| Victorian Lunacy: Richard M. Bucke and the Practice of Late Nineteenth-Century Psychiatry Contributor(s): Samuel Edward Dole, Shortt (Author), Shortt, Samuel Edward Dole (Author) |
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ISBN: 0521172829 ISBN-13: 9780521172820 Publisher: Cambridge University Press OUR PRICE: $44.64 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: February 2011 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Psychology | Psychopathology - General - Medical | Laboratory Medicine - Medical | Pathology |
| Dewey: 362.210 |
| Series: Cambridge Studies in the History of Medicine |
| Physical Information: 0.51" H x 6" W x 9" (0.74 lbs) 224 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Using the career of Richard M. Bucke at the London Asylum in Canada as its focus, this 1986 book explores the theory and practice of late nineteenth-century psychiatry. The study describes the medical context that nurtured Victorian alienists, while their professional sphere - the asylum - is considered as an autonomous social community, often at odds with the intentions of its ostensible masters. Psychiatric theory is discussed less as an objective body of biomedical knowledge than as a product of the social turmoil that characterized the final decades of the nineteenth century. Unlike many other studies of nineteenth-century psychiatry, this book does not restrict itself to a single national experience, but adopts an explicitly Anglo-American perspective. Rather than restricting attention to political or institutional factors, it accords major significance to the role of ideas in determining the character of late Victorian psychiatry. |