Mad, Bad, and Sad: Women and the Mind Doctors
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Book Overview
This is the story of how we have understood extreme states of mind over the last two hundred years and how we conceive of them today, from the depression suffered by Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath to the mental anguish and addictions of iconic beauties Zelda Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe. From Mary Lamb, sister of Charles, who in the throes of a nervous breakdown turned on her mother with a kitchen knife, to Freud, Jung, and Lacan, who developed the new women-centered therapies, Lisa Appignanesi's research traces how more and more of the inner lives and emotions of women have become a matter for medics and therapists. Here too is the story of how over the years symptoms and diagnoses have developed together to create fashions in illness and how treatments have succeeded or sometimes failed. Mad, Bad, and Sad takes us on a fascinating journey through the fragile, extraordinary human mind.
Format:Hardcover
Language:English
ISBN:0393066630
ISBN13:9780393066630
Release Date:April 2008
Publisher:W. W. Norton & Company
Length:560 Pages
Weight:2.02 lbs.
Dimensions:1.4" x 6.5" x 9.2"
Customer Reviews
3 ratings
Absolute aanrader
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 16 years ago
Al na het lezen van de inleiding wist ik het: dit is een topboek. Zorgvuldig, grondig, uitgebalanceerd en prikkelend om te lezen en vooral om over na te denken. En ik hou van nadenken.
A Great Introduction to the Subject
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 16 years ago
The author demonstrates how, from its origins in English asylums run by "carers" to the world's first modern psychiatric facility in revoutionary France, the image of women and of mental illness ("madness") mutually informed each other. These images changed across the decades, and with them, both the prospects and limitations on women, and the understanding of emotional suffering that gave rise to varied diagnoses. Though studded with Britishisms, this is a highly readable introduction to the subject of mental illness and especially the role of the "mind doctors" in both helping and hindering half the world's prospects for a sane and free life.
Enlightenment
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 16 years ago
This book heralds a new and renewed enlightenment about women, the mind, literature, and history. Recently I purchased the American edition and can not speak highly enough for it. The writing is superb and the text opens so many windows and doors. It is not easy to put down as it sails forward. I highly recommend it to everyone and that must be a wide audience of public and scholar alike. The book is a treasure.
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