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    Dealing with Madness: A Brief History of Western Approaches
    Dealing with Madness: A Brief History of Western Approaches
    Dealing with Madness: A Brief History of Western Approaches
    Ebook45 pages37 minutes

    Dealing with Madness: A Brief History of Western Approaches

    By Annie Southern

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    About this ebook

    From the time of the ancient Greeks to the twenty-first century, the history of Western approaches towards ‘madness’ is a history of attempting to classify symptoms, name disorders, house the 'mad', care for the distressed, cure mental 'disease', and predict outcomes of ‘illnesses.’ This brief history looks at those approaches and the eras in which they predominated. This is a linear account of how we arrived at deinstitutionalisation of psychiatric hospitals and office-based psychiatry today in the West from our early beginnings dealing with ‘madness’ in Greek antiquity. Starting with the early work of Aristotle in ancient Greece and the 'mad cell' of the medieval era, this brief history takes us through the Enlightenment and on into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Many of the cures mentioned seem cruel and foolish today but, in their day, they were firmly believed in. Each era builds upon the one before it as it struggles to discover the ‘truth’ about ‘madness’ and ‘deal with’ those who suffered from it through incarceration, restraint, medication and other forms of treatment. This brief history is suitable for readers who want a critical appraisal of society’s attempts in the West to deal with ‘madness’ as well as students of psychology, nursing, social work and the social sciences. It makes a point to concern itself with how well or badly people experiencing mental distressed were treated. References at the back lead the reader on to more in depth literature on the subject should they wish to pursue it further.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAnnie Southern
    Release dateMar 8, 2014
    ISBN9781311649959
    Dealing with Madness: A Brief History of Western Approaches
    Author

    Annie Southern

    Dr Annie Southern was educated at Oxford University and has a PhD in health science from the University of Canterbury. Her doctorate looked at women's career experiences as they are affected by mental illness. She has worked in publishing as a magazine and book editor. She has also lived through the Canterbury earthquakes in New Zealand and has an interest in earthquake trauma. Her publications are available both as ebooks and print editions.

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      Book preview

      Dealing with Madness - Annie Southern

      DEALING WITH MADNESS

      A brief history of Western approaches

      Annie Southern, PhD

      Cover & book design Anthony Terry

      Copyright Annie Southern 2013

      License Notes. This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise without the permission of the author. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. Books written by Annie Southern can be obtained through select online book retailers.

      Pictures sourced from Depositphotos.com

      Pictures copyright Luciano De polo (cover), Jim Mills, Diyan Nenov, Andres Rodriguez & Antonio Abrignani

      Table of contents

      Introduction

      From the classical world to the Enlightenment

      The Enlightenment

      The nineteenth century

      The twentieth century

      The twenty first century

      Conclusion

      Appendix - diagnoses and treatments

      About the author

      Introduction

      Conceptualising mental distress in the human being is not an easy undertaking. However, observing how humans have striven to deal with mental distress over time does give us an interesting insight not into what mental distress and ‘mental illness’ are in essence or reality but how they have been conceived of by human beings within the scope of human meaning-making (Sedgewick, 1982.)

      As Read (2004a, p.9) says: we can understand our present situation better if we review the past. This booklet looks at mental distress and the way Western approaches have dealt with it historically from chaining and flogging people, blistering their skin and giving them cold baths through to medication, talk therapy and the modern recovery model of empowerment. It is suitable for people who want a snapshot introduction to such a history. The comprehensive reference list at the back can lead you to further accounts and diverse viewpoints about Western approaches to ‘madness’ throughout history.

      From the classical world to the Enlightenment

      As Luhrmann (2000, p.13) notes certain strange miseries have recurred in the history and literature of madness. Human beings have had experience of mental distress and developed ways of addressing it for

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