Moments of Unreason

In late Victorian and Edwardian Canada, confinement in an asylum was a common fate for many middle-class women who, as a consequence of economic dependency, menopause and other physical realities of their life cycles, or patriarchal inequities, were perceived as burdens to their families or the community. Family members who paid for care often influenced matters of diagnosis, discharge, and even therapeutics. External manipulation created ethical and practical problems for asylum managers who fell victim to it.