Discovering the History of Psychiatry

Mark S. Micale, Roy Porter

Oxford University Press, 1994 - Medical - 466 pages

The field of psychiatry has exercised enormous influence in our century, not only among scientists and mental health professionals, but also in the arts, humanities, and social sciences which shape the cultural life of millions. This vitality has been accompanied by a profusion of historical material. Yet, while growing rapidly, the documented history of psychiatry has been ridden with controversy due to the great variety of interpretive nuance among different writers. This book brings together leading international authorities - physicians, historians, social scientists, and others - who explore the many complex interpretive and ideological dimensions of historical writing about psychiatry. The book includes chapters on the history of the asylum, Freud, anti-psychiatry in the United States and abroad, feminist interpretations of psychiatry's past, and historical accounts of Nazism and psychotherapy, as well as discussions of many individual historical figures and movements. It represents the first attempt to study comprehensively the multiple mythologies that have grown up around the history of madness and the origin, functions, and validity of these myths in our psychological century. The audience includes every person interested in the state of discussion and reflection taking place in the compelling science of the human mind.

Contents

• Early Developments: 14
• The Beginning of Psychiatric Historiography in NineteenthCentury: 39
• 19101960: 53
• History between Psychoanalysis: 83
• George Rosen and the History of Mental Illness: 95
• The History of Psychiatry as the History: 112
• The History of Psychiatry as the Cultural History: 135
• A History of Freud Biographies: 157
• Rewriting the History: 174
• The Critic of Psychoanalysis as Cultural Theorist: 191
• Les mythes dorigine in the History of Psychiatry: 219
• The History of a Psychiatric Myth: 232
• A Century: 248
• Personal Reflections: 260
• German Psychiatry Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis during: 282
• Recurring Themes in the Historiography: 297
• Thomas Szasz: 311
• Michel Foucaults Phanomenologie des Krankengeistes: 331
• Feminist Histories of Psychiatry: 348
• History and AntiPsychiatry in France: 384
• Psychiatry and AntiPsychiatry in the United States: 415
• Index: 445

About the author

Mark S. Micale is at Yale University. Roy Porter is at Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, London.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Discovering the History of Psychiatry
• Editors: Mark S. Micale, Roy Porter
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1994
• ISBN: 0195077393, 9780195077391
• Length: 466 pages
• Subjects: Medical / History; Medical / Psychiatry / General; Psychology / Mental Illness