Delusions of gender?: Lay identification and clinical diagnosis of insanity in Victorian England.

This chapter examines the lay identification and medical diagnosis of patients admitted to public mental hospitals in Victorian England through an analysis of over 1,500 admissions to the Buckinghamshire Lunatic Asylum. It demonstrates three things: women were institutionalised in numbers commensurate with their representation in the adult population; the certification of the insane was not dominated by male informants; and there is no empirical evidence to suggest that gender played a dominant role in the decision over the selection of particular psychiatric diagnoses. This chapter suggests future areas of research for a new historical epidemiology of mental symptoms.