Out of His Mind

Masculinity and Mental Illness in Victorian Britain

Häftad, Engelska, 2024

Av Amy Milne-Smith

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Out of His Mind interrogates how Victorians made sense of the madman as both a social reality and a cultural representation. Even at the height of enthusiasm for the curative powers of nineteenth-century psychiatry, to be certified as a lunatic meant a loss of one’s freedom and in many ways one’s identify. Because men had the most power and authority in Victorian Britain, this also meant they had the most to lose. The madman was often a marginal figure, confined in private homes, hospitals, and asylums. Yet as a cultural phenomenon he loomed large, tapping into broader social anxieties about respectability, masculine self-control, and fears of degeneration. Using a wealth of case notes, press accounts, literature, medical and government reports, this text provides a rich window into public understandings and personal experiences of men’s insanity.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2024-05-28
Mått138 x 216 x 17 mm
Vikt382 g
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
SerieGender in History
Antal sidor328
FörlagManchester University Press
ISBN9781526178855

Tillhör följande kategorier

Introduction: Madmen in the attic?1 Men in care: the asylum2 Men in the community: homecare, doctor’s care, and travellers3 Personal shame: failures of morality and the will4 Madmen out of the attic: reputation, rage, and liberty5 Media panics: stories of violence, danger, and men out of control6 Degeneration and madness: inheritance, neurasthenia, criminals, and GPIEpilogue

'An original contribution to our understanding of how gender, and especially masculinity, impacted the experience and representation of madness in Victorian Britain.'Katie Barclay, The American Historical Review'Out of His Mind evidences a cultural fascination with madmen that tapped into anxieties about men who deviated from respectable models of Victorian masculinity. This book convincingly shows that madness operated as normative masculinity's foil.'Journal of British Studies'Out of His Mind builds upon and strengthens work already done in the history of science to destabilise gendered notions of scientific and medical authority.'Heather Ellis, Women's History Review'Amy Milne-Smith makes an important contribution to historical understandings of the multi-dimensional interactions between gender and mental health, encompassing the medical, social, attitudinal and cultural.'Leonard Smith, Cultural and Social History 'Out of His Mind contributes to the recent, growing scholarship on the history of disability and mental health... Milne-Smith’s range of sources make this work a compelling read.'H-Disability