Madness in Civilization

Andrew Scull paints a vivid and often harrowing portrait of the different ways that cultures around the world have interpreted the seemingly irrational, psychotic and insane.

From the Bible to Sigmund Freud, from exorcism to mesmerism, from Bedlam to Victorian asylums, from the theory of humours to modern pharmacology, the book explores the manifestations and meanings of madness and our varied responses to it. It also looks at the profound influence it has had on the arts, from drama, opera and novels to drawing, painting and sculpture.

Extensively illustrated throughout, and highly readable, Madness in Civilization will quickly become recognized as a landmark volume. This is an exceptional and masterful panoramic history of a subject of profound significance to us all.

Andrew Scull is Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Science Studies, University of California, San Diego. He has previously taught at the University of Pennsylvania and at Princeton. His many publications include Museums of Madness; Social Order/Mental Disorder; The Most Solitary of Afflictions: Madness and Society in Britain, 1700–1900; Masters of Bedlam; Madhouse: A Tragic Tale of Megalomania and Modern Medicine; and Madness: A Very Short Introduction. He has also published numerous articles and reviews in leading journals, including the TLS, The Lancet and Brain. He has held fellowships from (among others) the Guggenheim Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies and in 1992–93 he was the president of the Society for the Social History of Medicine.