Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Today we are increasingly aware that poor mental health affects us all, collectively if not personally. It is something to be accepted and addressed, rather than locked away like a dangerous beast. But for most of human history, mental illness has been seen as taboo, a shameful secret. Women – who have long been stigmatized as hysteric and feeble-minded, more prone to insanity than men – have been particularly sidelined.

In Out of Sight, Out of Mind, Jane Robinson redresses the balance, tracing the history of women’s madness from the ancient Greek humours and seventeenth-century witch trials to Victorian asylums, modern psychiatry and the birth of the NHS. Bringing unknown stories and forgotten heroines to light, she gives a voice to both the patients of the past and the pioneering women who came to their aid.

Drawing on case studies, first-hand accounts, newspaper reports, letters and interviews, Robinson reveals the tireless work of female campaigners, journalists and doctors to challenge the stigma across generations. She explores just how much prejudice they had to overcome in engineering the change towards compassion, understanding and effective treatment, demonstrating that their greatest ally in the battle for recognition was their own strength of character.