04298nam 2200949 450 991077489730332120230219084823.00-2280-1583-910.1515/9780228015833(CKB)5580000000494510(NjHacI)995580000000494510(DE-B1597)656877(DE-B1597)9780228015833(EXLCZ)99558000000049451020230219d2023 uy 0engur|||||||||||txtrdacontentcrdamediacrrdacarrierLooking After Miss Alexander Care, Mental Capacity, and the Court of Protection in Mid-Twentieth-Century England /Janet WestonMontreal :McGill-Queen's University Press,2023.1 online resource (193 pages)States, people, and the history of social change0-2280-1467-0 Front Matter -- Contents -- Figures -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- Origins -- Turning to the Courts -- Found Incapable -- Providing Care -- Endings -- Notes -- Index"In July 1939, at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, fifty-nine-year-old Beatrice Alexander was found incapable of managing her own property and affairs. Although Alexander and those living with her insisted that she was perfectly well, the official solicitor took control of her home and money, evicted her "friends," and hired a live-in companion to watch over her. Alexander remained legally incapable for the next thirty years. In the mid-twentieth century, Alexander was one of about thirty thousand people in England and Wales who were, at any time, legally "incapable" and under the auspices of what is now the Court of Protection. Focusing on the period between the 1920s and the 1960s, Looking After Miss Alexander explains the workings of the court, using Alexander's unusual case to consider the complexities of this aspect of mental health law. Drawing on Court of Protection archives--some of which were made publicly available for the first time in 2019--and micro-historical methods, Janet Weston also highlights the role of chance, subjectivity, and uncertainty in shaping how events unfolded then, and the stories we tell about those events today. An engaging and accessible history of mental capacity law, Looking After Miss Alexander examines ideas of citizenship and welfare, gender and vulnerability, care and control, and the role of the state. It also offers reflections on historical research and writing itself."--Provided by publisher.States, people, and the history of social change.Looking After Miss AlexanderMental health lawBritish Union of Fascists.Dorset.Lunacy Office.Official Solicitor.autonomy.capacity.care.carers.chance.citizenship.common law.competence.control.dementia.disability.elder abuse.exploitation.financial abuse.friendship.gender.guardianship.homecare.imagination.incapacity.indeterminacy.informal care.interwar.legal history.lunacy law.mental defect.mental health law.mental illness.microhistory.nursing.respectability.retirement.small history.social policy.socio-legal history.subjectivity.vulnerability.welfare state.welfare.Mental health law.344.044Weston Janet935115NjHacINjHaclBOOK9910774897303321Looking After Miss Alexander3012893UNINA