Description
Book SynopsisPresenting a picture of how families viewed and managed madness, this study suggests that the family actually played a critical role in caring for the insane and in the development of psychiatry itself. With case histories, it provides a historical perspective on the day and age, when the mentally ill are mainly treated in home and community.
Trade Review"A brilliant and profoundly original book, one of the most important contributions to the history of psychiatry in the past decade." - Andrew Scull, co-author of Customers and Patrons of the Mad-Trade: The Management of Lunacy in Eighteenth-Century London "Suzuki's sophisticated and revealing account is a persuasive reminder that the family's recent involvement in mental health care policy-making is nothing new. As he shows, in more ways than one, madness does indeed begin at home." - Ian Dowbiggin, author of A Concise History of Euthanasia: Life, Death, God and Medicine"
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: Psychiatry in the Private and the Public Spheres 1. Commissions of Lunacy: Background, Sources, and Content 2. The Structure of Psychiatric Practice 3. The Problems of Liberty and Property 4. Managing Lunatics within the Domestic Sphere 5. Destabilizing the Domestic Psychiatric Regime 6. Public Authorities and the Ambiguities of the Lunatic at Home Conclusion Appendix Notes Bibliography Index
