Case Notes and Histories
Keyword(s):
Case notes provide us with rare insights into the ways in which case histories were constructed. The symptoms of insanity were documented in the Indian asylums in some form or the other from the beginning of the nineteenth century onwards. These recorded histories are available in a range of sources which include case registers, annual reports, official files, journal articles, and monographs written by the superintendents of the mental hospitals. The prejudices inherent in the documents help comprehend the notions that coloured the treatment methods. These sources also facilitate the reconstruction of the experiences of patients in the absence of their individual testimonies.