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A History of Madness in Sixteenth-Century Germany
Contributor(s): Midelfort, H. C. Erik (Author)
ISBN: 0804741697     ISBN-13: 9780804741699
Publisher: Stanford University Press
OUR PRICE:   $33.25  
Product Type: Paperback
Published: August 2000
Qty:
Annotation: " Middlefort' s latest book will not disappoint the many scholars in varied disciplines who have eagerly awaited it. This is mature, sensitive scholarship . . . [that] succeeds brilliantly in exploring the social and intellectual dilemmas posed by early modern insanity. . . It belongs in every academic library." -- History: Reviews of New Books
" This is the best book I have ever read on the border between cultural and social history in early modern Europe." -- Thomas A. Brady, Jr., University of California, Berkeley

Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Psychology | Psychopathology - General
- Psychology | History
- History | Europe - Germany
Dewey: 616.89
LCCN: 98016558
Physical Information: 0.91" H x 6.1" W x 9.17" (1.40 lbs) 456 pages
Themes:
- Chronological Period - 16th Century
- Cultural Region - Germany
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:

This magisterial work explores how Renaissance Germans understood and experienced madness. It focuses on the insanity of the world in general but also on specific disorders; examines the thinking on madness of theologians, jurists, and physicians; and analyzes the vernacular ideas that propelled sufferers to seek help in pilgrimage or newly founded hospitals for the helplessly disordered. In the process, the author uses the history of madness as a lens to illuminate the history of the Renaissance, the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, the history of poverty and social welfare, and the history of princely courts, state building, and the civilizing process.

Rather than try to fit historical experience into modern psychiatric categories, this book reconstructs the images and metaphors through which Renaissance Germans themselves understood and experienced mental illness and deviance, ranging from such bizarre conditions as St. Vitus's dance and demonic possession to such medical crises as melancholy and mania. By examining the records of shrines and hospitals, where the mad went for relief, we hear the voices of the mad themselves.

For many religious Germans, sin was a form of madness and the sinful world was thoroughly insane. This book compares the thought of Martin Luther and the medical-religious reformer Paracelsus, who both believed that madness was a basic category of human experience. For them and others, the sixteenth century was an age of increasing demonic presence; the demon-possessed seemed to be everywhere. For Renaissance physicians, however, the problem was finding the correct ancient Greek concepts to describe mental illness. In medical terms, the late sixteenth century was the age of melancholy. For jurists, the customary insanity defense did not clarify whether melancholy persons were responsible for their actions, and they frequently solicited the advice of physicians.

Sixteenth-century Germany was also an age of folly, with fools filling a major role in German art and literature and present at every prince and princeling's court. The author analyzes what Renaissance Germans meant by folly and examines the lives and social contexts of several court fools.