Insane Asylum's of the past

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In The Solitary House by Lynn Shepherd, one of the characters suggests that people admitted their loved ones into these places in a misguided expectation that it would be helping them. The character also suggested that it was done so out of love, and that the people fully expected their loved ones to be able to come home. The books setting is Victorian England. It made me think. Today we have this view that our ancestors placed their loved ones in these places to get rid of them. A list that has gone around the internet for years only amplifies this theory. What if there were more people that admitted their loved ones to these places out of hope that they'd be cured? Instead of as a way to get rid of them? Don't get me wrong, there are documented cases of parents and husbands throwing their daughters and wives into these places out of disregard. A few months ago I even wrote about a case where a man had been living in one his whole life despite being perfectly sane and by all accounts, quite intelligent. What do you think? Do you think we have it all wrong and that people of the past put their loved ones in these places out of love? Or do you think that the majority of people knew what these places were about and wanted to get rid of the burden their loved ones were putting on them?