Up Top : From Lunatic Asylum to Community Care

Tells how the mentally ill were treated in 20th century Wales through the Mid Wales Mental Hospital, which began as a lunatic asylum and closed when community care took over 100 years later. It was the only UK hospital for psychotic POWs in World War II, including, briefly, the Deputy Fhrer Rudolf Hess. This account is based on original archives and oral testimony, and is copiously illustrated. The book places in a wide context: life in a lunatic asylum, the treatment of shell shock in two world wars, heavy ECT and deep sleep treatment; then the increasing reliance on drugs and various therapies before the emergence of community care