Women and Madness

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This book is a study of the history of female madness. Focusing on 19th century France, the author examines the conditions and consequences of the characterization of women as mad. Drawing on archives, medical literature and contemporary fiction, Ripa explores female madness from two sides - external observation and personal experience. She examines the ways in which madwomen were described, both by novelists such as Balzac and Zola, and by the officials of the medical profession and the state. She discusses the growth of asylums during the 19th century and examines the bases upon which women were incarcerated. Finally, drawing on the diaries of inmates, she describes the daily regimes, ill-devised treatments and appalling conditions of the asylums.