Dressing and addressing the mental patient: the uses of clothing in the admission, care and employment of residents in English provincial mental hospitals, c. 1860–1960

Baur, N. and Melling, J. (2014) Dressing and addressing the mental patient: the uses of clothing in the admission, care and employment of residents in English provincial mental hospitals, c. 1860–1960. Textile History, 45(2), pp. 145-170. (doi: 10.1179/0040496914Z.00000000045) (PMID:26989271) (PMCID:PMC4772688)

Abstract

Scholars of insanity and its historical antecedents have paid very little attention to personal and institutional clothing. Such dress, distributed to patients in mental institutions, has always been inscribed with the conflicting narratives of the period in which it was made and worn. The language of civil and medical authority is more evident than personal choice in the shape and address of the attire. This article examines clothing worn by patients in three Devon mental hospitals during the century before 1960. We consider the ways in which institutional clothing formed part of a hospital regimen of overt control, as well as suiting considerations of economy and employment that figured in these institutions.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Baur, Dr Nicole
• Authors: Baur, N., and Melling, J.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social & Environmental Sustainability
• Journal Name: Textile History
• Publisher: Maney Publishing
• ISSN: 0040-4969
• ISSN (Online): 1743-2952
• Published Online: 06 November 2014
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2014 Pasold Research Fund Ltd
• First Published: First published in Textile History 45(2):145-170
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License