Bedlam

'Bedlam!' The very name conjures up graphic images of naked patients chained among filthy straw, or parading untended wards deluded that they are Napoleon or Jesus Christ. We owe this image of madness to William Hogarth, who, in plate eight of his 1735 Rake's Progress series, depicts the anti-hero in Bedlam, the latest addition to a freak show providing entertainment for Londoners between trips to the Tower Zoo, puppet shows and public executions. That this is still the most powerful image of Bedlam, over two centuries later, says much about our attitude to mental illness, although the Bedlam of the popular imagination is long gone. The hospital was relocated to the suburbs of Kent in 1930, and Sydney Smirke's impressive Victorian building in Southwark took on a new role as the Imperial War Museum. Following the historical narrative structure of her acclaimed Necropolis, BEDLAM examines the capital's treatment of the insane over the centuries, from the founding of Bethlehem Hospital in 1247 through the heyday of the great Victorian asylums to the more enlightened attitudes that prevail today.

ISBN 1847390005   Pages 336 ISBN13 9781847390004 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 214 Publisher Simon & Schuster Ltd   Published in London Imprint Pocket Books   Height (mm) 198 Format Paperback   Width (mm) 129 Publication date 06 Aug 2009   Spine width (mm) 23 DEWEY 362.209421   Academic level General DEWEY edition DC22

`Bedlam`, that one word has retained its power to shock and appal. Even now it can conjure up nightmarish visions prompted perhaps by the thought that `there but for the grace of God go I`. Perhaps also for some it provides a prurient shiver of thrill. Fortunately Catharine Arnold`s book is revelatory without being voyeuristic. It is scholarly and thought-provoking.
Here we have a history of the place,and places, that shared the name of Bethlehem Hospital. It is a long and painful story beginning in the C14 and continuing into the present. Skillfully the author has woven the history of the building with that of its inhabitants, both patient and staff, and with the society in which it exists.

The word `Bedlam`,the slang name for Bethlehem, somehow resonates with the events and life of the hospital. Much of the story is tragic. For so long those who were most deserving were shown the least care-often by physical abuse, too often by neglect. The idea of an asylum being a theatre of entertainment sickens but it happened and,as theauthor points out, modern-day analogies are not hard to find.
However, progress was made. Reformers worked hard to make changes. Their work was hard and often overturned by those who came later. But changes were made, improvements in both the physical and mental welfare of patients. Changes too took place outside the hospitals. Public opinion changed.
Catharine Arnold`s book is a timely reminder-timely because every time is the right time to be reminded that the injustices meted out to those already suffering should never be allowed to happen again. - Robert Archer



 Write a review