Madness or Mental Illness? Revisiting Historians of Psychiatry

2021

What kind of story could be conveyed about psychiatric patients and the practices of their confinement in the second half of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century? How could such an account be grounded? What theoretical tools and frameworks would allow for an apprehension of this situation, and within or across which disciplinary frameworks? Firmly situated in the field of rhetoric of science, Diagnosing Madness. The discursive construction of the psychiatric patient, 1850-1920 attempts such an account, “placing rhetorical analysis of the written word at the center of the web of cultural practices that made asylums possible in the nineteenth century”

Sacred Web: A Journal of Tradition and Modernity

The epidemic of mental illness has become a global crisis. According to the WHO, some 450 million people around the world are currently suffering from mental illness, and 1 in 4 will at some point in their lifetime suffer from a mental health issue. In an era that prizes empirically verifiable evidence-based treatments, it is puzzling that much of what constitutes psychopathology and its psychogenesis or etiology remains a mystery. Madness remains elusive for modern science. This essay focuses on examining modernistic and traditional notions of psychosis or extreme states of mind in order to better understand ‘madness’.

Journal of Mental Health, 2010

Excerpt: When one thinks of the history of psychiatry one inevitably recalls the forensic histories of Andrew Scull, the impressive scholarship of Roy Porter and, no doubt, the revisionist history of Michel Foucault. In this edited collection, Greg Eghigian attempts none of this. Through 55 excerpts of original texts (primary sources) we are presented with a panoramic view of the diverse experiences, understandings, and responses relating to phenomena that historicallyfall under the names madness, lunacy, insanity, and mental illness. In his brief introduction, Eghigian is careful not to influence or bias the reader in her appraisal of the texts and through a series of disclaimers sets the mood he considers appropriate for the ensuing foray in to the history of psychiatry. Thus, he reminds us that the book does not attempt a historical narrative, nor should the texts included be taken as a justification for one or other broad conception (e.g. social/ biological/ spiritual) of insanity. As he puts it, ‘‘the documents presented here are meant to inspire interpretation, discussion, and debate about how madness has historically been imagined, talked about, and handled.’’

Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, 2016

Review of Psychiatry and the Business of Madness by Burstow.

Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, 2016

Review of Psychiatry and the Business of Madness by Burstow.

University of Chicago Press, 2011

Madness Is Civilization explores the general consensus that societal ills—from dysfunctional marriage and family dynamics to the Vietnam War, racism, and sexism—were at the root of mental illness. Staub chronicles the surge in influence of socially attuned psychodynamic theories along with the rise of radical therapy and psychiatric survivors’ movements. He shows how the theories of antipsychiatry held unprecedented sway over an enormous range of medical, social, and political debates until a bruising backlash against these theories—part of the reaction to the perceived excesses and self-absorptions of the 1960s—effectively distorted them into caricatures. Throughout, Staub reveals that at stake in these debates of psychiatry and politics was nothing less than how to think about the institution of the family, the nature of the self, and the prospects for, and limits of, social change.

BJPsych Bulletin

Summary In Continental Philosophy of Psychiatry: The Lure of Madness Alastair Morgan surveys the contributions of a loosely conceived school of psychiatrists, philosophers and social theorists to understanding and responding to madness during the years 1910–1980. Taking my cue from him, I highlight some of the contributors discussed in Morgan's book and reflect that although madness may be difficult or even impossible to articulate effectively in discourse it remains a ‘limit experience’ which demarcates and illuminates the contours of other thinking and being, including reason and activism. I discuss social and cultural factors that have dulled clinicians’ sensitivities to the sounds of madness in recent decades and advocate the need for a reappraisal of our expertise and for a new activism today. What may at first appear as a failed clinical-philosophical tradition remains of professional relevance in today's rapidly transforming circumstances of practice both as inspirati...

2015

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.

2015

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.