The Sadness of Madness: From 19th Century Crazy to Britney Spears Conservatorship

Points worth noting in this episode:

• Poverty in the 19th Century was a moral cause of insanity.
• Lactational insanity
• Poverty is considered to be "The fault of the poor person." 
• Florence Nightingale and her semi-autobiography, Cassandra
• Britney Spear's thirteen-year Conservatorship produced four albums, a global tour, a four-year residency in Las Vegas, and $131 million in earnings.

Books referenced in this episode:

Mad, Bad, and Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctor  by Lisa Appignanesi

Cassandra: Florence Nightingale's Angry Outcry Against the Forced Idleness of Victorian Women

They Say You're Crazy: How The World's Most Powerful Psychiatrists Decide Who's Normal  by Paula J. Caplan

The Female Malady: Women, Madness and English Culture, 1830-1980

by Elaine Showalter

Other references:

Britney Spears Conservatorship

Madhouses Act 1828 

 

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