Madness in civilization : a cultural history of insanity from the Bible to Freud, from the madhouse to modern medicine
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Bibliographic Information
Madness in civilization : a cultural history of insanity from the Bible to Freud, from the madhouse to modern medicine
Princeton University Press, 2015
- : pbk
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"First published in the United Kingdom in 2015 by Thames & Hudson Ltd"--T.p. verso
Includes bibliographical references (p. 428-439) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
The loss of reason, a sense of alienation from the commonsense world we all like to imagine we inhabit, the shattering emotional turmoil that seizes hold and won't let go--these are some of the traits we associate with madness. Today, mental disturbance is most commonly viewed through a medical lens, but societies have also sought to make sense of it through religion or the supernatural, or by constructing psychological or social explanations in an effort to tame the demons of unreason. Madness in Civilization traces the long and complex history of this affliction and our attempts to treat it. Beautifully illustrated throughout, Madness in Civilization takes readers from antiquity to today, painting a vivid and often harrowing portrait of the different ways that cultures around the world have interpreted and responded to the seemingly irrational, psychotic, and insane. From the Bible to Sigmund Freud, from exorcism to mesmerism, from Bedlam to Victorian asylums, from the theory of humors to modern pharmacology, the book explores the manifestations and meanings of madness, its challenges and consequences, and our varied responses to it.
It also looks at how insanity has haunted the imaginations of artists and writers and describes the profound influence it has had on the arts, from drama, opera, and the novel to drawing, painting, and sculpture. Written by one of the world's preeminent historians of psychiatry, Madness in Civilization is a panoramic history of the human encounter with unreason.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments 8 Chapter One CONFRONTING MADNESS 10 Chapter Two MADNESS IN THE ANCIENT WORLD 16 Chapter Three THE DARKNESS AND THE DAWN 48 Chapter Four MELANCHOLIE AND MADNESSE 86 Chapter Five MADHOUSES AND MAD-DOCTORS 122 Chapter Six NERVES AND NERVOUSNESS 162 Chapter Seven THE GREAT CONFINEMENT 188 Chapter Eight DEGENERATION AND DESPAIR 224 Chapter Nine THE DEMI-FOUS 268 Chapter Ten DESPERATE REMEDIES 290 Chapter Eleven A MEANINGFUL INTERLUDE 322 Chapter Twelve A PSYCHIATRIC REVOLUTION? 358 Notes 412 Bibliography 428 Sources of Illustrations 440 Index 441
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