Critical to this development was the emergence in the first half of the nineteenth century of a new understanding of insanity not as "total madness" but rather as a partial loss of reason. The concept of monomania, for instance, defined as mentally ill (and thus criminally irresponsible) persons who, on appearances, retained some of their rational faculties, but who were nevertheless incapable of controlling their actions.
In the first half of the century such concepts were mobilized by psychiatrists and liberal philanthropists in an effort to widen the scope of criminal insanity, which had been defined in the Penal Code of 1810 as only applying to individuals suffering from total dementia. In a series of widely publicized trials in the 1820s and 1830s, for instance, the crimes themselves were taken as evidence of madness.
During the nineteenth century, most people believed that women were controlled by their morals and emotions. The ideal woman was pure, virtuous, unselfish, and passive. The concept of separate spheres was prevalent. Men belonged in the public sphere of labor, economics and politics, while women belonged in the private sphere of home, family and children (Cheryl, 1999).
One common belief held that women's physical and mental health was grounded in their reproductive organs and menstrual cycle (George, Margaret, 1996).
Mental or emotional stress damaged a woman's reproductive system and increased the likelihood of menstrual problems. The results, many believed commonly included ill health, mental or emotional instability, or insanity.
In the mid-nineteenth century theoreticians turned towards organic causes as the basis of mental illness and the pioneering ideas described above were eclipsed. Heinroth and his contemporaries were rejected as romanticists and philosophers.
At the end of the century when Freud's theories arrived on the scene they were seen as completely novel. However, we should not overlook the inherent weaknesses of the romantic approach. These theories were not the result of careful observations, but of visionary speculations. Therefore a scientific reaction was inevitable.
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