Through a detailed history of the asylum at Ticehurst in Sussex, Charlotte MacKenzie explores the consumer revolution which stimulated the proliferation of madhouses in Britain during the nineteenth century.

The madhouse often figures prominently in popular conceptions of the nineteenth century, yet little is known about the realities of private institutions. In Psychiatry for the Rich, Charlotte MacKenzie examines the history of the asylum at Ticehurst in Sussex to explore the social history of madness and the impact of politics and popular opinion. She details the backgrounds of the patients, their own descriptions of the asylum as well as changes in the institution through the lunacy reforms and developments in medical theory. Challenging many of the accepted views of the Victorian asylum, Money, Medicine and Madness is the most revealing account of the trade in lunacy in the nineteenth century.

`The work is carefully argued, lucidly presented and very well illustrated. It... furnishes a convincing example of the value of historical scholarship applied to a medical topic.' - Psychological Medicine

`This is an absorbing book and a scholarly account of the history of a small private asylum. I recommend the book without reservation to those with an interest in medical history, whether psychiatrists or not.' - The Lancet