20. Living with madness 1: an apprentice in danger, 1738

History of Psychiatry Podcast Series

Most people with mental disorders are more of a liability to themselves than to others. The same cannot be said of this podcast and the next one, where the threat or reality of physical harm at the hands of a mad person seems to have been very real. Early modern apprentices were different from modern ones because they lived as well as worked with their master in a sort of family arrangement. One unlucky apprentice petitioned London magistrates to allow him to leave the service of an employer who seems to have been erratic, controlling, threatening, and violent. The case shows how lay public opinion in the past could be just as important as professional medical certification, in identifying mental disorder. IMAGE: ‘Fashion Before Ease, or A Good Constitution Sacrificed for a Fantastic Form', pub. by Hannah Humphrey, 1793. Credit: George Moutard Woodward / Bridgeman Art Library / Universal Images Group, Rights Managed / For Education Use Only