The most highly-acclaimed and prolific medical historian of this generation. Roy Porter was a well-known and widely respected author of over 80 books, the most recent being the much reviewed Enlightenment: Britain and the Creation of the Modern World (Penguin, 2000).He published extensively in the history of psychiatry, including A Social History of Madness (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1987; Paperback edition, 1989); The Faber Book of Madness (Faber, 1991; paperback 1993). He was Professor of the Social History of Medicine at the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at University College London; and had extensive experience of popular public lecturing, broadcasting, and serious journalism.

• 1. Introduction ; 2. Madness, Gods, and Demons ; 3. The Rationality of Madness ; 4. Fools and Folly ; 5. Locking up the Mad ; 6. The Rise of Psychiatry ; 7. The Mad ; 8. The Century of Psychoanalysis ; 9. Conclusion: Modern Times, Ancient Problems?

Well illustrated and constructed, this is a masterful and moving book written in pellucid prose. Its brevity belies its weight