Victorian Lunacy
Richard M. Bucke and the Practice of Late Nineteenth-Century Psychiatry

Using the career of Richard M. Bucke at the London Asylum in Canada as its focus, this 1986 book explores the theory and practice of late nineteenth-century psychiatry. The study describes the medical context that nurtured Victorian alienists, while their professional sphere - the asylum – is considered as an autonomous social community, often at odds with the intentions of its ostensible masters. Psychiatric theory is discussed less as an objective body of biomedical knowledge than as a product of the social turmoil that characterized the final decades of the nineteenth century. Unlike many other studies of nineteenth-century psychiatry, this book does not restrict itself to a single national experience, but adopts an explicitly Anglo-American perspective. Rather than restricting attention to political or institutional factors, it accords major significance to the role of ideas in determining the character of late Victorian psychiatry.

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Product details

• Date Published: February 2011
• format: Paperback
• isbn: 9780521172820
• length: 224 pages

• dimensions: 229 x 152 x 13 mm
• weight: 0.34kg
• availability: Available