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In the 19th and 20th centuries, reformers in the United States and Europe built asylums in response to a range of social issues including disability - mental health, and alcoholism. These documents and images from the NLM Digital Collections bring to life the day to day experiences of people at these sites: the conditions of the asylums and the limits on liberty that many people in them experienced.
The True Cause of Insanity Explained, or, The Terrible Experiences of an Insane, Related by Himself: The Life of a Patient in an Insane Asylum, Francis Delilez, 1888
Courtesy National Library of Medicine
Francis Delilez wrote this account in which he described his experience of insanity, which he said caused him to murder his brother. The police arrested Delilez and took him to the Northern Wisconsin Hospital in Winnebago. This book describes the conditions at this institution in the 19th century.
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National Library of Medicine, 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20894
National Institutes of Health, Health & Human Services
Freedom of Information Act , NLM Customer Support