dominican Republic Blackwell’s Festival on-site and online bookseller Sotheby’s Symington Wines of the Douro Valley Compassion in World Farming Pasture to Plate Oxford Business College Where learning meets opportunity: education partners of the festival Old Bank Hotel Five-star hotel partners of The Oxford Collection Old Parsonage Hotel Five-star hotel partners of The Oxford Collection Oxford Brookes University Oxford International Centre for Publishing Critchleys Accountants to the festival Confucius Institute Voltaire Foundation Felicity Bryan Associates Goldmoney Properties Princeton University Press Prestige publishing partner. Celebrating 25 years in Europe in 2024 Oxford University Department for Continuing Education Jewish Book Week Partner of Oxford Literary Festival Jim Mellon Miles Young Tim and Marion Stevenson Martin and Elise Becket Smith Ian and Carol Sellars David Isaac Mary and Cecil Quillen Supporters of the programme of American literature and culture Other donors Yale University Press London New College New College founded 1379 Exeter College Exeter College: college home of the festival. Founded 1314 Worcester College Worcester College founded 1714 Lincoln College Lincoln College founded 1427 Trinity College Trinity College founded 1555 Magdalen College Magdalen College founded 1458 Brasenose College Brasenose College founded in 1512 Reuben College Reuben College founded in 2019 Harris Manchester College Harris Manchester College founded 1893 Pusey House Founded 1884 New Dutch Writing Human Ecology Project MACROVegan Bear Ram Elk Festival Digital Strategy & Web Design Racalia Olive Oil Olive oil from Sicily Paul Bloomfield Ltd University of Oxford Alumni Office Alumni Office The Sheldonian Theatre Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies Oxford University Images Oxford University Images CAV Oxford The Litmus Partnership Schoolreaders Windrush Group The Oxford Times BBC Radio Oxford Local radio partner Conference Oxford Ox in a Box OX magazine