Madness in Civilization: A Cultural History of Insanity from the Bible to Freud, from the Madhouse to Modern Medicine - Tapa blanda

'Learned, liberally humanitarian and wryly witty' - The Spectator 'A milestone text ... No other monograph has accomplished such scope, perception and balance in covering madness's haunting, shifting presence in civilization's psyche' - BBC History Magazine 'Powerful and disturbing ... a panoramic survey' - Sunday Times 'Perhaps the most comprehensive account of the history of psychiatry that has yet appeared in a single volume' - Times Literary Supplement

‘A brilliant cultural history ... Scull’s book fills a gap in the literature and deserves to be widely read ... outstanding’ The Times

This ambitious volume, worldwide in scope and ranging from antiquity to the present, examines the human encounter with Unreason in all its manifestations, the challenges it poses to society and our responses to it.

In twelve chapters organized chronologically from the Bible to Freud, from exorcism to mesmerism, from Bedlam to Victorian asylums, from the theory of humours to modern pharmacology, Andrew Scull writes compellingly about madness, its meanings, its consequences and our attempts to understand and treat it.
Winner: British Book Design and Production Awards 2015, Best Jacket/Cover Design

Table of Contents

Endorsements · 1. Confronting Madness · 2. Madness in the Ancient World · 3. The Darkness and the Dawn · 4. Melancholie and Madnesse · 5. Madhouses and Mad- Doctors · 6. Nerves and Nervousness · 7. The Great Confinement · 8. Degeneration and Despair · 9. The Demi-Fous · 10. Desperate Remedies · 11. A Meaningful Interlude · 12. A Psychiatric Revolution?