Thursday 23 November 2006
4.30pm in Seminar Room 2
Hilary Marland (University of Warwick)
'Doctors, motherhood and insanity of childbirth in Victorian Britain'
This
lecture will explore the close and complex relationship between mental
disorder and childbirth in the treatment of what in the early nineteenth
century came to be called 'puerperal insanity'. The disorder was
described as severe, dangerous and, because its victims challenged
domestic order and ideals of motherhood, a threat to the sanctity of the
Victorian home. Yet, at the same time, therapeutics were typically
patient and expectant, with little medical intervention. Even women
admitted to asylums were typically subjected to mild curative regimes
based largely around the principles of 'moral management'. Doctors, in
describing what they feared was becoming a prevalent disorder, referred
extensively to the physical and mental challenges of pregnancy, birth
and childrearing, and in so doing problematised in unexpected ways the
ideals of maternity and domestic ideology. Explanations for the onset of
puerperal insanity were drawn, not just from notions of female
vulnerability and biology, but also from a broad set of moral, social
and environmental frameworks. Using especially the case notes of private
and asylum practice, I shall argue that rather than solidly supporting
traditional female roles and duties, doctors questioned them, presenting
motherhood as often disappointing, demanding and overwhelming.
Reading: 'Languages and landscapes of emotion: motherhood and puerperal insanity in the nineteenth century', in Fay Bound (ed.), Medicine and Emotion (Palgrave, 2006), available in the Whipple Library.
There will be tea before the lecture, at 4pm in Seminar Room 1, and a drinks reception afterwards, at 6pm in Seminar Room 1.
Workshop
11.30–1.00 in Seminar Room 1
'Future mothers of the Empire? Representations of girls' health, 1890–1930'
Professor Marland will introduce a discussion of a paper that is available in the Whipple Library. All welcome!
