Description
Book SynopsisExplores the meaning of mental illness through the successive incarnations of the institution that defined it: the madhouse, designed to segregate its inmates from society; the lunatic asylum, which intended to restore the reason of sufferers by humane treatment; and the mental hospital, which reduced their conditions to diseases of the brain.
Trade Review'A fascinating tour d’horizon' - Guardian
'Fascinating and lavishly illustrated' - Wall Street Journal
'Superb…the text exhibits all the lucidity you could wish for when struggling to apprehend this most disturbing and problematic of subjects' - Will Self, The London Review of Books
'Immaculately researched … essential reading' - The Psychologist
Table of ContentsIntroduction • 1. The Madhouse 1676–1815 • 2. The Lunatic Asylum 1815–1930 3. The Mental Hospital 1930 and beyond • Epilogue
