The British government in Malaya conducted treatment for women suffering mental illness in an effort to deal with the increasing number of cases in the Federated Malay States in 1930-57. This paper explores the role of mental asylums and society in contributing to methods of treatment during the twentieth century.
The Straits Settlements, a collective colony under the administration of British Malaya, was a very unhealthy area in the early years of the nineteenth century. One of the most common sicknesses was mental illness, which could not be cured by medicines. The number of women suffering from mental illness was higher than in men, and it was found that there were many internal and external causes. The increasing number of women patients affected the role of mental hospitals, which were not only for treatment purposes, but also for business. This study will discuss the factors causing women to suffer from mental illness, and the role of the asylum for women mental patients in the nineteenth century.