Paper short abstract:

This paper aims to outline the archaeological and spatial indicators for marginalisation in the construction of Nineteenth Century District Lunatic Asylums and the creation of the 'lunatic'.

Paper long abstract:

In the nineteenth century, 'lunacy' may be considered an in-between state of being, set apart from the social world outside of the 'Asylum', and yet isolated and disassociated with fellow inmates (this includes patients and staff). From the professionalization of psychiatry in the early nineteenth century until the rise of community care in the late twentieth century, mental illness has been firmly separated from its physical counterpart, setting it apart. With the downscaling of centralised facilities for the administration of care for the mentally ill, the 'abandoned asylum' has become a common feature of townscapes in the British Isles and Ireland. For the most part still occupying locations on the fringes of towns, overlooking the landscape from heights and through carefully constructed vistas, the remains of asylums constructed in the nineteenth century provide a unique material trace for the study of socially imposed liminality in the last two hundred years.

Utilizing case studies related to ongoing PhD research, this paper aims to demonstrate the spatial and material reality of philosophies and social attitudes involved in the creation of the 'lunatic'. In this manner, I aim to demonstrate how these 'liminal beings' were created and facilitate, in the construction of purpose built institutions.