Daily AncestorMental alienation
Mental alienation was a formal 1800s medical phrase for insanity; doctors who treated diseases of the mind were called alienists.
Webster's 1913 gives mental alienation as derangement of the mental faculties, insanity, and lists it as a synonym of lunacy and madness.
Webster's 1913 defines an alienist as one who treats diseases of the mind. IPUMS gives mental alienation its own code for the 1850 to 1880 mortality schedules. On a record it tells you the person was considered insane, not what killed them.
As seen in a recordCause of death column, 1850 to 1880 federal mortality schedule
Lucinda Hart, 50, F, W, Mental alienation
Sources
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Daily Ancestor. "Mental alienation." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/causes-of-death/mental-alienation. Last checked 2026-10-10.