Politics of Personal Experience

Chris Millard is a Senior Lecturer in the School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities at the University of Sheffield. He has written A History of Self-Harm in Britain (2015) and co-edits the journal History of the Human Sciences.

• Introduction: Confession? Part 1: Experience 1. Refusal 2. Potential 3. Resistance Bridge Bridge: Clearing Space Part 2: History 4. Munchausen Syndrome (1951) 5. Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (1977). Conclusion: Flickering and Failure

"Into an absorbing academic account of these perplexing patients since their identification in the 1950s, Chris Millard weaves both a discourse on historical and indeed clinical method, and a personal quest for understanding his own mother’s Munchausen behaviour. Written with lucidity, intelligence and compassion, The Politics of Personal Experience: Writing a History of Munchausen Syndromes is a truly original and remarkable work that will be widely read."Colin Jones, Emeritus Professor, Queen Mary University of London, UK"Millard interrogates the role of the personal in historical writing with an incisive edge rarely found in histories of medicine, adding a richness to the story of factitious illness that avoids easy claims to experiential knowledge. He is as critical of his own experience as he is of other sources, elegantly balancing different elements of the narrative to take the reader on a thought-provoking journey."Sarah Chaney, author of Am I Normal?: The 200-Year Search for Normal People and Why They Don’t Exist"Combining analysis of 'the personal' in historical scholarship with a brave experiment in weaving his own past into a new history of Munchausen Syndromes, Millard’s inventive interrogation prompts us to rethink how, why, and where the self emerges in research and writing about the past."Tracey Loughran, University of Essex, UK