Life in the asylum wasn’t easy. A woman arriving at Bedlam between 1676 and 1815 would have been welcomed by two imposing stone statues flanking the entrance. They represented the two categories into which most mental patients were thought to fall. The first figure was Raving, desperately struggling against hospital chains, his face contorted with agony. The second, Melancholy, was unrestrained but disturbingly unengaged, as though the outside world had lost all meaning. Of the women admitted to Bethlem Hospital for menopause-associated mental illness, only up to half recovered, according to
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