Masters of Bedlam: The Transformation of the Mad-Doctoring Trade - Brossura

Scull, Andrew T.; MacKenzie, Charlotte; Hervey, Nicholas

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0691002517 ISBN 13: 9780691002514

Casa editrice: Princeton Univ Pr, 1999

Riassunto

Through an examination of the lives and careers of a series of 19th-century "mad-doctors", this book provides a perspective on the creation of the modern profession of psychiatry, taking readers from the secret and shady practice of the trade in lunacy, through the utopian expectations that were aroused by the lunacy reform movement, to the dismal realities of the barracks-asylums, those Victorian museums of madness within which most 19th-century alienists found themselves compelled to practice. Across a century that spans the period from an unreformed Bedlam to the construction of a post-Darwinian bio-psychiatry centered on the new Maudsley Hospital, from a therapeutics of bleeding, purging and close confinement, through the era of moral treatment and nonrestraint, to a fin-de-siecle degenerationism and despair, men claiming expertise in the treatment of mental disorder sought to construct a collective identity as trustworthy and scientifically-qualified professionals. This series of biographies aims to answer the question "How successful were they in creating such a new identity?"

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Recensione

"This book is a triumph of biography, written by three accomplished historians of psychiatry. Individual chapters represent insightful and elegantly presented accounts of prominent alienists, based on meticulous research, judiciously chosen quotations, and an attention to detail and context."--David Wright, The Times Literary Supplement

"This admirably well-researched and well-planned book details [historical] changes with great clarity. The book's mixture of biography and history, a pleasing combination, allows us to follow the contours of culture, ideas and social structure as the century develops and to see where twentieth-century attitudes originated."--John Clay, Literary Review

"Scull, MacKenzie and Hervey have produced an elegantly written work, which is exhaustively referenced, indicating scholarship of an impressive standard. It contains all the essential information about those early figures of British psychiatry."--Hugh Freeman, The Times Higher Education Supplement

"The alienists emerge from this account as a devious, none too honest and intellectually rather dull lot, more interested in their incomes and their acceptance by society as gentlemen than the welfare of their patients. . . . [The book] is never less than engrossing."--Theodore Dalrymple, The Spectator

"The authors. . . give their story a human dimension by concentrating on seven of the most prominent men active in `mad doctoring' in the 19th century. Several of these. . . emerge with great vividness, and along the way some extraordinary events come to light. . . . [A] fascinating book. . . . "--Patrick McGrath, Los Angeles Times Book Review

Contenuti

	List of Illustrations
	Acknowledgements
Ch. 1	The Transformation of the Mad-Doctoring Trade	3
Ch. 2	A Bethlemetical Mad-Doctor: John Haslam (1764-1844)	10
Ch. 3	A Brilliant Career? John Conolly (1794-1866)	48
Ch. 4	The Alienist as Propagandist: W.A.F. Browne (1805-1885)	84
Ch. 5	Treating the Mad outside Asylum Walls: Sir Alexander Morison (1779-1866)	123
Ch. 6	The Administration of Lunacy in Victorian England: Samuel Gaskell (1807-1886)	161
Ch. 7	From Disciple to Critic: Sir John Charles Bucknill (1817-1897)	187
Ch. 8	Degeneration and Despair: Henry Maudsley (1835-1918)	226
Ch. 9	Conclusion	268
	Notes	275
	Index	353

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Princeton Univ Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0691002517
• ISBN 13: 9780691002514
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 363