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How did people in the past cope with breakdown of family life? How did families deal with unbearable or unmanageable relatives? Why did families request that some of their members be forcibly removed from their midst and locked away? What social conditions lay behind the drama of enforced removal and confinement that was played out between family members and their unruly relatives. This book shows that there was a close connection between processes of social transformation and changes in ways of thinking about uncontrollable behaviour. Towards the end of the eighteenth century, urban society was coming increasingly under pressure. The growing social problems had repercussions on families, which were being torn apart by internal conflicts while the usual channels for resolving them were blocked. This was translated into feelings of uncertainty and fear, which raised the thresholds of intolerance towards the unruly practices of housemates, relatives and neighbours. The enforced confinement of the uncontrollable person could, in such circumstances, be the only way of restoring peace, both within the family and within the broader community. Through their analysis of thousands of case histories in Brabant and Flanders the authors are able to shed light on the material and emotional survival strategies of the growing numbers of urban families who were requesting the confinement of one of their own members, and to relate those personal decisions to the changes taking place within the urban communities. "Disordered Lives" is a penetrating study of rebellious youths, adulterous women, alcoholics and violent husbands. In contrast to other 'troublemakers' who have left no trace, these ones have made history. They showed their contemporaries and later generations where the limits of the permissible lay, and why.