Elizabeth Packard

[stormdog]

The father of an inventor I'm researching worked at the Illinois Central Hosptial for the Insane. While reading about it, I came upon this abhorrent example of a man who had his wife committed because she was "slightly insane." At the time, a man could have his wife committed with no public hearing and without her consent. That's not an exaggeration, or a joke about some fictionalized version of Victorian insane asylums. You could simply just tell them your wife was insane and they'd lock her up. I don't even know what to say. There are no words.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Packard

Packard's "insanity" amounted to a disagreement with her husband's religious and political beliefs and family finances.