Going round the bend

Posted by Felix Windham on April 06, 2010 at 07:22

My sociology lecturer was telling me the other day about the origins of the saying "going round the bend" that its relationship with "going mad" literally comes from the way asylums were always situated in the past with a road leading to the asylum which was almost bent at a 45 degree angle and with trees lining each side of the road obscuring the asylum from the general public or community it was sited in. So if you were told by someone you were "going round the bend" they're telling you that your a candidate for being driven up to mental institution. Any origins of this?

• Going round the bend Victoria S Dennis 06/April/10