Anatomy Of Madness Vol 1

This is a collection of essays on the history of Psychiatry. Volume II of three, offers works around the institutions and society from the eighteenth century to 1917. Most of the papers in these volumes arose from a seminar series on the history of psychiatry and a one-day seminar on the same theme held at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, London, during the academic year 1982-83.

Michel Foucault has had an extraordinary impact on writers in the human sciences since his first book Madness and Civilization appeared in English. This title assesses the reactions to Madness and Civilization.

This book provides an authoritative and highly readable review of the relationship between madness and crime by one of the leading authorities in the field. The book is divided into four parts, each essay focusing on selected features of madness which have relevance to contemporary society. Part 1 is about madness itself, exploring three main models − cognitive, statistical, and emotional. Part 2 is a short discussion on madness, genius and creativity. Part 3 is about the much neglected area of compulsion, an issue that has largely disappeared from public debate. The mad may have moved from victim to violator, yet fundamental questions remain − in particular how to justify compulsory detention, and who should undertake the process? The answers to these questions have sociological, ethical and jurisprudential elements, and cannot just re resolved by reference to medical authorities. Part 4 is about the links between madness and crime − focusing less on the question and nature of criminal responsibility and the various defences that go with this, more on the links between madness and crime and which particular crimes are linked with which types of disorder.

Len Bowers offers a critique of the theories of mental illness as a social construct. He examines the rationality of these theories, what they might mean, and in which cases they are to be accepted or rejected.

Psychiatrists assert that mental illness is a physiological brain disorder. The anti-psychiatry movement refutes this on grounds of lack of evidence claiming that mental illness is socially defined. Len Bowers offers a rational, objective and philosophical critique of the theories of mental illness as a social construct and concludes that, though sometimes misguided, they cannot be wholly rejected. This critical scrutiny of a controversial and keenly-debated issue will be of interest to psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, sociologists and professionals in paramedical disciplines.