Madness of King George

I came away from watching this with a better understanding of how and why mental health treatment and asylum reform started back in the late 1700s. Why even after "Treaties on Madness " had been around for many years, how the old bleeding and purge methods still permeated the medical profession. A very enlightening show.

Many great interviews with professionals and historians. The acting sequences were short, and did give good visuals of what was really happening.

It also portrays king George III, in a compassionate light, along with his grief over the death of his 2 young children.

Overall, a pleasure to watch and learn.

I was surprised to see that most of this episode begins in 1788, after the American Revolution. During the latter part of that event, diaries show that George III was probably bipolar. Doctors and courtiers wrote extensively about his violent actions. He also hallucinated and suffered from great bouts of depression. But the episode is mostly about a woman who was driven to confront George and pulled a knife on him. She was sent to a place called Bethlem (later changed to Bedlam). The episode is more a series of exposures of the horrors of the treatment of the mentally ill in England, beginning in the eighteenth century. Both George and this woman suffered greatly at the hands of well meaning but ill informed medical people.

I can't say I went into this knowing a huge amount about King George III, apart from what I've seen on film and TV dramas.

Lots of detail, and again lots of well thought out, reasoned speculation, Lucy does her best to piece together George's life, the many gaps and illnesses. I was totally unaware of the assassination attempt on his life.

It paints a very, very different image of George, detailing him almost as a romantic type of figure, the detail about the painting of his two youngest for example.

The expert that entered George's details into a computer progress, and used the information to posthumously diagnose him with Bipolar disorder, that was truly fascinating. The idea of George being bled by leeches, that's just terrifying.

It's as much about Mary Nicholson as George, a fascinating figure, and a key person in the future of mental health treatments.

Very interesting.

8/10.

We like Lucy but felt the title of this episode was misleading. Majority of coverage was on the woman who attacked King George and the insane asylums and their hideous conditions.