Description
Book SynopsisThe first book to map William James's preoccupation with medical ideas, concerns, and values across the breadth of his work. William James is known as a nineteenth-century philosopher, psychologist, and psychical researcher. Less well-known is how his interest in medicine influenced his life and work, driving his ambition to change the way American society conceived of itself in body, mind, and soul. William James, MD offers an account of the development and cultural significance of James's ideas and works, and establishes, for the first time, the relevance of medical themes to his major lines of thought. James lived at a time when old assumptions about faith and the moral and religious possibilities for human worth and redemption were increasingly displaced by a concern with the medically normal and the perfectibility of the body. Woven into treatises that warned against humanity's decline, these ideas were part of the eugenics movement and reflected a growing social stigma at
Trade Review“By examining the ‘sick’ William James, Sutton reveals an intriguing relation between pain and philosophical outlook in his work. Her analysis not only gives us new understanding of the ‘adorable genius’; it reminds us that philosophy itself often springs from lived experience, and enduring ideas can find their beginnings even in the most inhospitable human circumstances.” * Book Post *
“Fabulous . . . Changed everything that I thought I knew about Williams James.” * New Books Network *
“Sutton has not provided the world with yet another biography of philosopher and psychologist, William James. Instead, she has used her impressive research and analytical skills to provide important insights regarding the relationship between James’s many physical and psychological challenges and his intellectual output. Sutton argues that James’s experiences of infirmity have direct effects on his philosophical arguments, not as intellectual irritants but as substantive catalysts for leading to deep insights. This book shows just how thoroughly embodied James’s philosophy truly is, and as such, makes an important contribution to Jamesian scholarship.” -- D. Micah Hester, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
“Sutton’s study offers a brilliant new reading of James. Her original approach not only brings new dimensions to issues around illness, pain, health, and medicine—though Sutton performs this with precision—but offers a rare scholarly analysis of his letters, reviews, notebooks, and diaries to provide a fuller picture of his personal life and his intellectual engagements. It shows the vital quality of James’s holistic integration of life and thought and the lived quality of his intellectual concerns around sickness and health. With this work, Sutton shows us that the margins of the archive are as important to Jamesian scholarship as his main works. It is a rich study that roots James’s thinking in the reality of his embodied life and shows that, with a sensitivity to his language, we can see the voice of the physician in his psychology, philosophy, and analysis of religion.” -- Jeremy Carrette, University of Edinburgh
“This book changes our perception of James as a philosopher and intellectual. The best extended piece of scholarship on James in a long time.” -- Sarin Marchetti, Sapienza University
Table of ContentsList of Figures
Introduction: The Public Physician Diagnosing James A Philosophy of Everyday Life 1: Misery and Metaphysics
A Dark Business
The Problem of Evil
Poisoned with Utilitarian Venom
The Ethics of Self-Destruction
Conscious Automata
2: Health and Hygiene
The Laws of Health
The Alcohol Question
Habit
Talks to Teachers
Emotions and the Body
3: Religion and Regeneration
The Science of Organic Life
The Wonder-Mongers
The Hidden Self
A Wild World
4: Energy and Endurance
Mortal Disease, Morality, and God
The Divided Self
Superhuman Life
The Energies of Men
5: Politics and Pathology
The Political James
Defending the Degenerate
Validating the Invalid
The Voice of the Sick
Therapeutic Campaigns
Conclusion: Afterlife
Fit to Live
Moral Medicine
Acknowledgments
Notes
Archival Sources
Bibliography
Index
