| From 1808 to 1862, among the most important social questions confronting England was the plight of the insane poor. Two significant factors, a new, moral approach to treatment and a reform movement led by the bourgeois and upper class, resulted in legislation to rehabilitate the insane and give them a higher quality of life than they suffered in isolation or imprisonment. Pauper lunatics were no longer ejected from the structures of society. Instead, they became members of asylums, protected communities within communities. Likewise, the general public was safeguarded from the erratic behavior of the mentally ill.;Reforms during this period were pivotal in English social history. They form the transition from a medieval system of health care to a centralized system accountable to the government. During these years, bourgeois and upper class benevolent self-interest produced reforms in the poor law institutions that served pauper lunatics. |
