Workhouses, Asylums, and the Rise of Behavioural Sciences

Abstract

By the Victorian era, the population of England had swollen rapidly. Throughout most of the Western world, there was a massive migration from rural areas into cities like London, and even in the countryside industrialisation was changing the nature of everyday life through mechanised agriculture. For industrialists and the educated few, these extraordinary changes in social conditions brought new opportunities, but, paradoxically, the lives of many people with disabilities became more miserable. Although science promised cures and treatments for those with some medical conditions, the modern era placed increased demands on individuals with developmental differences, and removed some supports that traditional lifeways had offered.